Page:Cornelia Meigs--The Pool of Stars.djvu/168

 door they were startled by a rush and flutter of black feathers as Dick came flying out in great excitement. Yet, within, the place seemed more peaceful than ever. Mr. Reynolds had ceased his work and was sitting at the table, a place once littered inches deep with papers and tools, but now swept bare and clean. His hands lay idly before him and he sat staring, although it seemed he saw only the blank wall opposite. Again it struck Betsey how unnatural was the silence when those busy, familiar wheels stood still. He looked up at them strangely when they came in and said almost the same words he had spoken before, his voice steady but unnaturally loud.

"It is through the true dreams that the world goes forward."

Then after a moment's pause he added— "And I have always said that a man could know a true dream from a false one, could be sure when he was working for a great good and not for a plaything and a failure. But I was wrong—all wrong! Those wheels shall never turn again."

His head dropped suddenly on his arm and rested upon the table. Then his whole body slipped forward and would have fallen had not David caught him.