"I once knew a man," said the Singing Mouse, "who had seen the
mountains in the winter time, when they were covered deep in
snow. It is the belief of most men that the mountains are then
asleep, but this man said that they are not asleep, but that
they have only drawn over their heads the white council-robes,
for then they are sitting in council. Now the mountains are very
old and wise. This man told me he heard strange sounds coming
from under the council-robes of the mountains then, voices not
distinctly heard, but wonderful and strong and of a sort to make
one fear.
"This man told me that once he heard the mountains tell of a
time when they ate up the plains. 'Once man was a dweller of the
plains,' sang the mountains in a great song; 'there man dug and
strove. Never he lifted up the eye, but at his feet, at his
feet, there he still gazed down. The clouds bore not up his
gaze, neither did the hills comfort him. Things false, of no
worth, these man sought and prized. Though we whispered to him,
still he made deaf his ear. Then we, the mountains, we the
strong, the just, the wise, we rose, we set together our
shoulders and so marched on. Thus we ate up the plain. Now we
stand where once man was, for man lifted not up his eyes.
Therefore, now let man look up, let him not make small his gaze.
We the strong, we the just, the wise, we shall eat up the plain.
For on our brows sits the light, about our heads is the calm.
That which is high shall in the days prevail. We the strong, the
just, the wise, this we have said!'
"This man told me that he could not hear all the song that the
mountains chanted, nor all they whispered among themselves. But
he thought they said that they had swallowed up and consumed one
race of beings who became fixed only upon the winning of what
they called wealth, and had crushed out this wealth and burned
up their precious things. This may be true, for to-day men visit
the mountains to dig there for wealth, and this which they call
gold is found much scattered, as though it had been crumbled and
burned and blown wide over the earth upon the four winds. For
these reasons this man thought that the mountains had once eaten
up the plains; and that perhaps at some time they might do this
again."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: The Savage and its Heart]
[Illustration]