they also got up to go, for the air was getting chilly. And as soon
as they had gone a little way, the wolves, who had been showing
themselves on the edge of a neighbouring coppice, came nearer, and
the birds wheeled closer and closer. 'Stay, outcasts, yet a little
while,' the crucified one called in a weak voice to the beggars, 'and
keep the beasts and the birds from me.' But the beggars were angry
because he had called them outcasts, so they threw stones and mud at
him, and went their way. Then the wolves gathered at the foot of the
cross, and the birds flew lower and lower. And presently the birds
lighted all at once upon his head and arms and shoulders, and began
to peck at him, and the wolves began to eat his feet. 'Outcasts,' he
moaned, 'have you also turned against the outcast?'




OUT OF THE ROSE.


One winter evening an old knight in rusted chain-armour rode slowly
along the woody southern slope of Ben Bulben, watching the sun go
down in crimson clouds over the sea. His horse was tired, as after a
long journey, and he had upon his helmet the crest of no neighbouring
lord or king, but a small rose made of rubies that glimmered every
moment to a deeper crimson. His white hair fell in thin curls upon
his shoulders, and its disorder added to the melancholy of his face,
which was the face of one of those who have come but seldom into the
world, and always for its trouble, the dreamers who must do what they
dream, the doers who must dream what they do.