There was a movement to the air, undulant, as a long smooth swell at sea. The flock of geese rose with it, dipped, and rose again. And once, when the thin moon pressed through a cloud, the bend of a river flickered like a drawn blade; and once, from a hidden lake, lost in night and drizzle, certain of their clan gave tongue and called to them; and at another time they heard the softened, idle yammering of dogs; the sweetness of a bell; a faint, far engine panting up a hill. In the third hour the darkness became hued with faint rose, wan almost as ashes, dome-shaped, definite, and yet without margin.
It was the ghost of a color, breathed into the night like a vapor, and Valiant shouted to it, for he knew it hovered a vast rookery of men-who must be shunned and spoken. Against the clouds and rain this city cast its midnight radiance-as glow-worms do. The flock entered the color, chanting. Heavy pinions beat darkly against it, rain drops glinted as they slanted past, and under the voyageurs was spread a field of brightness that thinned and waned toward the surrounding night, with here and there a single topaz for sentry.
The Old One did not circle that brightness foolishly, after the habit of some leaders. He led the company across it as an arrow fares, yet he bade them, nevertheless, speak of freedom to the creatures that dwelt there-of freedom, and of April, of a beach no boat has known, of a lost lake in a lost range, of marshes and the smell of marshes, and windy trees against a morning sky. And the flock, being bidden, shouted to the city.
They who dwelt there, and who heard, and these were, many, peered into the upper night whence came the void of the flock. And those who had asked no more of life were of a sudden stricken with a hunger for living. And those who were cold were warmed. A girl stretched out her arms toward the voice. There was a thief forgot his plan. And in some an old sadness, they had thought long stifled, begged again. To all manner of men the! voice fell, working white magic. Listen! Geese! Wild geese!
The free voice faded. They caught it to their hearts, momently, ere it was lost in the void. The Old One led his flock onward into morning, through the gray wraith of dawn; and as they sped the clouds retreated to westward, the last pale stars were snuffed, and out of sunrise leaped the sun, ruddy and pulsing.
Then wood and field, and farm and village, and all the threadwork of river and creek, stitched in silver, were patterned beneath the flock like the dream of a child; and roads twined through the hills and threads of ochre, and were lost in the dark masses of the first.
About this Author
David is the author of many articles including Best Friend Quotes and also the author of Best life quotes. Other articles:
Disney movie auditions
Breakfast club movie
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