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HE CHILDREN OF THE ZODIAC[2] "It's too hard," said the Big Boy. "I don't know what'Zodiac' means." "I will hunt up the words for you in thedictionary," said the Little Girl. And when they came to thenext story the Boy took pleasure in doing his own hunting inthe dictionary. Though thou love her as thyself,As a self of purer clay,Though her parting dim the day,Stealing grace from all alive,Heartily knowWhen half Gods goThe gods arrive.--_Emerson._ Thousands of years ago, when men were greater than they are to-day,the Children of the Zodiac lived in the world. There were six Childrenof the Zodiac--the Ram, the Bull, the Lion, the Twins, and the Girl;and they were afraid of the Six Houses which belonged to the Scorpion,the Balance, the Crab, the Fishes, the Goat, and the Waterman. Evenwhen they first stepped down upon the earth and knew that they wereimmortal Gods, they carried this fear with them; and the fear grew asthey became better acquainted with mankind and heard stories of theSix Houses. Men treated the Children as Gods and came to them withprayers and long stories of wrong, while the Children of the Zodiaclistened and could not understand. [Footnote 2: Copyrighted, 1891, by Harper & Brothers.] A mother would fling herself before the feet of the Twins, or theBull, crying: "My husband was at work in the fields and the Archershot him and he died; and my son will also be killed by the Archer.Help me!" The Bull would lower his huge head and answer: "What is thatto me?" Or the Twins would smile and continue their play, for theycould not understand why the water ran out of people's eyes. At othertimes a man and a woman would come to Leo or the Girl crying: "We twoare newly married and we are very happy. Take these flowers." As theythrew the flowers they would make mysterious sounds to show that theywere happy, and Leo and the Girl wondered even more than the Twins whypeople shouted "Ha! ha! ha!" for no cause. This continued for thousands of years by human reckoning, till on aday, Leo met the Girl walking across the hills and saw that she hadchanged entirely since he had last seen her. The Girl, looking at Leo,saw that he too had changed altogether. Then they decided that itwould be well never to separate again, in case even more startlingchanges should occur when the one was not at hand to help the other.Leo kissed the Girl and all Earth felt that kiss, and the Girl satdown on a hill and the water ran out of her eyes; and this had neverhappened before in the memory of the Children of the Zodiac. As they sat together a man and a woman came by, and the man said tothe woman: "What is the use of wasting flowers on those dull Gods. They willnever understand, darling." The Girl jumped up and put her arms around the woman, crying, "Iunderstand. Give me the flowers and I will give you a kiss." Leo said beneath his breath to the man: "What was the new name that Iheard you give to your woman just now?" The man answered, "Darling, of course." "Why, of course," said Leo; "and if of course, what does it mean?" "It means 'very dear,' and you have only to look at your wife to seewhy." "I see," said Leo; "you are quite right;" and when the man and thewoman had gone on he called the Girl "darling wife"; and the Girl weptagain from sheer happiness. "I think," she said at last, wiping her eyes, "I think that we twohave neglected men and women too much. What did you do with thesacrifices they made to you, Leo?" "I let them burn," said Leo. "I could not eat them. What did you dowith the flowers?" "I let them wither. I could not wear them, I had so many of my own,"said the Girl, "and now I am sorry." "There is nothing to grieve for," said Leo; "we belong to each other." As they were talking the years of men's life slipped by unnoticed, andpresently the man and the woman came back, both white-headed, the mancarrying the woman. "We have come to the end of things," said the man quietly. "This thatwas my wife----" "As I am Leo's wife," said the Girl quickly, her eyes staring. "---- was my wife, has been killed by one of your Houses." The man setdown his burden, and laughed. "Which House?" said Leo angrily, for he hated all the Houses equally. "You are Gods, you should know," said the man. "We have lived togetherand loved one another, and I have left a good farm for my son: whathave I to complain of except that I still live?" As he was bending over his wife's body there came a whistling throughthe air, and he started and tried to run away, crying, "It is thearrow of the Archer. Let me live a little longer--only a littlelonger!" The arrow struck him and he died. Leo looked at the Girl, andshe looked at him, and both were puzzled. "He wished to die," said Leo. "He said that he wished to die, andwhen Death came he tried to run away. He is a coward." "No, he is not," said the Girl; "I think I feel what he felt. Leo, wemust learn more about this for their sakes." "For _their_ sakes," said Leo, very loudly. "Because _we_ are never going to die," said the Girl and Leo together,still more loudly. "Now sit you still here, darling wife," said Leo, "while I go to theHouses whom we hate, and learn how to make these men and women live aswe