doorway:

"The Keeper of the House awaits thee. Enter into Quiet."

And they entered, and were possessed of an incomparable peace. And then
came to them an old man of noble countenance, with eye neither dimmed
nor sunken, and cheek dewy as a child's, and his voice was like an organ
when it plays the soft thanksgiving of a mother.

"Why did ye kiss the earth as ye travelled?" he asked. Then they told
him, each with his own tongue, and he smiled upon them and questioned
them of all their speech by the way; and they answered him all honestly
and with gladness, for the searching of their hearts was a joy and
relief. But he looked most lovingly upon the lad.

"Wouldst thou, then, indeed enter the quiet country?" he asked.

And the lad answered: "I have lived so long in the noise!"

"Thou hast learned all, thou hast lived all," he answered the boy.
"Beyond the Hills of Scarlet there is quiet, and thou shalt dwell there,
thou and he. Ye have the perfect desire--Go in peace, and know that
though ye are of different years, as men count time, God's clock strikes
the same for both; for both are of equal knowledge, and have the same
desire at last."

Then, lifting up his hands, he said: "O children of men! O noisy world!
when will ye learn the delectable way?"

Slowly they all three came from the Chateau, and through the great
gateway, and passed to the margin of a shining lake. There the two
stepped into a boat that waited for them, of which the rowers were nobly
fashioned, like the Keeper of the House, and as they bowed their heads
to a melodious blessing, the boat drew away. Soon, in the sweet haze,
they looked transfigured and enlarged, majestic figures moving through
the Scarlet Hills to the quiet country. Now the valley through which
they had passed was the Valley of Death, where the young become old, and
the old young, and all become wise.

THE TENT OF THE PURPLE MAT

The Tent stands on the Mount of Lost Winters, in that bit of hospitable
land called the Fair Valley, which is like no other in the North. Whence
comes the soft wind that comforts it, who can tell? It swims through the
great gap in the mountains, and passing down the valley, sinks upon the
prairie of the Ten Stars, where it is lost. What man first placed the
Tent on the Mount none knows, though legends are many. It has a
clear outlook to the north, whence comes the gracious wind, and it is
sheltered at the south by a stout wall of commendable t