One wandering nigh Parnassus chasing hares heard the high Muses.
 
"Take us a message to the Golden Town."
 
Thus sang the Muses.
 
But the man said: "They do not call to me. Not to such as me speak the Muses."
 
And the Muses called him by name.
 
"Take us a message," they said, "to the Golden Town."
 
And the man was downcast for he would have chased hares.
 
And the Muses called again.
 
And when whether in valleys or on high crags of the hills he still heard the Muses he went at last to them and heard their message, though he would fain have left it to other men and chased the fleet hares still in happy valleys.
 
And they gave him a wreath of laurels carved out of emeralds as only the Muses can carve. "By this," they said, "they shall know that you come from the Muses."
 
And the man went from that place and dressed in scarlet silks as befitted one that came from the high Muses. And through the gateway of the Golden Town he ran and cried his message, and his cloak floated behind him. All silent sat the wise men and the aged, they of the Golden Town; cross-legged they sat before their houses reading from parchments a message of the Muses that they sent long before.
 
And the young man cried his message from the Muses.
 
And they rose up and said: "Thou art not from the Muses. Otherwise spake they." And they stoned him and he died.
 
And afterwards they carved his message upon gold; and read it in their temples on holy days.
 
When will the Muses rest? When are they weary? They sent another messenger to the Golden Town. And they gave him a wand of ivory to carry in his hand with all the beautiful stories of the world wondrously carved thereon. And only the Muses could have carved it. "By this," they said, "they shall know that you come from the Muses."
 
And he came through the gateway of the Golden Town with the message he had for its people. And they rose up at once in the Golden street, they rose from reading the message that they had carved upon gold. "The last who came," the............