Page:Frank Owen - The Wind That Tramps the World (1929).djvu/29

 ' from her branch and with a shriek of joy, he sped off on his endless tramp which never ends.

"In the morning I awakened with an unaccountable fear clutching my heart. As usual I had slept in the grove. I jumped to my feet and rushed toward the bush where 'Dawn-Girl' dwelt but it was empty. And my heart, my life was empty also. The shadow of doom had descended upon me. For three days I wept in the garden. And all my flower friends closed their glorious petals in sympathy. The entire garden wept. It was a place of mourning. Some of the flowers even died of grief.

"On the morning of the fourth day I went with heavy step to the house of an old Hindu philosopher who had lived for a hundred and forty years. He was known to be the oldest living man in the world and also the wisest. He listened to my story. When I had finished he told me to come to this city in the Himalayas where all the great winds congregate. Here comes every wind of importance at some time or other. To this place he declared must some day come 'The Wind that Tramps the World.' When it does, he suggested that I steal 'Dawn-Girl' from the Wind even as the Wind had stolen 'Dawn-Girl' from me. So I sold my garden although it tore my soul to do so, and came up here to 'The City of the Big Winds.' I had this huge house built. It cost a vast sum of money. All the wood and material it contains had to be laboriously carried over the winding mountain passes that divide