BY and by David arose and stood upon his feet. Then he looked down at himself and saw as with a sudden shock of wonder that he had grown into a man. He could not believe it at first. What wonder! What delight!--a great tall man with strong limbs and a big body. He swung his arms and felt their strength; he filled out his chest, breathing in great volumes of the cool, salt air. He felt strong to do anything. He was strong to do anything, for he had passed through frost and fire and beyond the Moon-Angel, and he who has done that can do anything.
Then he looked around him. On one side was the ocean, on the other side rose beetling cliffs that towered high, high into the air, the summit swimming dizzily against the blue sky and the floating clouds. High aloft against the face of the cliffs flicked and fluttered the white wings of the sea-gulls, and their clamor sounded incessantly through the ceaseless thunder and crash of the breakers.
Away on the top of the cliff, some distance beyond where he stood, he could just see the roof of a cottage, and the red chimney, from which the blue smoke drifted away into the air. In front of the cottage was a woman with a red petticoat that flamed like a spark of fire against the blue sky. She was hanging out clothes upon a line, but David knew that that must be the old woman with the red petticoat of whom the lady of the moon-garden had spoken--the old woman who knew everything and more beside.
He went forward along the seashore, the seagulls rising everywhere from the cliffs at his coming, clamoring and screaming with a multitudinous outcry of voices. So with the noise of the sea-gulls dinning in his ears, and the thunder of the breakers filling his soul, David walked forward along the shore until, by and by, he came to a path that led to the face of the cliff, where there was a flight of stone steps built up through the clefts of the crags to the top of the pinnacled rocks. Up these steps he climbed, up and up, the moon-ocean spreading out wider and wider below him the higher he climbed. By and by he was at the top, and he could look out and down upon the crawling, wrinkled water beneath him, stretching away as boundless and empty as nothing at all. There was not a boat or a sail in sight, but only far away the long line of horizon, and from that the pearly sky that arched up into a deep blue dome overhead. Below him flicked and flitted the sea-gulls about the rocky face of the cliff, their screaming clamor coming up to him commingled with the ceaseless noise of the distant waters.
Then he turned around, and there was the cottage a little distance away. The old woman with the red petticoat had gone back into the house, but the clothes were hanging on the line, snowy white and fluttering in the wind.
Then David saw what they were.
They were the souls of men.
From the outside they looked only like linen clothes, but David was able now to see things from the inside, and so could see that they were the souls of men.
Aye, aye; this is true, little child. That dear old woman who lives up on the cliff in the Land of Nowhere-that dear old woman with the red petticoat-that is what she does. Day after day, day after day, she washes white the souls of men, and hangs them out in the sun and the sweet warm air to dry. She has been doing so ever since the beginning of time; ever since the moment that the first baby came into the world and lifted up its voice and cried. Ever since then she has been washing, washing, washing the souls of men, which grow so soiled by use that after a while they would become unfit to wear if it were not for that dear old woman upon the cliff, who washes them until they are as white as snow, and then hangs them out in the sun to dry.
David went up to the door, but before he could knock the old woman called out to him to come in, and in he went.
"Are you hungry?" said she.
"Yes; I am," said David.
"Then you must eat something," said she, "for no man can do his best work unless he eats."
So David sat down to the table, and the old woman brought him a bowl of milk and a piece of bread. David did not know how hungry he was until he began eating. Then it seemed to him he could not eat enough. He ate and ate and ate, and as he ate, he looked across the table at the old woman, who sat with her hands folded, looking placidly back at him. He thought he had never seen such a sweet, lovable face in all his life before. Her hair was as white as snow, and was brushed back under a cap that was still whiter than that. Her face was covered all over with wrinkles, so close and so fine that it made David think of the Man-in-the-moon.
So David looked at her as he ate his bread and drank his milk, and when he had ended his meal he pushed back his bowl and spoon, and looked at her again and yet again. She smiled. "Well," said she; "and what do you think of me?"
"I think you are very beautiful," said David.
The old woman laughed. "Do you!" said she. "Most men think I am very ugly. And so you have come from the other side of the Moon-Angel to find the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book to take them back to the brown earth, where they belong, have you?"
"Yes," said David; "that is what I have come to do, if you will tell me how I am to do it."
"If I will tell you?" said the old woman of the cliff. "Why else am I here except to tell you that? Why, David, lad, that is why I live here. But have you had enough to eat?"
"Yes, I have," said David.
"That is good; for he must not go hungry who has such work to do as lies before you."
"But, first of all, tell me," said David, "what is this Wonder-Box, and what is the Know-All Book? And why am I to take them back to the brown earth again?"
"Am I to tell you the whole story?" said the old woman of the cliff, "the whole story?"
"Yes," said David, "the whole story."
"Very well," said the old woman. And so she did, and this was how she told
The Story of the Know-All Book.
Once in that far-away beginning of time when everything was young and innocent, and the sky was fresh, and the sunshine new, and there was no such thing as sadness and sorrow (or joy and delight, for the matter of that), there was a woman and a man who lived like innocent little children in a beautiful garden of paradise.
"That was Adam and Eve," said David.
"No," said the old woman of the cliff; "it was Eve and Adam."
"And what is the difference?" said David.
"What is the difference when you say 'the light grows dim,' instead of saying 'the dim grows light''?" said the old woman.
"I don't know," said David.
"I do," said the old woman.
And this garden of paradise was a beautiful, beautiful place, with soft green grass shaded by trees that bore blossoms and fruit at the same time; where sweet birds sang from morning to night, and all was innocence and peace.
