rchance, endure, and those who saw only men as they are, will
perish--for so has it been in the past and so will it be in the future.
All of which", said Colombo, "is a rather tiresome and pedantic excuse
for the fact that I am about to read you my own poem."

And Colombo read to the stranger the dream of the land of Colombo's
imagining, and when he had finished the stranger smiled and shook his
head sadly.

"Come, now," said Colombo, somewhat hurt. "Do not, I pray you, pretend
to like it unless you really do. Of course it is not at all the kind of
thing that will sell, is it--and the metre must be patched up in places,
don't you think? And some of the most beautiful passages would never be
permitted by the censor--but still--" and Colombo paused hopefully, for
it was Colombo's poem and into it he had poured the heart of his life
and it seemed to him now, more than ever, a beautiful thing.

The stranger handed Colombo a book.

"There", said he, "is the land of your imagining", and in his eyes
gleamed a curious sardonic mockery.

And Colombo read the book. And when he had finished his face was grey
as are old ashes in ancient urns, and about the mouth of him whom men
called the Dreamer were curious hard lines.

"Now, by Heaven", said Colombo brandishing his sword Impavide, "you lie.
And your Gopher Prairie is a lie. And you are all, all contemptible,
you who dip your pens in tracing ink and seek to banish beautiful dreams
from the world."

But the red-haired stranger had vanished and Colombo found that he was
alone and to Colombo the world seemed cheerless and as a place that none
has lived in for a long time.

"Now this is curious", mused Colombo, "for I have evidently been
dreaming and a more horrible dream have I never had, and I think", said
Colombo, "that while all this quite certainly did not actually take
place, yet that grinning red head has upset me horribly and on the
whole", said Colombo, "I believe the safest course would be to put back
at once for Spain, for certainly I have no desire to take the remotest
chance of discovering anything which may in the least resemble that
Gopher Prairie."

And the tale tells that as Colombo started for the deck in order that
he might give the signal for the return to Spain, there came across the
water from one of the other ships the faint cry of a sailor. And the
sailor was waving his hat and shouting, "Land Ho!"

Thus it was that Cristofer Colombo became the dis