Answer his questions.”
Hávamál.
Sound and deep were the Parson’s slumbers, complete and absolute was his state of unconsciousness. Noises there were in the camp, no doubt, noises of every description: eight or ten people without any particular occupation, without any reason whatever for keeping silence—rather the reverse,—are apt to be noisy. But it was all one to him, the Seven Sleepers themselves could not have slept more soundly; and the next four or five hours were to him as though they had not been. His first perception of sublunary matters was awakened by the words of a well known air, which at first mingled with his dreams, and then presented themselves to his waking senses:—
“O, never fear though rain be falling,—
O, never fear the thunder dire,—
O, never heed the wild wind’s calling,
But gather closer round the fire.
For thus it is, through storm and rain,
The weary midnight hours must wane,
Ere joyous morning comes again,