"That was like the moon-garden," said David.
"Aye," said the old woman. "It was the moon-garden, too."
Well, one time a man came walking into this garden where the innocent woman and innocent man lived. The two saw him coming among the trees and the blossoms--a tall, stately figure dressed in a long gray robe that sparkled all over with dim stars.
"That was like the Moon-Angel," said David.
"It was the Moon-Angel," said the old woman.
Under his arm the man carried a box of iron, shut and locked, but with a golden key in the keyhole. "Children," said he, "here is a box for you to keep. In it is the greatest joy and the greatest sorrow in the world. Keep it closed, and you will always be happy as you now are. But if you open it, sorrow will come upon you." Then he went away, leaving the box behind him. Seven days passed, and then one day the woman said to the man, "I wonder what there can be in that box? The tall man said that in it was the greatest joy in the world." "He said that the greatest sorrow of the world was in it also," said the man. "But," said the woman, "if we open it we will behold the greatest joy in the world." "And we will let the greatest sorrow out into the world," said the man.
"Now, what would you have done, David?" said the old woman of the cliff.
David spoke up boldly (you must remember he was a man now). "I would have opened the box," said he, "for surely it is worth suffering the greatest sorrow for the sake of the greatest joy."
The old woman smiled. "Ah, David," said she, "you say that because you have passed through the ice and the fire, and out beyond the Moon-Angel. But what you say is true enough; it is worth suffering the greatest sorrow for the sake of the greatest joy. That was why the Moon-Angel brought the iron box to the man and the woman--it was the Wonder-Box, David."
"And the Know-All Book was the greatest joy?" said David.
"Yes," said the old woman.
"And the man opened it?" said David.
"Yes," said the old woman.
The man turned the golden key in the lock of the box, and as he did so he shivered and trembled. The birds had ceased to sing, the leaves had ceased to rustle in the breezes, and the air hung as silent as death; the sky became overcast as with a thin sheet of cloud, and there was a sound as of distant thunder. "Open the box!" cried the woman in a piercing voice, and then the man lifted the lid.
Instantly it flew back wide open, and out belched a great cloud of terror like a great volume of smoke. It rose higher and higher into the air above the tops of the trees, spreading out wide into a huge dark cloud. The man and the woman clung together, trembling with terror. Then they saw that the smoke was beginning to form itself into the image of a man, and then the two turned and ran away through the garden.
"But did they then not see the joy that was within the Wonder-Box?" said David.
The old woman shook her head. "No, David," said she, "few there are who pause to see the joy that lies behind when black sorrow stands between."
The man and the woman fled away through the garden. All about them was that darkness of terror, for the sky was overcast with gloom, and Sorrow was coming fast after them. On it came through the trees, scattering fruit and flowers, rending and tearing. On and on sped the man and the woman, until at last they suddenly came to an iron door that was shut against them. The man leaped forward and pressed the latch. The door flew open, and the two ran out into the world beyond. They stood upon a shingled beach, with the ocean stretching away before them. But Sorrow had followed after them, and Joy was left behind in the iron-box.
"And what happened then?" said David.
"I will tell you," said the old woman.
The two wandered along the shore for a long, long distance, until they came at last to a country where men lived. There was no king and no queen to that country, and as this man and woman stood head and shoulders taller than the men and women of the common world, and as they were so fair and beautiful, and because their faces shone as with white light, the people of the city took them for their king and queen.
By and by the two died, and their son became king. Then he died and his son was king. Then he died and his son was king, and so on for generations and generations.
But the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book were lost. And the garden stood utterly deserted.
For after the man and the woman had fled, there came one day the dreadful Iron Man of the Iron Castle, before whose face even the little birds fled away. He found the Box and the Book lying under a tree and took them away with him; and from that time the eyes of man have never seen them again. But nevertheless this was known: that some day--aye, some day--a hero would appear who would bring back the Wonder-Box to the earth. That time there should be a princess, and after the hero had found the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book and had brought them back to the earth again, he should marry her, and by and by should himself be king over that land.
And this, little child, is the story of the Wonder-Box and the Know-All Book.
And is it true? True? Aye, it is true. At least it was true one time, and thanks to great A and little izzard it will be true again sometime to come.
But David sat motionlessly gazing at the wrinkled face of the old woman, and his eyes shone and his cheeks burned like fire. It had come into his mind to wonder if it could be possible that he was to be the hero who should bring back the Wonder-Box to the brown earth again? could it be possible? He did not dare to ask the question, but the old woman answered it without being asked. "Yes, David," said she, and her voice was very, very sweet, "you are the man."
"Then let me go and find it," cried out David.
The old woman laughed. "Patience, David," she said, "patience, patience. To-morrow morning you shall set out to do your work. To-night you must sleep and rest yourself. But, tell me, how will you set about to find the Iron Castle of the Iron Man "
"I do not know," said David.
"Then I will tell you," said the old woman. "To-morrow you shall set foot to the westward. You will journey all day, but toward evening you will come to a rocky desert, and there you will find a fountain of water. Every day the Black Horse who lives in the sky comes to that fountain to drink and to refresh himself. He alone can carry you to the Iron Castle of the Iron Man. To-morrow, before you leave, I will give you a bridle with a golden bit. If with it you can bridle the Black Horse, then you will have tamed him, and will be his master."
"I wish it were to-morrow," said David.
The old woman laughed again. "Time enough for that, David," said she.