grow good. Some day I shall come again. When he least expects it, I shall push him into the black coffin. I shall put it on my head, and shall fly towards the stars. There, too, blooms the Garden of Paradise. If he be good and holy, he may enter its beautiful pearl gates and be a dweller in it for ever and ever: but should his head and heart be still full of sin, then he will sink with the coffin deeper than ever sank the Garden of Paradise; and every thousand years only shall I come to fetch him, that he may either sink still deeper, or dwell in the star—in that bright sparkling star there yonder!”
The Prince arose—the old woman was gone—the Cave of the Winds was nothing now but a hollow in the rock; he wondered how it had seemed so large the night before; the morning star had set, and the sun shone with a clear and cheerful light upon the little flowers and blades of grass, which were heavy with the last night’s rain; the birds sang, and the bees hummed in the blossoms of the lime tree.
