At midnight, when all were asleep, a thief came and stole the traveller’s horse. In the morning the man awoke, and discovered that his horse was stolen. And he grieved for his horse, and that a man had found it in his heart to steal. Then his fellow-lodgers came and stood around him and began to talk. And the first man said, “How foolish of you to tie your horse outside the stable.” And the second said, “Still more foolish, without even hobbling the horse!” And the third man said, “It is stupid at best to travel to the sea on horseback.” And the fourth said, “Only the indolent and the slow of foot own horses.” Then the traveller was much astonished. At last he cried, “My friends, because my horse is stolen, you have hastened one and all to tell me my faults and my shortcomings. But strange, not one word of reproach have you uttered about the man who stole my horse.” POETS Four poets were sitting around a bowl of punch that stood on a table. Said the first poet, “Methinks I see with my third eye the fragrance of this wine hovering in space like a cloud of birds in an enchanted forest.” The second poet raised his head and said, “With my inner ear I can hear those mist-birds singing. And the melody holds my heart as the white rose imprisons the bee within her petals.” The third poet closed his eyes and stretched his arm upward, and said, “I touch them with my hand. I feel their wings, like the breath of a sleeping fairy, brushing against my fingers.” Then the fourth poet rose and lifted up the bowl, and he said, “Alas, friends! I am too dull of sight and of hearing and of touch. I cannot see the fragrance of this wine, nor hear its song, nor feel the beating of its wings. I perceive but the wine itself. Now therefore must I drink it, that it may sharpen my senses and raise me to your blissful heights.” And putting the bowl to his lips, he drank the punch to the very last drop. The three poets, with their mouths open, looked at him aghast, and there was a thirsty yet unlyrical hatred in their eyes. THE WEATHER-COCK Said the weather-cock to the wind, “How tedious and monotonous you are! Can you not blow any other way but in my face? You disturb my God-given stability.” And the wind did not answer. It only laughed in space. THE KING OF ARADUS Once the elders of the city of Aradus presented themselves before the king, and besought of him a decree to forbid to men all wine and all intoxicants within their city. And the king turned his back upon them and went out from them laughing. Then the elders departed in dismay. At the door of the palace they met the lord chamberlain. And the lord chamberlain observed that they were troubled, and he understood their case. Then he said, “Pity, my friends! Had you found the king drunk, surely he would have granted you your petition.” OUT OF MY DEEPER HEART Out of my deeper heart a bird rose and flew skyward.