" said Simeon. "Good! then say to your
slaves, 'You are free. If you will continue to serve me, I will treat
you well. If you prefer to go your own way, take what you require of
good clothing and mules.' Will you do that, stranger?"

"You fanatic!" shouted Simeon angrily. "What notions you have about
men. They're not like that. Life's very different from that!"

"But life will be like that some day," said Matthew.

"He is a Messiah who destroys the Kingdom instead of building it,"
exclaimed Simeon, jumping into his litter and giving the sign to depart.

The procession moved on slowly, its glitter showing up against the dark
rocks of the desert track. The disciples gazed after it in silence.

A little old man lay on the yellow sand. He was so grey and dwarfish
that he looked like a mountain sprite. The old fellow was at home in
the bare, big rocks. He loved the desert, for it is the home of great
thoughts. He loved the desert where he hoped to find the entrance to
Nirvana. Now when the disciples passed near him as they were returning
to the Master, he pushed the upper part of his body out of the sand,
and asked: "What did the man want to whom you were speaking?"

"He wanted to be able to live for ever."

"To live for ever!" exclaimed the old fellow in surprise. "And that is
why the man drags himself across the desert. What extraordinary people
there are! Now I could go any distance to find my Nirvana. I only
desire eternal life for my enemies. It is many a day since people said
I was a hundred years old. If you are men of wisdom, teach me, tell me
what I must do to reach Nirvana?"

They were astonished. It was something like out of a fairy tale. A
living creature who did not wish to live! But Matthew knew how to
answer him.

"My friend, your desire is modest, but it can never be fulfilled. You
will never be nothing. If you die, you lose only your body, not
yourself. You will, perhaps, not live, but you will be just as the
same as now: you are not living now, and yet you exist. Breathing and
waiting is not living. Living is fulfilment, is love--is the Kingdom
of Heaven."

"My Kingdom of Heaven is Nirvana," said the little old man, and buried
himself again in the sand.

As they went along Matthew said: "He fears everlasting existence
because he does not recognise a God. But he is not so far from us as
the man who loves the world."

Simeon went on his way, and towards evening reache