Did you ever see anything more
beautiful than those pine-trees on the slope there, with the blue
distance between their stems? But we must not make a business of
landscape-gazing like our friend Charmides! We are men of affairs, you
and I. Come, I will show you a thing. Shut your eyes for a minute and
give me your hand. Now!"
A sudden breeze fanned my face, sweet and odorous, like the wind out of
a wood. "Now," said Amroth, "we have arrived! Where do you think we
are?"
The scene had changed in an instant. We were in a wide, level country,
in green water-meadows, with a full stream brimming its grassy banks, in
willowy loops. Not far away, on a gently rising ground, lay a long,
straggling village, of gabled houses, among high trees. It was like the
sort of village that you may find in the pleasant Wiltshire countryside,
and the sight filled me with a rush of old and joyful memories.
"It is such a relief," I said, "to realise that if man is made in the
image of God, heaven is made in the image of England!"
"That is only how you see it, child," said Amroth. "Some of my own
happiest days were spent at Tooting: would you be surprised if I said
that it reminded me of Tooting?"
"I am surprised at nothing," I said.
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