Eleanore Myers Jewett

“ Sunshine climbed into a barrel of mangos, crouching down until they covered him, and Moonshine hid in a sack of grain. When the soldiers reached the red door, the hermit opened it willingly.
"Boys?" said he, in answer to their question. "I have no boys! I am an old man and have lived in this desert place many a long year without wife or child to bear me company. You must be mistaken!"
The soldiers pushed the hermit roughly aside and entered the cave.
"You had better not lie to the Khan's soldiers!" ”

“ The Khan's son nodded.
The Siddhi-kur settled back in his sack with a sigh. "You have won," he said, "and I might as well resign myself to my fate! Farewell, dear mango tree and lovely garden of ghost children! Farewell, for now I must dwell far away in another cool grove beside the cave of Nagarguna, on the Shining Mountain! ”

“ Not until they had gone far over the desert on their way to the Khan's city did the captain remember that he had been told there were two boys living with the hermit. He stopped abruptly, wheeled his horse and gave orders that the troop should return at once to the old man's cave. Sunshine guessed what was in the captain's mind, and his heart sank within him. "There will be no possible escape for my brother," he thought, "for the soldiers will come upon Moonshine unexpectedly before he has time to hide again!" ”

“ Keep well the lesson of silence you have learned with such pain and labor, for a king who thinks much and speaks little will be a wise monarch, and his people will dwell in peace, happiness and prosperity under his sway. ”

“ The captain drew rein, and the soldiers behind him halted respectfully. The heat of the desert was great, and he had no desire to travel the long distance back to the cave of the red door, to no purpose.
"Young man," he said sternly to Sunshine. "Is it indeed true that your brother is dead, and that there is now no strange youth in the cave of the hermit?" ”