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They bowed assent, and instantly the Forest glade was deserted. But in a
place midway between the earth and the sky was suspended a gleaming crypt
of gold and platinum, aglow with soft lights shed from the facets of countless
gems. Within a high dome hung the precious Mantle of Immortality, and each
immortal placed a hand on the hem of the splendid Robe and said, as with
one voice:
"
We bestow this Mantle upon Claus, who is called the Patron Saint of
Children!"
At this the Mantle came away from its lofty crypt, and they carried it to the
house in the Laughing Valley.
The Spirit of Death was crouching very near to the bedside of Claus, and as
the immortals approached she sprang up and motioned them back with an
angry gesture. But when her eyes fell upon the Mantle they bore she shrank
away with a low moan of disappointment and quitted that house forever.
Softly and silently the immortal Band dropped upon Claus the precious
Mantle, and it closed about him and sank into the outlines of his body and
disappeared from view. It became a part of his being, and neither mortal nor
immortal might ever take it from him.
Then the Kings and Queens who had wrought this great deed dispersed to
their various homes, and all were well contented that they had added another
immortal to their Band.
And Claus slept on, the red blood of everlasting life coursing swiftly through
his veins; and on his brow was a tiny drop of water that had fallen from the
ever-melting gown of the Queen of the Water Sprites, and over his lips hovered
a tender kiss that had been left by the sweet Nymph Necile. For she had
stolen in when the others were gone to gaze with rapture upon the immortal
form of her foster son.
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