Chapter LV

The graveyard of the G.o.ds is silent under a heavy sky, Where all the G.o.ds who never lived are buried when they die.

Pale angels kneel beside the graves, stretching row on row, And madmen carrying mouldy flowers quickly come and go.

A withered lily in her hand Saint Any-One-At-All, With pale, thin fingers opens the gate in an ivied wall.

Her face an open wound of wonder, bleeding with defeat, And as she walks, the shining snow crunches under her feet.

The ghosts of trees reach icy arms up to a starless sky, Mourning the G.o.ds who never were that rest here when they die.

Pale angels kneel beside the graves stretching row on row, And madmen carrying mouldy flowers quickly come and go.

Chapter LVI

Having pa.s.sed through the graveyard of the G.o.ds, Gud came to a vast beyond where there really was nothing, when the G.o.ds are dead there can be nothing. And so Gud journeyed on, for he would not stop at nothing, and he came to a church, because it was Sat.u.r.day night.

Crouched by the steps of the church was a poor old skeptic begging alms of faith.

"Why do you beg?" asked Gud.

"Because I have need of faith," said the skeptic.

"If I should give you a great amount of faith, would you use it to destroy your doubts, or would you go out and proclaim it to others, and thus give it all away?"

"Try me," said the skeptic.

"Then believe that I am Gud."

"I will, if you can prove it to me!"

"What proof shall I offer you?" asked Gud. For while he knew that proof was not necessary to faith, yet he was willing to humor the poor old skeptic because he was so weighted down with his burden of doubts.

"If you be Gud," said the skeptic, "then you should know all things."

"And that I do."

"Very well," said the skeptic, "how mad is a wet hen?"

Whereupon Gud called down fire from the heaven of that place and smote the blasphemer so that he died.

But when Gud called down the fire that smote the skeptic, alas, he destroyed the church house also. The next morning when the sun arose, behold the spot where the church had been was a greensward of two-bladed gra.s.s. But presently worshippers came and seated themselves upon the gra.s.s and lifted up their eyes in prayer.

Gud did not wait to see who answered their prayers, for he had gone on into a realm where the nights are as cold as greed, and where little stars are born--and comets, like tadpoles, lose their tails, and burst into shining suns.

And yet again Gud pa.s.sed on beyond all stars and on and on until he reached the limits of thoughts, beyond which were only dim traces of imagination. And pa.s.sing still on and ever on he came to a place where only the hope of faith abides, and lo, he was confronted here with a great wall of light.

And Gud knew--for he still knew all things--that this wall of light was the great and mighty wall that flings its shining reaches round about the City of the Forgotten Ghosts. These ghosts feared that dark memories, which were their only enemies, might find them out, so they had builded this mighty wall of light about their ghostly city.

But those who know all things need stop at nothing, and Gud, first casting off all memories that clung about him, kneeled down beside the wall of light and rubbed a little ring of pale intrusion. And behold a door of darkness opened in the wall of light. Gud arose and pa.s.sed through the door of darkness in the wall of light. When he had pa.s.sed through, the door of darkness closed behind him, and, having revoked all memories, Gud could not recall that it had been.

As Gud now journeyed through the outer environs of the City of the Forgotten Ghosts, he rejoiced to become aware that these were holy ghosts--for behold the way was lined with the shadows of ten thousand crosses whereon hung ten thousand crucified ghosts.

Seeing that he was among friends, Gud decided to tarry yet a little while.

He was very much interested to learn that the inhabitants of this realm were not merely the spiritual leftovers of deceased material beings, but were true ghosts who had always been ghosts. This fact puzzled Gud, but there was no doubt about its authenticity, for the ghosts had a revelation that testified to their purely ghostly origin.

All the ghosts accepted this revelation of their origin, but there were differences of opinion as to their destination. Having an honest difference of opinion about an unknowable matter, there was, of course, ample justification for the ten thousand crucified ghosts that hung on the shadows of crosses.

Among these ghosts, who were so positive about their origin and so uncertain about their destiny, there were two sects: the Spiritualists and the Materialists. The Spiritualists, knowing that they had always been spirits, argued that they would always remain spirits. But the Materialists decried this pessimistic faith and held forth a great hope that if they adhered to all the plat.i.tudes they would have the pleasure of shuffling off the immortal coil and being reborn as material beings.

It was the tenets of this sect that Gud espoused, for he admired the faith of these mere ghosts who had never sensed matter, and yet had lifted up their eyes in the hope of material life.

With his experience in such affairs Gud readily a.s.sumed the role of a prophet of this Materialistic faith. But it is not sufficient merely to call the righteous to repentance, and Gud indulged his imagination to think of some way to impress the skeptical Spiritualists with the truth of the Materialist faith.

It was Fidu who gave Gud the idea for the great miracle, for Fidu had remained close to his master, both of course, in their spiritual beings.

The ghosts were not aware that Fidu was among them, and not being familiar with dogs they walked right through him, ignoring the poor beast quite utterly, which was very humiliating to Fidu.

So Gud, in sympathy with the Underdog's humiliation, conceived of a great idea, and he called the leaders of the Materialist sect together and asked: "Have any of you ever sensed a material being?"

"No!" answered they, "we have never sensed matter, which is why we have faith in its existence."

"True," said Gud, "enough for the faithful, but these infidels, some of whom you neglected to crucify, have not faith without works. Let us therefore create a material being wherewith to confound them."

"And of what will you create a material being?"

"I usually create things out of nothing," answered Gud.

"But Master," cried the Ghosts, "we have very little of nothing. How much would it take?"

"It will suffice," said Gud, and he whistled to Fidu and straightway materialized him.

A real live dog weighing about twenty-seven pounds, running around through the ghosts, made quite a sensation; and it greatly delighted those of the Materialist faith and converted most of the Spiritualists.

Gud thought for a time he had converted all the infidels and skeptics in the realm to the true faith, but he later found that there was one little band upon whom the materialization of Fidu had made no impression. This sect denied the spiritual existence that they were living, and taught that there was no such a thing as the spirit, but that all was matter.

Gud could not understand why this sect should call themselves Materio-Spiritists, since they were certainly not Spiritualists, as they denied the existence of spirit--and yet they were not Materialists, for they did not believe in matter as matter, but in spirit as matter.

These Materio-Spiritists were not impressed by the miracle Gud had wrought in the interest of the orthodox Materialist faith. They believed that all was matter, yet they did not recognize matter when they met it in the road. They denied the matter-of-fact Fidu, and said he was only an illusion of the non-existent spiritual mind and hence could have no existence, material or immaterial.