the eternal mountains rise with walls to the white clouds; but its work was

done.
The old hunter folded his tired hands and lay down by the precipice where

he had worked away his life. It was the sleeping time at last. Below him
over the valleys rolled the thick white mist. Once it broke; and through

the gap the dying eyes looked down on the trees and fields of their
childhood. From afar seemed borne to him the cry of his own wild birds,

and he heard the noise of people singing as they danced. And he thought he
heard among them the voices of his old comrades; and he saw far off the

sunlight shine on his early home. And great tears gathered in the hunter's
eyes.

"Ah! they who die there do not die alone," he cried.
Then the mists rolled together again; and he turned his eyes away.

"I have sought," he said, "for long years I have laboured; but I have not
found her. I have not rested, I have not repined, and I have not seen her;

now my strength is gone. Where I lie down worn out other men will stand,
young and fresh. By the steps that I have cut they will climb; by the

stairs that I have built they will mount. They will never know the name of
the man who made them. At the clumsy work they will laugh; when the stones

roll they will curse me. But they will mount, and on my work; they will
climb, and by my stair! They will find her, and through me! And no man

liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself."
The tears rolled from beneath the shrivelled eyelids. If Truth had

appeared above him in the clouds now he could not have seen her, the mist
of death was in his eyes.

"My soul hears their glad step coming," he said; "and they shall mount!
they shall mount!" He raised his shrivelled hand to his eyes.

Then slowly from the white sky above, through the still air, came something
falling, falling, falling. Softly it fluttered down, and dropped on to the

breast of the dying man. He felt it with his hands. It was a feather. He
died holding it.

III. THE GARDENS OF PLEASURE.
She walked upon the beds, and the sweet rich scent arose; and she gathered

her hands full of flowers. Then Duty, with his white clear features, came
and looked at her. Then she ceased from gathering, but she walked away

among the flowers, smiling, and with her hands full.
Then Duty, with his still white face, came again, and looked at her; but

she, she turned her head away from him. At last she saw his face, and she
dropped the fairest of the flowers she had held, and walked silently away.

Then again he came to her. And she moaned, and bent her head low, and
turned to the gate. But as she went out she looked back at the sunlight on

the faces of the flowers, and wept in anguish. Then she went out, and it
shut behind her for ever; but still in her hand she held of the buds she

had gathered, and the scent was very sweet in the lonely desert.
But he followed her. Once more he stood before her with his still, white,

death-like face. And she knew what he had come for: she unbent the
fingers, and let the flowers drop out, the flowers she had loved so, and

walked on without them, with dry, aching eyes. Then for the last time he
came. And she showed him her empty hands, the hands that held nothing now.

But still he looked. Then at length she opened her bosom and took out of
it one small flower she had hidden there, and laid it on the sand. She had

nothing more to give now, and she wandered away, and the grey sand whirled
about her.

IV. IN A FAR-OFF WORLD.
There is a world in one of the far-off stars, and things do not happen here

as they happen there.
In that world were a man and woman; they had one work, and they walked

together side by side on many days, and were friends--and that is a thing
that happens now and then in this world also.

But there was something in that star-world that there is not here. There
was a thick wood: where the trees grew closest, and the stems were

interlocked, and the summer sun never shone, there stood a shrine. In the
day all was quiet, but at night, when the stars shone or the moon glinted

on the tree-tops, and all was quiet below, if one crept here quite alone
and knelt on the steps of the stone altar, and uncovering one's breast, so

wounded it that the blood fell down on the altar steps, then whatever he
who knelt there wished for was granted him. And all this happens, as I

said, because it is a far-off world, and things often happen there as they
do not happen here.

Now, the man and woman walked together; and the woman wished well to the
man. One night when the moon was shining so that the leaves of all the

trees glinted, and the waves of the sea were silvery, the woman walked
alone to the forest. It was dark there; the moonlight fell only in little

flecks on the dead leaves under her feet, and the branches were knotted
tight overhead. Farther in it got darker, not even a fleck of moonlight

shone. Then she came to the shrine; she knelt down before it and prayed;
there came no answer. Then she uncovered her breast; with a sharp two-

edged stone that lay there she wounded it. The drops dripped slowly down
on to the stone, and a voice cried, "What do you seek?"

She answered, "There is a man; I hold him nearer than anything. I would
give him the best of all blessings."

The voice said, "What is it?"
The girl said, "I know not, but that which is most good for him I wish him

to have."
The voice said, "Your prayer is answered; he shall have it."