do." "And love as we do?" said the Girl. "I do not think they need to be taught that," said Leo, and he strodeaway very angry, with his lion-skin swinging from his shoulder, tillhe came to the House where the Scorpion lives in the darkness,brandishing his tail over his back. "Why do you trouble the children of men?" said Leo, with his heartbetween his teeth. "Are you so sure that I trouble the children of men alone?" said theScorpion. "Speak to your brother the Bull, and see what he says." "I come on behalf of the children of men," said Leo. "I have learnedto love as they do, and I wish them to live as I--as we--do." "Your wish was granted long ago. Speak to the Bull. He is under myspecial care," said the Scorpion. Leo dropped back to the earth again, and saw the great starAldebaran, that is set in the forehead of the Bull, blazing very nearto the earth. When he came up to it he saw that his brother, the Bull,yoked to a countryman's plough, was toiling through a wet rice-fieldwith his head bent down, and the sweat streaming from his flanks. Thecountryman was urging him forward with a goad. "Gore that insolent to death," cried Leo, "and for the sake of ourfamily honour come out of the mire." "I cannot," said the Bull, "the Scorpion has told me that some day, ofwhich I cannot be sure, he will sting me where my neck is set on myshoulders, and that I shall die bellowing." "What has that to do with this disgraceful exhibition?" said Leo,standing on the dyke that bounded the wet field. "Everything. This man could not plough without my help. He thinks thatI am a stray bullock." "But he is a mud-crusted cottar with matted hair," insisted Leo. "Weare not meant for his use." "You may not be; I am. I cannot tell when the Scorpion may choose tosting me to death--perhaps before I have turned this furrow." The Bullflung his bulk into the yoke, and the plough tore through the wetground behind him, and the countryman goaded him till his flanks werered. "Do you like this?" Leo called down the dripping furrows. "No," said the Bull over his shoulder as he lifted his hind legs fromthe clinging mud and cleared his nostrils. Leo left him scornfully and passed to another country, where he foundhis brother the Ram in the centre of a crowd of country people whowere hanging wreaths round his neck and feeding him on freshly pluckedgreen corn. "This is terrible," said Leo. "Break up that crowd and come away, mybrother. Their hands are spoiling your fleece." "I cannot," said the Ram. "The Archer told me that on some day ofwhich I had no knowledge, he would send a dart through me, and that Ishould die in very great pain." "What has that to do with this?" said Leo, but he did not speak asconfidently as before. "Everything in the world," said the Ram. "These people never saw aperfect sheep before. They think that I am a stray, and they willcarry me from place to place as a model to all their flocks." "But they are greasy shepherds, we are not intended to amuse them,"said Leo. "You may not be; I am," said the Ram. "I cannot tell when the Archermay choose to send his arrow at me--perhaps before the people a miledown the road have seen me." The Ram lowered his head that a yokelnewly arrived might throw a wreath of wild garlic-leaves over it, andwaited patiently while the farmers tugged his fleece. "Do you like this?" cried Leo over the shoulders of the crowd. "No," said the Ram, as the dust of the trampling feet made him sneeze,and he snuffed at the fodder piled before him. Leo turned back, intending to retrace his steps to the Houses, but ashe was passing down a street he saw two small children, very dusty,rolling outside a cottage door, and playing with a cat. They were theTwins. "What are you doing here?" said Leo, indignant. "Playing," said the Twins calmly. "Cannot you play on the banks of the Milky Way?" said Leo. "We did," said they, "till the Fishes swam down and told us that someday they would come for us and not hurt us at all and carry us away.So now we are playing at being babies down here. The people like it." "Do you like it?" said Leo. "No," said the Twins, "but there are no cats in the Milky Way," andthey pulled the cat's tail thoughtfully. A woman came out of thedoorway and stood behind them, and Leo saw in her face a look that hehad sometimes seen in the Girl's. "She thinks that we are foundlings," said the Twins, and they trottedindoors to the evening meal. Then Leo hurried as swiftly as possible to all the Houses one afteranother; for he could not understand the new trouble that had come tohis brethren. He spoke to the Archer, and the Archer assured him thatso far as that House was concerned Leo had nothing to fear. TheWaterman, the Fishes, and the Goat, gave the same answer. They knewnothing of Leo, and cared less. They were the Houses, and they werebusied in killing men. At last he came to that very dark House where Cancer the Crab lies sostill that you might think he was asleep if you did not see theceaseless play and winnowing motion of the feathery branches round hismouth. That movement never ceases. It is like the eating of asmothered fire into rotten timber in that it is noiseless and withouthaste. Leo stood in front of the Crab, and the half darkness allowed him aglimpse