Stephen Vincent Benet

Blossom and Fruit Stephen Vincent Benet

Publisher Marketing: WHEN the spring was in its mid-term and the apple trees entirely white they would walk down by the river, talking as they went, their voices hardly distinguishable from the voices of birds or waters. Their love had begun with the winter; they were both in their first youth. Those who watched them made various prophecies-none of which was fulfilled-laughed, criticized, or were sentimental according to the turn of their minds. But these two were ignorant of the watching and, if they had heard the prophecies, they would hardly have understood them. Between them and the world was a wall of glass-between them and time was a wall of glass-they were not conscious of being either young or old. The weather passed over them as over a field or a stream-it was there but they took no account of it. There was love and being alive, there was the beating of the heart, apart or together. This had been, this would be, this was-it was impossible to conceive of a world created otherwise. He knew the shape of her face, in dreams and out of them; she could shut her eyes, alone, and feel his hands on her shoulders. So it went, so they spoke and answered, so they walked by the river. Later on, once or twice, they tried to remember what they had said-a great deal of nonsense?-but the words were already gone. They could hear the river running; he could remember a skein of hair; she, a blue shirt open at the throat and an eager face. Then, after a while, these two were not often remembered.