for
my fancy is weakening as the years slip by, and I go ever more seldom
into the Lands of Dream. Then we clasped hands, uncouthly on his part,
for it is not the method of greeting in his country, and he commended
my soul to the care of his own gods, to his little lesser gods, the
humble ones, to the gods that bless Belzoond.

A MIRACLE

There is a road in Rome that runs through an ancient temple that once
the gods had loved; it runs along the top of a great wall, and the
floor of the temple lies far down beneath it, of marble, pink and
white.

Upon the temple floor I counted to the number of thirteen hungry cats.

'Sometimes,' they said among themselves, 'it was the gods that lived
here, sometimes it was men, and now it's cats. So let us enjoy the sun
on the hot marble before another people comes.'

For it was at that hour of a warm afternoon when my fancy is able to
hear the silent voices.

And the fearful leanness of all those thirteen cats moved me to go
into a neighbouring fish shop, and there to buy a quantity of fishes.
Then I returned and threw them all over the railing at the top of the
great wall, and they fell for thirty feet, and hit the sacred marble
with a smack.

Now, in any other town but Rome, or in the minds of any other cats,
the sight of fishes falling out of heaven had surely excited wonder.
They rose slowly, and all stretched themselves; then they came
leisurely towards the fishes. 'It is only a miracle,' they said in
their hearts.

THE CASTLE OF TIME

Presently there was a stir in one of the houses, and a bat flew out
of the door into the daylight, and three mice came running out of the
doorway down the step, an old stone cracked in two and held together
by moss; and there followed an old man bending on a stick with a white
beard coming to the ground, wearing clothes that were glossed with
use, and presently there came others out of the other houses, all of
them as old, and all hobbling on sticks. These were the oldest people
that the King had ever beheld, and he asked them the name of the
village and who they were; and one of them answered: 'This is the City
of the Aged in the Territory of Time.'

And the King said; 'Is Time then here?'

And one of the old men pointed to a great castle standing on a steep
hill and said: 'Therein dwells Time, and we are his people;' and
they all looked curiously at King Karnith Zo, and the eldest of the
villagers spoke again and sa