Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/233

Rh whose countenance should resemble that of the great stone face; that he should be the noblest of men, and should introduce a golden age into the valley. The young lad grew up in the full view of that great stone face which seemed to hold dominion over the dale, and in the constant thought of the expected stranger, who would one day come and make the dales-people so happy. For hours he would gaze at the large stone countenance, filling his whole soul with the sublime beauty and nobility of its features. Thus time passed; he went to school, grew up a young man, became a schoolmaster and clergyman; but he always kept looking at the lofty, pure countenance in the rock, and more and more grew his love of its beauty, and more and more deeply he longed after the man who had been foretold and promised, and whose countenance should resemble this.

All at once a great cry rang through the dale, ‘He is coming! he is coming!’ And everybody went out to meet and to welcome the great man, and the young minister among the rest. The great man came in a great carriage, drawn by four horses, surrounded by the shouting and exulting crowd; and everybody exclaimed, as they looked at him, ‘How like he is to the great stone face!’

But the young clergyman saw at the first glance that it was not so, and that he could not be the foretold and promised stranger, and the people also, after he had continued some time in the valley, discovered the same thing.

The young man went quietly on his way as before, doing all the good he could, and waiting for the expected stranger, gazing continually on the large countenance, and fancying that he was living and acting for ever in its sight.

Once more the cry went abroad, ‘He is coming ! he is coming! the great man!’ And again the people &emsp;