96
The Boy Always Thirteen
they were drunk with joy, and said the words wrongly.
"Let the old leaves, and the middle-aged leaves, and the little baby leaves fall from the trees," was what they said, when they flew back to the Earth on the wings of the morning.
And that is why to this day, old and young, boys and babies, all alike, ride, when the great god wills, upon the grey-black buffalo, as it makes its slow-moving way to the quiet Kingdom of Death.
But Kamil, the perfect boy, lived in the world that he loved, and was always and always just thirteen years old, and no more.
And, "It was well," said the man, his father, "that I left the Son-puzzle to you, O Mother of Kamil."
