"
"Then you shall be starved no more, dearest. Sit down in the sand
before me and lean your head against my knee. There!" as Enoch turned
and obeyed her. "Now we can both look out at the stars and I can
smooth your hair. What a mass of it you have, Enoch! And you must
have been a real carrot top when you were a little boy."
"I was an ugly brat," said Enoch, comfortably. "A red-headed,
freckled-faced, awkward brat! And unhappy and disagreeable as I was
ugly."
"It seems so unfair!" Diana smoothed the broad forehead, tenderly. "I
had such a happy childhood. I didn't go to school until I was twelve.
Until then I lived the life of a little Indian, out of doors, taking
the trail trips with dad or geologizing with mother. I don't know how
many horses and dogs I had. Their number was limited only by what
mother and father felt they could afford to feed."
"There was nothing unfair in your having had all the joy that could be
crammed into your childhood," protested Enoch. "Nature and
circumstance were helping to make you what you are. I don't see that
anything could have been omitted. Listen, Diana."
Plaintively from below rose Na-che's voice in a slow sweet chant.
Jonas's baritone hesitatingly repeated the strain, and after a moment
they softly sang it together.
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