"I am numb and very cold for want of sleep," said the body.
"You shall have centuries of sleep," said the soul, "but you must not
sleep now, for I have seen deep meadows with purple flowers flaming tall
and strange above the brilliant grass, and herds of pure white unicorns
that gambol there for joy, and a river running by with a glittering
galleon on it, all of gold, that goes from an unknown inland to an unknown
isle of the sea to take a song from the King of Over-the-Hills to the
Queen of Far-Away.
"I will sing that song to you, and you shall write it down."
"I have toiled for you for years," the body said. "Give me now but one
night's rest, for I am exceeding weary."
"Oh, go and rest. I am tired of you. I am off," said the soul.
And he arose and went, we know not whither. But the body they laid in the
earth. And the next night at midnight the wraiths of the dead came
drifting from their tombs to felicitate that body.
"You are free here, you know," they said to their new companion.
"Now I can rest," said the body.
FINIS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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