s Parable is all a vague dream, for
there are things which are more real than reality, and being so, must be
couched in different words from such as describe the things that one's
bodily eyes behold of the grim reality of this world. Such things, being
so told, may seem as strange and as unsubstantial as that which is
unreal, instead of like that which is real._

_So that which is now to be read must be read as the other has been
read--not as a likeness of life in its inner being, but as an image of
that life._

* * * * *

Sandy Graff awoke, and opened his eyes. At first he thought that he was
still within the dormitory of the Refuge, for there before him he saw
cold, bare white walls immaculately clean. Upon either hand was the row
of beds, each with its spotless coverlet, and in front was the long line
of curtainless windows looking out upon the bright daylight.

But as his waking senses gathered to a more orderly clearness, he saw
very soon that the place in which he was was very different from the
Refuge. Even newly awakened, and with his brain clouded and obscured by
the fumes of sleep, he distinguished at once that the strange, clear,
lucid brilliancy of the light which came in through the row of windows
was very different from any light that his eyes had ever before seen.
Then, as his mind opened wider and fuller and clearer, and as one by one
the objects which surrounded him began to take their proper place in his
awakened life, he saw that there were many people around, and that most
of the beds were occupied, and in every case by a man. The room in which
he lay was somewhat longer than the dormitory of the Refuge, and was
connected at the further end with what appeared to be a sort of
waiting-room beyond. In and out of the connecting doorway people were
coming and going. Some of these seemed to be friends of those who were
lying in the beds, being in every case led to some particular bedside,
the occupant of which had newly awakened; others, who seemed to be
attendants of the place, moved constantly hither and thither, busying
themselves around other of the beds, where lay such as seemed to need
attention.

Sandy looked slowly around him from left to right. Some of the occupants
of the beds--and one of these lay in the cot next to him--were not yet
awake, and he saw, with a sort of awe, that each of these lay strangely
like a dead man--still, motionless, the face covered wit