Speaker 1: Charn by Lord Duncany. Charn leaned forward and rode. All
Speaker 1: things were won with his weariness. It was not with
Speaker 1: him a matter of years or of centuries, but of
Speaker 1: wide floods of time, and an old heaviness and a
Speaker 1: pain in the arms that had become for him part
Speaker 1: of the scheme that the gods had made, and was
Speaker 1: of a peace with eternity. If the gods had even
Speaker 1: sent him a contrary wind, it would have divided all
Speaker 1: time in his memory into two equal slabs. So gray
Speaker 1: were all things always where he was, that if any
Speaker 1: radiance lingered a moment among the dead on the face
Speaker 1: of such a queen, perhaps as Cleopatra, his eyes could
Speaker 1: not have perceived it. It was strange that the dead
Speaker 1: nowadays were coming in such numbers. They were coming in thousands,
Speaker 1: where they used to come in fifties. It was neither
Speaker 1: Haron's duty nor his wont to ponder in his gray
Speaker 1: soul why these things might be harn leaned forward and rowed.
Speaker 1: Then no one came for a while. It was not
Speaker 1: usual for the gods to send no one down from
Speaker 1: Earth for such a space, but the gods knew best.
Speaker 1: Then one man came alone, and the little shade sat
Speaker 1: shivering on a lonely bench, and the great boat pushed
Speaker 1: off only one passenger. The gods knew best, and great
Speaker 1: and weary Haron rowed on and on beside the little silent,
Speaker 1: shivering ghost, and the sound of the river was like
Speaker 1: a mighty scythe that grief in the beginning had sighed
Speaker 1: among her sisters, and that could not die like the
Speaker 1: echoes of human sorrow failing on earthly hills, but was
Speaker 1: as old as time, and the pain in Harn's arms.
Speaker 1: Then the boat from the slow gray river loomed up
Speaker 1: to the coast of dis and the little silent Shade,
Speaker 1: still shivering, stepped ashore, and Harn turned the boat to
Speaker 1: go wearily back to the world. Then the little shadows spoke,
Speaker 1: that had been a man I am the last. He said,
Speaker 1: No one had ever made Harn smile before, no one
Speaker 1: before had ever made him weep. End of Haron by
Speaker 1: Lord Duncany