of that vast blue-black back, and the motionless eyes. Now andagain he thought that he heard some one sobbing, but the noise wasvery faint. "Why do you trouble the children of men?" said Leo. There was noanswer, and against his will Leo cried, "Why do you trouble us? Whathave we done that you should trouble us?" This time Cancer replied, "What do I know or care? You were born intomy House, and at the appointed time I shall come for you." "When is the appointed time?" said Leo, stepping back from therestless movement of the mouth. "When the full moon fails to call the full tide," said the Crab, "Ishall come for the one. When the other has taken the earth by theshoulders, I shall take that other by the throat." Leo lifted his hand to the apple of his throat, moistened his lips,and recovering himself, said: "Must I be afraid for two, then?" "For two," said the Crab, "and as many more as may come after." "My brother, the Bull, had a better fate," said Leo, sullenly. "He isalone." A hand covered his mouth before he could finish the sentence, and hefound the Girl in his arms. Woman-like, she had not stayed where Leohad left her, but had hastened off at once to know the worst, andpassing all the other Houses, had come straight to Cancer. "That is foolish," said the Girl whispering. "I have been waiting inthe dark for long and long before you came. _Then_ I was afraid. Butnow----" She put her head down on his shoulder and sighed a sigh ofcontentment. "I am afraid now," said Leo. "That is on my account," said the Girl. "I know it is, because I amafraid for your sake. Let us go, husband." They went out of the darkness together and came back to the Earth,Leo very silent, and the Girl striving to cheer him. "My brother'sfate is the better one," Leo would repeat from time to time, and atlast he said: "Let us each go our own way and live alone till we die.We were born into the House of Cancer, and he will come for us." "I know; I know. But where shall I go? And where will you sleep in theevening? But let us try. I will stay here. Do you go on." Leo took six steps forward very slowly, and three long steps backwardvery quickly, and the third step set him again at the Girl's side.This time it was she who was begging him to go away and leave her, andhe was forced to comfort her all through the night. That night decidedthem both never to leave each other for an instant, and when they hadcome to this decision they looked back at the darkness of the House ofCancer high above their heads, and with their arms round each other'snecks laughed, "Ha! ha! ha!" exactly as the children of men laughed.And that was the first time in their lives that they had ever laughed. Next morning they returned to their proper home and saw the flowersand the sacrifices that had been laid before their doors by thevillagers of the hills. Leo stamped down the fire with his heel andthe Girl flung the flower-wreaths out of sight, shuddering as she didso. When the villagers re-returned, as of custom, to see what hadbecome of their offerings, they found neither roses nor burned fleshon the altars, but only a man and a woman, with frightened white facessitting hand in hand on the altar-steps. "Are you not Virgo?" said a woman to the Girl. "I sent you flowersyesterday." "Little sister," said the Girl, flushing to her forehead, "do not sendany more flowers, for I am only a woman like yourself." The man andthe woman went away doubtfully. "Now, what shall we do?" said Leo. "We must try to be cheerful, I think," said the Girl. "We know thevery worst that can happen to us, but we do not know the best thatlove can bring us. We have a great deal to be glad of." "The certainty of death?" said Leo. "All the children of men have that certainty also; yet they laughedlong before we ever knew how to laugh. We must learn to laugh, Leo. Wehave laughed once, already." People who consider themselves Gods, as the Children of the Zodiacdid, find it hard to laugh, because the Immortals know nothing worthlaughter or tears. Leo rose up with a very heavy heart, and he and thegirl together went to and fro among men; their new fear of deathbehind them. First they laughed at a naked baby attempting to thrustits fat toes into its foolish pink mouth; next they laughed at akitten chasing her own tail; and then they laughed at a boy trying tosteal a kiss from a girl, and getting his ears boxed. Lastly, theylaughed because the wind blew in their faces as they ran down ahill-side together, and broke panting and breathless into a knot ofvillagers at the bottom. The villagers laughed, too, at their flyingclothes and wind-reddened faces; and in the evening gave them food andinvited them to a dance on the grass, where everybody laughed throughthe mere joy of being able to dance. That night Leo jumped up from the Girl's side crying: "Every one ofthose people we met just now will die----" "So shall we," said the Girl sleepily. "Lie down again, dear." Leocould not see that her face was wet with tears. But Leo was up and far across the fields, driven forward by the fearof death for himself and for the Girl, who was dearer to him thanhimself. Presently he came across the Bull drowsing in the moonlightafter a hard day's work, and looking through