The White Lily. 67

He dreamed of Pearl—he dreamed of danger to
Pearl and of danger to himself, and yet he could not
wake.

He saw poor Pearl stretching out her hands to him
across a sea that seemed to him to be all red, and he
wanted to go to her and drag her across to the land
where they would both be safe once more; but there
was a weight of lead upon his feet and he could not
move, and meanwhile Pearl drifted away, and he
could not see her any more.

He cried as he slept, for his heart was heavy, and -
unconsciously he took the poppy flower on his breast
and threw it away from him.

It was dead already, and he turned away from it
in his dream and stretched out his hands towards the
free air.

He slept till the moon was high in the heavens,
and he might have slept longer still but that their
good mother, in her compassion, sent a shower of rain
down upon the earth, which refreshed poor Ruby once
again, and drove the weight of sleep from his eyes.