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He heard the women busy with things in the kitchen. He often saw them loaded with things to eat passing his window, and often his wife came in and knelt down at his bed.

"Oh, Robert, they’re so good! They feed us like Gods ravens. "

One day, as he sat at the window fully dressed for the fourth of fifth time, William McTurg came up the walk.

"Well, Robert, how are ye today?"

"First-rate, William," he smiled. "I believe I can walk out a little if you’ll help me. "

"All right, sir. "

And he went forth leaning on William’s arm, a piteous wraith of a man.

On every side the golden June sunshine fell, filling the valley from purple brim to purple brim. Down over the hill to the west the light poured, tangled and glowing in the plum and cherry trees, leaving the glistening grass spraying through the elms and flinging streamers of pink across the shaven green slopes where the cattle fed.

On every side he saw kindly faces and heard hearty voices: "Good day, Robert. Glad to see you out again. " It thrilled him to hear them call him by his first name.

His heart swelled till he could hardly breathe. The passion of living came back upon him, shaking, uplifting him. His pallid lips moved. His face was turned to the sky.

"O God, let me live! It is so beautiful! O God, give me strength again! Keep me in the light of the sun! Let me see the green grass come and go!"

He turned to William with trembling lips, trying to speak:

"Oh, I understand you now. I know you all now. "

But William did not understand him.

"There! there!" he said soothingly. "I guess you’re gettin’ tired. " He led Robert back and put him to bed.

"I’d know but we was a little brash about goin’ out," William said to him as Robert lay there smiling up at him.

"Oh, I’m all right now," the sick man said.

"Matie," the alien cried, when William had gone, "we knew our neighbors now, don’t we? We never can hate or ridicule them again. "

"Yes, Robert. They never will be caricatures again–to me. "