Followers Of The Sun

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Title:     Followers Of The Sun
Author: Elaine Goodale Eastman [More Titles by Eastman]

There were once four brothers, who as soon as they noticed that the sun rose in one quarter and set in another, made up their minds to follow on to the place of his setting. They were very young when they set out toward the west, and as the years passed they grew to be tall youths, then strong men in their prime, yet they could never overtake the Sun.

Old age had begun to creep upon the travelers when at last they reached the shores of the Everywhere Salt Water (the ocean). Behind its shining rim the golden ball descended, and they were given power to follow, and where sky and water met to reach their journey's end.

"Why are you here who have not yet died?" asked the Sun.

"We have done nothing but follow you all our lives," replied the brothers.

"Only the dead come here," the Sun insisted. "You will have to go back."

He sent them each home on the wings of a buzzard, and thus returned to their amazed people four feeble old men, who had been where no mortal ever went before. When they had told all their strange story, they lay down and died, and so returned to the glories of heaven, which they alone of all men had seen before their time.

[The end]
Elaine Goodale Eastman's short story: Followers Of The Sun

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