Then she stood up. She covered her breast and held the garment tight upon
it with her hand, and ran out of the forest, and the dead leaves fluttered

under her feet. Out in the moonlight the soft air was blowing, and the
sand glittered on the beach. She ran along the smooth shore, then suddenly

she stood still. Out across the water there was something moving. She
shaded her eyes and looked. It was a boat; it was sliding swiftly over the

moonlit water out to sea. One stood upright in it; the face the moonlight
did not show, but the figure she knew. It was passing swiftly; it seemed

as if no one propelled it; the moonlight's shimmer did not let her see
clearly, and the boat was far from shore, but it seemed almost as if there

was another figure sitting in the stern. Faster and faster it glided over
the water away, away. She ran along the shore; she came no nearer it. The

garment she had held closed fluttered open; she stretched out her arms, and
the moonlight shone on her long loose hair.

Then a voice beside her whispered, "What is it?"
She cried, "With my blood I bought the best of all gifts for him. I have

come to bring it him! He is going from me!"
The voice whispered softly, "Your prayer was answered. It has been given

him."
She cried, "What is it?"

The voice answered, "It is that he might leave you."
The girl stood still.

Far out at sea the boat was lost to sight beyond the moonlight sheen.
The voice spoke softly, "Art thou contented?"

She said, "I am contented."
At her feet the waves broke in long ripples softly on the shore.

V. THREE DREAMS IN A DESERT.
Under a Mimosa-Tree.

As I travelled across an African plain the sun shone down hotly. Then I
drew my horse up under a mimosa-tree, and I took the saddle from him and

left him to feed among the parched bushes. And all to right and to left
stretched the brown earth. And I sat down under the tree, because the heat

beat fiercely, and all along the horizon the air throbbed. And after a
while a heavy drowsiness came over me, and I laid my head down against my

saddle, and I fell asleep there. And, in my sleep, I had a curious dream.
I thought I stood on the border of a great desert, and the sand blew about

everywhere. And I thought I saw two great figures like beasts of burden of
the desert, and one lay upon the sand with its neck stretched out, and one

stood by it. And I looked curiously at the one that lay upon the ground,
for it had a great burden on its back, and the sand was thick about it, so

that it seemed to have piled over it for centuries.
And I looked very curiously at it. And there stood one beside me watching.

And I said to him, "What is this huge creature who lies here on the sand?"
And he said, "This is woman; she that bears men in her body."

And I said, "Why does she lie here motionless with the sand piled round
her?"

And he answered, "Listen, I will tell you! Ages and ages long she has lain
here, and the wind has blown over her. The oldest, oldest, oldest man

living has never seen her move: the oldest, oldest book records that she
lay here then, as she lies here now, with the sand about her. But listen!

Older than the oldest book, older than the oldest recorded memory of man,
on the Rocks of Language, on the hard-baked clay of Ancient Customs, now

crumbling to decay, are found the marks of her footsteps! Side by side
with his who stands beside her you may trace them; and you know that she

who now lies there once wandered free over the rocks with him."
And I said, "Why does she lie there now?"

And he said, "I take it, ages ago the Age-of-dominion-of-muscular-force
found her, and when she stooped low to give suck to her young, and her back

was broad, he put his burden of subjection on to it, and tied it on with
the broad band of Inevitable Necessity. Then she looked at the earth and

the sky, and knew there was no hope for her; and she lay down on the sand
with the burden she could not loosen. Ever since she has lain here. And

the ages have come, and the ages have gone, but the band of Inevitable
Necessity has not been cut."

And I looked and saw in her eyes the terrible patience of the centuries;
the ground was wet with her tears, and her nostrils blew up the sand.

And I said, "Has she ever tried to move?"
And he said, "Sometimes a limb has quivered. But she is wise; she knows

she cannot rise with the burden on her."
And I said, "Why does not he who stands by her leave her and go on?"

And he said, "He cannot. Look--"
And I saw a broad band passing along the ground from one to the other, and

it bound them together.
He said, "While she lies there he must stand and look across the desert."

And I said, "Does he know why he cannot move?"
And he said, "No."

And I heard a sound of something cracking, and I looked, and I saw the band
that bound the burden on to her back broken asunder; and the burden rolled

on to the ground.
And I said, "What is this?"

