"So they all rode on as a mighty caravan until they came, at the side of the road, to a youth lying in the meadow with his hands behind his head whistling, and a bird hovering above him repeated the same note. They spoke to him and he told them that he was an outcast because he would not labor. "'The world is too pleasant to work in,' he said, and whistled again, and the bird above him made answer. "Then John said: 'Here is a soul worth all of ours. Rise, brother, and come with us.' "So Matthew rose and followed him, and he was the third and last man to join John, who was the beginning. "Then they came to a valley set about with walls and with a pleasant river running through it, and here they entered and called it the Garden of Eden because in it men should be pure of heart once more. And they built their houses with labor and lived in quiet and the horses multiplied and the Garden blossomed under their hands." Here Ruth marked her place with her finger while she wiped her eyes. "Do you mean to say this babble is getting you?" growled Ben Connor. "Please!" she whispered. "Don't you see that it's beautiful?" And she returned to the book. _CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE_ "Then John sickened and said: 'Bring me into the room of silence.' So they brought him to the place where they sat each day to converse with God in the holy stillness and hear His voice. "Then John said: 'I am about to depart from among you, and before my going I put this command on you that you find in the world a male infant too young to know its father or mother, or without father and mother living. Rear that child to manhood in the valley, for even as I depart so will you all do, and the Garden of Eden will be left tenantless.' "So when John was dead Matthew went forth and found a male child and brought him to the valley and the two said: 'Where was the child found and what is its name?' And Matthew said: 'It was found in the place to which God led me and its name hereafter shall be David.' "So peace was on the valley, and David grew tall and strong. Then Luke died, and Paul died in a drift of snow and Matthew grew very old and wrote these words for the eye of David." The smooth running, finely made letters come to an end, the narrative was taken up in fresher ink and in a bold, heavy hand of large characters. "One day Matthew called for David and said: 'My hands are cold, whereby I know I am about to die. As I lay last night with death for a bedfellow thoughts came to me, which are these: We have been brother and father and son to one another. But do not grieve that I am gone. I inherit a place of peace, but you shall come to torment unless you find a woman in the world and bring her here to bear children to you and be your wife.' "Then David groaned in his heart and he said: 'How shall I know her when I find her?' "And Matthew said: 'By her simplicity.' "And David said: 'There may be many who are simple.'