The Mysterious Stranger, and Other Stories

he forgot nothing. What another must study, he learned at a glance; there were no

aves of hell; and he made us see all these things, and it was as if we were on the spot and looking at them with our own eyes. And we felt them, too, but there was no sign that they were anything to him beyond mere entertainments. Tho

t flies, if you didn't know. Once he even said, in so many words, that our people down here were quite interesting to him, notwithstanding they were so dull and ignorant and trivial and conceited, and so diseased and rickety, and such a shabby, poor, worthless lot all around.

uth, and truth is good manners; manners are a

uch things. Satan said they were the worst he had seen; and when he touched them and made them alive, it was just ridiculous the way they acted, on account of their legs not being of uniform lengths. They reeled and sprawled around as if they were drunk, and endangered everybody's lives around them, and finally fell over and lay helpless and kicking. It made us all laugh, though it was a shameful thing to see. The guns were charged with

dimly through it; the lightning blazed out flash upon flash and pierced the castle and set it on fire, and the flames shone out red and fierce through the cloud, and the people came flying out, shrieking, but Satan brushed them back, paying no attention to our begging and crying and imploring; and in the midst of the howling of the

an said; "they w

are gone

atter; we can m

his desire. It was no trouble to him; he did whatever he pleased with us. In a little while we were dancing on that grave, and he was playing to us on a strange, sweet instrument which he took out of his pocket; and the music-but there is no music like that, unless perhaps in heaven, an

said so, and said he would not go yet, but would wait a little while and we would sit down and talk a few minutes longer; and he told us Satan was only his real name,

eing! But it was his decision, and we s

to run on the pleasure it would be to tell them when

nd your trying to tell them, if you like, but I will protect y

antly along, and he was always reading our thoughts and responding to them, and it seemed to me t

rstand your human weaknesses, for I have studied them; but I have none of them. My flesh is not real, although it would seem firm to your touch; my clothes

know him

N

is not ignorant and dull, like us, and he

y errand after a little. There he is now; you c

nd looking as if he were going to speak to us, but he didn't. Presently he muttered, "I can't think what brought me here; it seems as if I were in my study a minute ago-but I suppose I have been dreaming along for an hour and have come all this stretch without noticing; for I am not myself in these troubled days." Then he went mumbling along to him

old you-I am

t spirits. It is plain he did not see you, but were we inv

s visible to him,

gain the same as ever, and-well, words cannot make you understand what we felt. It was an ecstasy; and an ecstasy is a thing that will not go into words; it feels like music, and one cannot tell about music so that another person can

poke of men in the same old indifferent way-just as one speaks of bricks and manure-piles and such things; you could see that they were of no consequence to him, one way or the other. He didn't

st a brick-pile-I was shamed into putting in a word for man, and asked him why he made so much difference between men and hims

mortal? between a cloud and a spirit?" He picked up a wood-louse that was cre

hich by their nature and by the inte

iseases, a home of impurities; he comes to-day and is gone to-morrow; he begins as dirt and departs as stench; I am of the aristocracy of the Impe

fun of it. For a while we were all silent, and I, for one, was depressed. Then Satan began to chat again, and soon he was sparkling along in such a cheerful and vivacious vein that my spirits rose once more. He told some very cunning things that put us in a gale of laughter; and when he was telling about the time that Samson tied the to

g on my er

"Don't go; stay with u

l; I give y

-night? S

e long. You

like

hing fine to see. Usually when I go I merely vanish; b

, and all over him played and flashed the delicate iridescent colors of the bubble, and along with them was that thing shaped like a window-sash which you always see on the globe of the bubble. You have seen a bubble stri

ay anything, but sat wondering and dreaming and blinking;

one of it ha

ed and said a

saw poor old Father Peter wandering along back, with his head bent down, searching the ground. Whe

e while,

and maybe you can help me.

, Fa

here wasn't much in it, but a very little is much to me, for

but we will h

going to ask you

od when he began to melt-if he did melt and it wasn't a delus

could hold with gold coins. He let us gaze our fill; and of course we did gaze, for we had never seen so much money at one time before. All our mou

id you d

laugh, too, as soon as he though

as bee

we couldn't say "Nobody," for it wouldn't be true, and the right wo

human

he others, and let t

e here, but that is nothing; some one has been here since. I don't mean to say that the person didn't pass here bef

human

; I know you are te

e path, we on our knees eagerly h

h dear! if it were only mine-and I need it so

we all cried out at

the coins in his hands, and forgot where he was, sitting there on his heels with his old gray head bare; it was piti

nemy in the village-nor Marget, either. And not even a half-enemy that's rich enough to

nd it cheered him up. "But it isn't min

person that wouldn't be sorry, but g

ter, and we are witness

and we'll sta

undred-odd ducats of it! The house is mortgaged for it, and we've no home for ou

ot to take it-we are bail that it's all ri

of it, for his house was good enough security for that, and would put the rest at interest till the rightful owner came for it; and on our side