After that he lay silent, with wide-open, smiling eyes. That was his farewell to splendid life.
Night was passing to dawn when the end came.
Black fell the day for children and kinsfolk and all. They bewailed and they lamented. Voices were uplifted in weeping. There was utter dejection. Each passed that ill-fated day in a hidden corner.
* * * * *
On a hill-side above the town of Kâbul there lies a garden planted long years ago by a man who loved his world.
Thither a new world comes to make holiday. The man himself has gone. As the white marble slab that looks up into the cloudless sky says shortly:
"Heaven is the Eternal Home of the Emperor Babar."
But his spirit remains in the endless Spring of leaf and flower, in the happy vitality of the Children who still lay flowers to cover the words of hope.
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1]: The Persian name for the Great Bear.