Her husband stood for another moment in silence. She could not read his thoughts. She could not know that in memory he was once again upon the mountains where he and his friends had followed Much-Afraid in order to force her to return home. Once again he was among the precipices and the great forests and the mist, hearing again another woman’s voice calling out fearfully and pleadingly as they closed in on her with their threats and jibes, “Shepherd! O Shepherd! Where are you? Come and help me!” Then came the great, leaping bound of the Deliverer who had answered her cry and had delivered her from them all.

Resentment looked at his wife and said suddenly: “Umbrage, things have come to such a sorry pass in our life together that it is time we should do something about it. If the Shepherd can help us to begin all over again, I am willing to let him do so.”

Chapter 12 Mountain of Cinnamon (Goodness) The Judgment of Love

CHAPTER 12
Mountain of Cinnamon
GOODNESS: The Judgment of Love

The sixth Mountain of Spices to which the King led Grace and Glory was the Mountain of Cinnamon, where grew the trees of goodness. These trees were very beautiful and stately. They were covered with glossy dark leaves which made a beautiful background for the pure white blossoms, for it was then the season for their flowering. The inner bark of the trees was very aromatic and was of a rich, golden brown color. This inner bark was stripped off the trees at certain seasons of the year and from it was obtained the spice of goodness which the citizens of the High Places loved to carry about with them, concealed in their garments. Not only did this spice give forth a sweet and refreshing fragrance (which was one of the marks which distinguished the servants of the King who lived on the High Places from the valley dwellers), but it also possessed healing and curative properties, which were greatly valued.

The whole mountainside was covered with a forest of these cinnamon trees, and immediately on entering these woods Grace and Glory and the King found themselves shaded from the glare and heat of a cloudless summer day. Like all the other Mountains of Spices, this one also was much frequented by flocks of birds of many different species, and their melodious songs echoed from end to end of the glades.

Here Grace and Glory was delighted to hear again the notes of the little bird which she had heard singing among the dripping, mist-shrouded trees on the lower slopes of the mountains as she journeyed to the High Places. Up here a whole choir of them were singing together and uttering the delightful little chuckles at the end of each song:

“He’s gotten the victory. Hurrah!

He’s gotten the victory. Hurrah!”