Page:The land of many names (1926).pdf/104

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We used to call it the Great Graveyard.



Not a bit of it. It is the beckoning Land of New Life.



It is inhabited by shadows. It is the Land of Dead Armies.



No. In this land there is no shadow. It gleams with its four-square expanses, it glistens with the wheat which is growing upon it, shimmers with the images of forests, shines with the cities which garb its new life. Ha, ha! Is it not rather this ancient world here which is the land of dead armies and the age-old graveyard of hopes? This soil here, not once but a hundred times, had to be redeemed for life’s sake. For ages past there has been cursing and vain yearning here. Here you walk upon the bones of millions who dreamt of better things and never lived to see them. But yonder is the New Land. Ha, ha! What odd people you are, to be sure! You all wanted to go there, and now you’re thinking it over? Get along with you! Why, there’s nothing more for you to obtain from this old world.

[''The bright phantom of a star slowly assumes a coloured gleam. Thunder in the distance.'']



Listen to the thunder.



I am scared out of my wits. Something is clutching me.