half-shut eyes at thebeautiful straight furrows that he had made. "Ho!" said the Bull. "So you have been told these things too. Which ofthe Houses holds your death?" Leo pointed upward to the dark House of the Crab and groaned. "And hewill come for the Girl too," he said. "Well," said the Bull, "what will you do?" Leo sat down on the dike and said that he did not know. "You cannot pull a plough," said the Bull, with a little touch ofcontempt. "I can, and that prevents me from thinking of the Scorpion." Leo was angry, and said nothing till the dawn broke, and thecultivator came to yoke the Bull to his work. "Sing," said the Bull, as the stiff, muddy ox-bow creaked andstrained. "My shoulder is galled. Sing one of the songs that we sangwhen we thought we were all Gods together." Leo stepped back into the canebrake, and lifted up his voice in a songof the Children of the Zodiac--the war-whoop of the young Gods who areafraid of nothing. At first he dragged the song along unwillingly, andthen the song dragged him, and his voice rolled across the fields, andthe Bull stepped to the tune, and the cultivator banged his flanks outof sheer light-heartedness, and the furrows rolled away behind theplough more and more swiftly. Then the Girl came across the fieldslooking for Leo, and found him singing in the cane. She joined hervoice to his, and the cultivator's wife brought her spinning into theopen and listened with all her children round her. When it was timefor the nooning, Leo and the Girl had sung themselves both thirsty andhungry, but the cultivator and his wife gave them rye bread and milk,and many thanks; and the Bull found occasion to say: "You have helped me to do a full half field more than I should havedone. But the hardest part of the day is to come, brother." Leo wished to lie down and brood over the words of the Crab. The Girlwent away to talk to the cultivator's wife and baby, and the afternoonploughing began. "Help us now," said the Bull. "The tides of the day are running down.My legs are very stiff. Sing, if you never sang before." "To a mud-spattered villager?" said Leo. "He is under the same doom as ourselves. Are you a coward?" said theBull. Leo flushed, and began again with a sore throat and a bad temper.Little by little he dropped away from the songs of the Children andmade up a song as he went along; and this was a thing he could neverhave done had he not met the Crab face to face. He remembered factsconcerning cultivators and bullocks and rice-fields that he had notparticularly noticed before the interview, and he strung them alltogether, growing more interested as he sang, and he told thecultivator much more about himself and his work than the cultivatorknew. The Bull grunted approval as he toiled down the furrows for thelast time that day, and the song ended, leaving the cultivator with avery good opinion of himself in his aching bones. The Girl came out ofthe hut where she had been keeping the children quiet, and talkingwoman-talk to the wife, and they all ate the evening meal together. "Now yours must be a very pleasant life," said the cultivator;"sitting as you do on a dyke all day and singing just what comes intoyour head. Have you been at it long, you two--gipsies?" "Ah!" lowed the Bull from his byre. "That's all the thanks you willever get from men, brother." "No. We have only just begun it," said the Girl; "but we are going tokeep to it as long as we live. Are we not, Leo?" "Yes," said he; and they went away hand in hand. "You can sing beautifully, Leo," said she, as a wife will to herhusband. "What were you doing?" said he. "I was talking to the mother and the babies," she said. "You would notunderstand the little things that make us women laugh." "And--and I am to go on with this--this gipsy work?" said Leo. "Yes, dear, and I will help you." There is no written record of the life of Leo and of the Girl, so wecannot tell how Leo took to his new employment which he detested. Weare only sure that the Girl loved him when and wherever he sang; evenwhen, after the song was done, she went round with the equivalent of atambourine and collected the pence for the daily bread. There weretimes, too, when it was Leo's very hard task to console the Girl forthe indignity of horrible praise that people gave him and her--for thesilly wagging peacock feathers that they stuck in his cap, and thebuttons and pieces of cloth that they sewed on his coat. Woman-like,she could advise and help to the end, but the meanness of the meansrevolted. "What does it matter," Leo would say, "so long as the songs make thema little happier?" And they would go down the road and begin again onthe old, old refrain--that whatever came or did not come the childrenof men must not be afraid. It was heavy teaching at first, but inprocess of years Leo discovered that he could make men laugh and holdthem listening to him even when the rain fell. Yet there were peoplewho would sit down and cry softly, though the crowd was yelling withdelight, and there were people who maintained that Leo made them dothis; and the Girl would talk to them in the pauses of the performanceand do her best to comfort them. People would die, too, while Leo wastalking and singing and laughing; for the Archer