lass of wine. They danced before him.

"'Who are you,' asked the hunter, 'who alone come to me in my solitude
and darkness?'

"'We are the twins Sensuality,' they cried. 'Our father's name is
Human-Nature, and our mother's name is Excess. We are as old as the
hills and rivers, as old as the first man; but we never die,' they
laughed.

"'Oh, let me wrap my arms about you!; cried the first; 'they are soft
and warm. Your heart is frozen now, but I will make it beat. Oh, come to
me!'

"'I will pour my hot life into you,' said the second; 'your brain is
numb, and your limbs are dead now; but they shall live with a fierce
free life. Oh, let me pour it in!'

"'Oh, follow us,' they cried, 'and live with us. Nobler hearts than
yours have sat here in this darkness to wait, and they have come to
us and we to them; and they have never left us, never. All else is a
delusion, but we are real, we are real, we are real. Truth is a shadow;
the valleys of superstition are a farce: the earth is of ashes, the
trees all rotten; but we--feel us--we live! You cannot doubt us. Feel us
how warm we are! Oh, come to us! Come with us!'

"Nearer and nearer round his head they hovered, and the cold drops
melted on his forehead. The bright light shot into his eyes, dazzling
him, and the frozen blood began to run. And he said:

"'Yes, why should I die here in this awful darkness? They are warm, they
melt my frozen blood!' and he stretched out his hands to take them.

"Then in a moment there arose before him the image of the thing he had
loved, and his hand dropped to his side.

"'Oh, come to us!' they cried.

"But he buried his face.

"'You dazzle my eyes,' he cried, 'you make my heart warm; but you cannot
give me what I desire. I will wait here--wait till I die. Go!'

"He covered his face with his hands and would not listen; and when he
looked up again they were two twinkling stars, that vanished in the
distance.

"And the long, long night rolled on.

"All who leave the valley of superstition pass through that dark land;
but some go through it in a few days, some linger there for months, some
for years, and some die there."

The boy had crept closer; his hot breath almost touched the stranger's
hand; a mystic wonder filled his eyes.

"At last for the hunter a faint light played along the horizon, and he
rose to follow it; and he reached that light at last, and stepped into
the broad sunshine. Then before him rose the almighty mou