But the last thing he actually thought about, before his eyes blinked
shut in sleep, was that distant howling noise he had heard in the night.
It was totally novel in kind, and yet there was something buried among
the items of his racial heritage that told him it was good.
He was first awake of all the tribesmen and he looked out into the cold
and pallid grayness of before-dawn. He saw trees. One side was brightly
lighted by comparison, and the other side was dark. He heard the tiny
singing noises of the inhabitants of this place. Presently he crawled
out of the cave again.
The air was biting in its chill. It was an excellent reason why the
giant insects could not live here, but it was invigorating to Burl as he
breathed it in. Presently he looked curiously for the source of the
peculiar one-sided light.
He saw the top of the sun as it peered above the eastern cloud-bank. The
sky grew lighter. He blinked and saw it rise more fully into view. He
thought to look upward, and the stars that had bewildered him were
nearly gone.
He ran to call Saya.
The rest of the tribe waked as he roused her. One by one, they followed
to watch their first sunrise. The men gaped at the sun as it filled the
east with colorings, and rose and rose above the seemingly steaming
layer of clouds, and then appeared to spring free of the horizon and
swim on upward.
The women stared with all their eyes. The children blinked, and
shivered, and crept to their mothers for warmth. The women enclosed them
in their cloaks, and they thawed and peered out once more at the glory
of sunshine and the day. Very soon, too, they realized that warmth came
from the great shining body in the sky. The children presently
discovered a game. It was the first game they had ever played. It
consisted of running into a shaded place until they shivered, and then
of running out into warm sunshine once more. Until this, dawning fear
was the motive for such playing as they did. Now they gleefully made a
game of sunshine.
In this first morning of their life above the clouds, the tribesmen ate
of the food they had brought from below. But there was not an indefinite
amount of food left. Burl ate, and considered darkly, and presently
summoned his followers' attention. They were quite contented and for the
moment felt no need of his guidance. But he felt need of admiration.
He spoke abruptly:
"We do not want to go back to the place we came from," he said sternly.
"We must look for food here, so we can stay for always. Today we find
food."
It was a seizure of the initiative. It was the linking of what the folk
most craved with obedience to Burl. It was the device by which dictators
seize power, and it was the instinctive action of a leader.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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