and the Scorpion andthe Crab and the other Houses were as busy as ever. Sometimes thecrowd broke, and were frightened, and Leo strove to keep them steadyby telling them that this was cowardly; and sometimes they mocked atthe Houses that were killing them, and Leo explained that this waseven more cowardly than running away. In their wanderings they came across the Bull, or the Ram, or theTwins, but all were too busy to do more than nod to each other acrossthe crowd, and go on with their work. As the years rolled on even thatrecognition ceased, for the Children of the Zodiac had forgotten thatthey had ever been Gods working for the sake of men. The starAldebaran was crusted with caked dirt on the Bull's forehead, theRam's fleece was dusty and torn, and the Twins were only babiesfighting over the cat on the door-step. It was then that Leo said,"Let us stop singing and making jokes." And it was then that the Girlsaid, "No." But she did not know why she said "No" so energetically.Leo maintained that it was perversity, till she herself, at the end ofa dusty day, made the same suggestion to him, and he said, "Mostcertainly not!" and they quarrelled miserably between the hedgerows,forgetting the meaning of the stars above them. Other singers andother talkers sprang up in the course of the years, and Leo,forgetting that there could never be too many of these, hated them fordividing the applause of the children of men, which he thought shouldbe all his own. The Girl would grow angry too, and then the songswould be broken, and the jests fall flat for weeks to come, and thechildren of men would shout: "Go home, you two gipsies. Go home andlearn something worth singing!" After one of these sorrowful, shameful days, the Girl, walking byLeo's side through the fields, saw the full moon coming up over thetrees, and she clutched Leo's arm, crying: "The time has come now. Oh,Leo, forgive me!" "What is it?" said Leo. He was thinking of the other singers. "My husband!" she answered, and she laid his hand upon her breast, andthe breast that he knew so well was hard as stone. Leo groaned,remembering what the Crab had said. "Surely we were Gods once," he cried. "Surely we are Gods still," said the Girl. "Do you not remember whenyou and I went to the House of the Crab and--were not very muchafraid? And since then ... we have forgotten what we were singingfor--we sang for the pence, and, oh, we fought for them!--We, who arethe Children of the Zodiac!" "It was my fault," said Leo. "How can there be any fault of yours that is not mine too?" said theGirl. "My time has come, but you will live longer, and...." The lookin her eyes said all she could not say. "Yes, I will remember that we are Gods," said Leo. It is very hard, even for a child of the Zodiac who has forgotten hisGodhead, to see his wife dying slowly, and to know that he cannot helpher. The Girl told Leo in those last months of all that she had saidand done among the wives and the babies at the back of the roadsideperformances, and Leo was astonished that he knew so little of her whohad been so much to him. When she was dying she told him never tofight for pence or quarrel with the other singers; and, above all, togo on with his singing immediately after she was dead. Then she died, and after he had buried her he went down the road to avillage that he knew, and the people hoped that he would beginquarrelling with a new singer that had sprung up while he had beenaway. But Leo called him "my brother." The new singer was newlymarried--and Leo knew it--and when he had finished singing Leostraightened himself, and sang the "Song of the Girl," which he hadmade coming down the road. Every man who was married, or hoped to bemarried, whatever his rank or colour, understood that song--even thebride leaning on the new husband's arm understood it too--andpresently when the song ended, and Leo's heart was bursting in him,the men sobbed. "That was a sad tale," they said at last, "now make uslaugh." Because Leo had known all the sorrow that a man could know,including the full knowledge of his own fall who had once been aGod--he, changing his song quickly, made the people laugh till theycould laugh no more. They went away feeling ready for any trouble inreason, and they gave Leo more peacock feathers and pence than hecould count. Knowing that pence led to quarrels and that peacockfeathers were hateful to the Girl, he put them aside and went away tolook for his brothers, to remind them that they too were Gods. He found the Bull goring the undergrowth in a ditch, for the Scorpionhad stung him, and he was dying, not slowly, as the Girl had died, butquickly. "I know all," the Bull groaned, as Leo came up. "I had forgotten, too,but I remember now. Go and look at the fields I ploughed. The furrowsare straight. I forgot that I was a God, but I drew the ploughperfectly straight, for all that. And you, brother?" "I am not at the end of the ploughing," said Leo. "Does Death hurt?" "No; but dying does," said the Bull, and he died. The cultivator whothen owned him was much annoyed, for there was a field stillunploughed. It was after this that Leo made the Song of the Bull who had been aGod and forgotten the fact, and he sang it in such a manner that