Page:Writings of Oscar Wilde - Volume 03.djvu/34

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16 THE WRITINGS OF OSCAR WILDE.


then he was still. The negroes shrugged their shoulders and threw the body overboard. And the master of the galley laughed, and, reaching out, he took the pearl, and when he saw it he pressed it to his forehead and bowed. "It shall be," he said, "for the sceptre of the young King, ' ' and he made a sign to the negroes to draw up the anchor. And when the young King heard this he gave a great cry, and woke, and through the window he saw the long grey fingers of the dawn clutching at the fading stars. And he fell asleep again, and dreamed, and this was his dream: He thought that he was wandering through a dim wood, hung with strange fruits and with beautiful poisonous flowers. The adders hissed at him as he went by, and the bright parrots flew screaming from branch to branch. Huge tortoises lay asleep upon the hot mud. The trees were full of apes and peacocks. On and on he went, till he reached the outskirts of the wood, and there he saw an immense multitude of men toiling in the bed of a dried up river. They swarmed up the crag like ants.

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