“You have had a bad dream, dear,” I said.  I tried to say it naturally; but it is hard for a man to speak naturally when he feels a mortal dread striking into his very vitals with its deadly chill.

“It was no dream,” she answered reproachfully.  “I tell you I heard him calling me—­me, his mother.  What could I do but go to him?  You cannot understand—­you are only his father.  It was not you who gave him birth.  It was not you who paid the price of his dear life in pain.  He would not call to you—­he wanted his mother.”

I got her back to the house and to her bed, whither she went obediently enough, and soon fell into the sleep of exhaustion.  But there was no more sleep for me that night.  I kept a grim vigil with dread.

When I had married Josephine, one of those officious relatives that are apt to buzz about a man’s marriage told me that her grandmother had been insane all the latter part of her life.  She had grieved over the death of a favorite child until she lost her mind, and, as the first indication of it, she had sought by nights a white dream-child which always called her, so she said, and led her afar with a little, pale, beckoning hand.

I had smiled at the story then.  What had that grim old bygone to do with springtime and love and Josephine?  But it came back to me now, hand in hand with my fear.  Was this fate coming on my dear wife?  It was too horrible for belief.  She was so young, so fair, so sweet, this girl-wife of mine.  It had been only a bad dream, with a frightened, bewildered waking.  So I tried to comfort myself.

When she awakened in the morning she did not speak of what had happened and I did not dare to.  She seemed more cheerful that day than she had been, and went about her household duties briskly and skillfully.  My fear lifted.  I was sure now that she had only dreamed.  And I was confirmed in my hopeful belief when two nights had passed away uneventfully.

Then, on the third night, he dream-child called to her again.  I wakened from a troubled doze to find her dressing herself with feverish haste.

“He is calling me,” she cried.  “Oh, don’t you hear him?  Can’t you hear him?  Listen—­listen—­the little, lonely cry!  Yes, yes, my precious, mother is coming.  Wait for me.  Mother is coming to her pretty boy!”

I caught her hand and let her lead me where she would.  Hand in hand we followed the dream-child down the harbor shore in that ghostly, clouded moonlight.  Ever, she said, the little cry sounded before her.  She entreated the dream-child to wait for her; she cried and implored and uttered tender mother-talk.  But, at last, she ceased to hear the cry; and then, weeping, wearied, she let me lead her home again.

What a horror brooded over that spring—­that so beautiful spring!  It was a time of wonder and marvel; of the soft touch of silver rain on greening fields; of the incredible delicacy of young leaves; of blossom on the land and blossom in the sunset.  The whole world bloomed in a flush and tremor of maiden loveliness, instinct with all the evasive, fleeting charm of spring and girlhood and young morning.  And almost every night of this wonderful time the dream-child called his mother, and we roved the gray shore in quest of him.