"A ruler, a hero, a prince, he is to be," said the prophetess to his
mother, and he will do what he can to fulfil this prophecy.
It was with a great effort only that he could tear himself away from
such ecstatic dreams; quit his hidden paradise, and go out into the
world, into reality again.
One cannot live on dreams; one must eat, too. But it annoys him that
he is subjected to this wretched necessity of eating.
"If I should have nothing to eat; if I should become so poor and
miserable as to have no bread, must I then die be cause I am in the
habit of eating?" he would ask himself, in angry tones.
"I will learn to live without eating!" he cried, in a loud voice.
For days he would wander about in the forests and among the rocks,
at a distance from all human habitations, taking no food, in order
that he might accustom himself to live on little.
On one occasion he remained absent from his mother's hut two days
and nights, and Khadra awaited his return in deathly anxiety. Will
he never return; has she lost him, her only son, the hope of her
future, the blessing of her existence?
At last, on the third day, she sees him coming; pale and exhausted,
he totters toward her, and yet his bearing is defiant, and his eye
sparkles.
She hurries forward with extended arms to meet him. "Where have you
been, my beloved; where were you tarrying in the distance,
forgetting that a mother's heart was longing for you?"
He pressed his mother's hand to his lips, looking steadfastly into
her eyes.
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