halfthe young men in the world conceived that they too might be Godswithout knowing it. A half of that half grew impossibly conceited, anddied early. A half of the remainder strove to be Gods and failed, butthe other half accomplished four times more work than they would havedone under any other delusion. Later, years later, always wandering up and down, and making thechildren of men laugh, he found the Twins sitting on the bank of astream waiting for the Fishes to come and carry them away. They werenot in the least afraid, and they told Leo that the woman of the Househad a real baby of her own, and that when that baby grew old enough tobe mischievous he would find a well-educated cat waiting to have itstail pulled. Then the Fishes came for them, but all that the peoplesaw was two children drowning in a brook; and though theirfoster-mother was very sorry, she hugged her own real baby to herbreast, and was grateful that it was only the foundlings. Then Leo made the Song of the Twins who had forgotten that they wereGods, and had played in the dust to amuse a foster-mother. That songwas sung far and wide among the women. It caused them to laugh and cryand hug their babies closer to their hearts all in one breath; andsome of the women who remembered the Girl said: "Surely that is thevoice of Virgo. Only she could know so much about ourselves." After those three songs were made, Leo sang them over and over again,till he was in danger of looking upon them as so many mere words, andthe people who listened grew tired, and there came back to Leo theold temptation to stop singing once and for all. But he remembered theGirl's dying words and went on. One of his listeners interrupted him as he was singing. "Leo," saidhe, "I have heard you telling us not to be afraid for the past fortyyears. Can you not sing something new now?" "No," said Leo; "it is the only song that I am allowed to sing. Youmust not be afraid of the Houses, even when they kill you." The man turned to go, wearily, but there came a whistling through theair, and the arrow of the Archer was seen skimming low above theearth, pointing to the man's heart. He drew himself up, and stoodstill waiting till the arrow struck home. "I die," he said, quietly. "It is well for me, Leo, that you sang forforty years." "Are you afraid?" said Leo, bending over him. "I am a man, not a God," said the man. "I should have run away but foryour Songs. My work is done, and I die without making a show of myfear." "I am very well paid," said Leo to himself. "Now that I see what mysongs are doing, I will sing better ones." He went down the road, collected his little knot of listeners, andbegan the Song of the Girl. In the middle of his singing he felt thecold touch of the Crab's claw on the apple of his throat. He liftedhis hand, choked, and stopped for an instant. "Sing on, Leo," said the crowd. "The old song runs as well as ever itdid." Leo went on steadily till the end, with the cold fear at his heart.When his song was ended, he felt the grip on his throat tighten. Hewas old, he had lost the Girl, he knew that he was losing more thanhalf his power to sing, he could scarcely walk to the diminishingcrowds that waited for him, and could not see their faces when theystood about him. None the less he cried angrily to the Crab: "Why have you come for me _now_?" "You were born under my care. How can I help coming for you?" said theCrab, wearily. Every human being whom the Crab killed had asked thatsame question. "But I was just beginning to know what my songs were doing," said Leo. "Perhaps that is why," said the Crab, and the grip tightened. "You said you would not come till I had taken the world by theshoulders," gasped Leo, falling back. "I always keep my word. You have done that three times, with threesongs. What more do you desire?" "Let me live to see the world know it," pleaded Leo. "Let me be surethat my songs----" "Make men brave?" said the Crab. "Even then there would be one man whowas afraid. The Girl was braver than you are. Come." Leo was standing close to the restless, insatiable mouth. "I forgot,"said he, simply. "The Girl was braver. But I am a God too, and I amnot afraid." "What is that to me?" said the Crab. Then Leo's speech was taken from him, and he lay still and dumb,watching Death till he died. Leo was the last of the Children of the Zodiac. After his death theresprang up a breed of little mean men, whimpering and flinching andhowling because the Houses killed them and theirs, who wished to liveforever without any pain. They did not increase their lives, but theyincreased their own torments miserably, and there were no Children ofthe Zodiac to guide them, and the greater part of Leo's songs werelost. Only he had carved on the Girl's tombstone the last verse of the Songof the Girl, which stands at the head of this story. One of the children of men, coming thousands of years later, rubbedaway the lichen, read the lines, and applied them to a trouble otherthan the one Leo meant. Being a man, men believed that he had made theverses himself; but they belong to Leo, the Child of the Zodiac, andteach, as he taught, that what comes or does not come, we must not beafraid.
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