“At that he smiled until his face shone so bright that I had to shut my eyes.
“‘Now I begin to believe, Brother John, that thou art as foolish as men say,’ said he. ‘Look, till I show thee.’ And thereat I opened mine eyes again.
“Then Angel Gabriel touched the dead branches with the flowery twig that he held in his hand, and there was the dead wood all covered with green leaves, and fair blossoms and beautiful apples as yellow as gold. Each smelling more sweetly than a garden of flowers, and better to the taste than white bread and honey.
“‘They are souls of the apples,’ said the good Angel, ‘and they can never wither and die.’
“‘Then I’ll tell the gardener that he shall not cut the tree down,’ said I.
“‘No, no,’ said the dear Gabriel, ‘that will never do, for if the tree is not cut down here on the earth, it can never be planted in paradise.’”
Here Brother John stopped short in his story, and began singing one of his crazy songs, as he gazed with his pale eyes far away into nothing at all.
“But tell me, Brother John,” said little Otto, in a hushed voice, “what else did the good Angel say to thee?”
Brother John stopped short in his song and began looking from right to left, and up and down, as though to gather his wits.
“So!” said he, “there was something else that he told me. Tschk! If I could but think now. Yes, good! This is it—‘Nothing that has lived,’ said he, ‘shall ever die, and nothing that has died shall ever live.’”