And he said, "The Age-of-muscular-force is dead. The Age-of-nervous-force
has killed him with the knife he holds in his hand; and silently and

invisibly he has crept up to the woman, and with that knife of Mechanical
Invention he has cut the band that bound the burden to her back. The

Inevitable Necessity it broken. She might rise now."
And I saw that she still lay motionless on the sand, with her eyes open and

her neck stretched out. And she seemed to look for something on the far-
off border of the desert that never came. And I wondered if she were awake

or asleep. And as I looked her body quivered, and a light came into her
eyes, like when a sunbeam breaks into a dark room.

I said, "What is it?"
He whispered "Hush! the thought has come to her, 'Might I not rise?'"

And I looked. And she raised her head from the sand, and I saw the dent
where her neck had lain so long. And she looked at the earth, and she

looked at the sky, and she looked at him who stood by her: but he looked
out across the desert.

And I saw her body quiver; and she pressed her front knees to the earth,
and veins stood out; and I cried; "She is going to rise!"

But only her sides heaved, and she lay still where she was.
But her head she held up; she did not lay it down again. And he beside me

said, "She is very weak. See, her legs have been crushed under her so
long."

And I saw the creature struggle: and the drops stood out on her.
And I said, "Surely he who stands beside her will help her?"

And he beside me answered, "He cannot help her: she must help herself.
Let her struggle till she is strong."

And I cried, "At least he will not hinder her! See, he moves farther from
her, and tightens the cord between them, and he drags her down."

And he answered, "He does not understand. When she moves she draws the
band that binds them, and hurts him, and he moves farther from her. The

day will come when he will understand, and will know what she is doing.
Let her once stagger on to her knees. In that day he will stand close to

her, and look into her eyes with sympathy."
And she stretched her neck, and the drops fell from her. And the creature

rose an inch from the earth and sank back.
And I cried, "Oh, she is too weak! she cannot walk! The long years have

• eternal [i´tə:nəl] a.永远的；永恒的 (初中英语单词)
• hunter [´hʌntə] n.猎人；猎狗；猎马 (初中英语单词)
• sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
• softly [´sɔftli] ad.软化地；柔和地 (初中英语单词)
• feather [´feðə] n.羽毛 (初中英语单词)
• silently [´sailəntli] ad.寂静地；沉默地 (初中英语单词)
• sunlight [´sʌnlait] n.日光 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
• moonlight [´mu:nlait] n.&a.月光(的) (初中英语单词)
• overhead [´əuvə,hed] ad.当头 a.在头上的 (初中英语单词)
• garment [´gɑ:mənt] n.衣服，外衣 (初中英语单词)
• swiftly [´swiftli] ad.迅速地，敏捷地 (初中英语单词)
• saddle [´sædl] n.鞍子 v.装鞍(于) (初中英语单词)
• fiercely [´fiəsli] ad.凶猛地，残忍地 (初中英语单词)
• horizon [hə´raizən] n.地平线；范围；视野 (初中英语单词)
• curiously [´kjuəriəsli] ad.好奇地；稀奇古怪地 (初中英语单词)
• patience [´peiʃəns] n.忍耐(力)；耐心；坚韧 (初中英语单词)
• quiver [´kwivə] v.抖动 n.颤动(声) (初中英语单词)
• stagger [´stægə] v.&n.(使)蹒跚(震惊) (初中英语单词)
• clumsy [´klʌmzi] a.笨拙的；粗俗的 (高中英语单词)
• anguish [´æŋgwiʃ] n.(极度的)痛苦；苦恼 (高中英语单词)
• shrine [ʃrain] n.神龛；神殿；圣地 (高中英语单词)
• upright [´ʌprait] a.直立的 ad.直立地 (高中英语单词)
• motionless [´məuʃənləs] a.静止的；固定的 (高中英语单词)
• inevitable [i´nevitəbəl] a.不可避免的 (高中英语单词)
• loosen [´lu:sən] v.放松；松弛 (高中英语单词)
• sunbeam [´sʌnbi:m] n.日光 (高中英语单词)
• hinder [´hində, ´haində] vt.阻止 a.后面的 (高中英语单词)
• precipice [´presipis] n.悬崖；危急的处境 (英语四级单词)
• gathering [´gæðəriŋ] n.集会，聚集 (英语四级单词)
• far-off [´fɑ:rɔ:f] a.远方的，遥远的 (英语四级单词)
• silvery [´silvəri] a.银一般的 (英语四级单词)
• asunder [ə´sʌndə] a.分开地；零散地 (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
• shimmer [´ʃimə] v.&n.闪烁；微微发光 (英语六级单词)