THE PROPHET AND THE CHILD
Once on a day the prophet Sharia met a child in a garden. The child ran to him and said,
"Good morrow to you, Sir," and the prophet said, "Good morrow to you, Sir." And in a mo-
ment, "I see that you are alone."
Then the child said, in laughter and delight, "It took a long time to lose my nurse. She thinks I am
behind those hedges; but can't you see that I am here?" Then he gazed at the prophet's face and
spoke again. "You are alone, too. What did you do with your nurse?"
The prophet answered and said, "Ah, that is a different thing. In very truth I cannot lose her
oftentime. But now, when I came into this garden, she was seeking after me behind the hedges."
The child clapped his hands and cried out, "So you are like me! Isn't it good to be lost?"
And then he said, "Who are you?"
And the man answered, "They call me the prophet Sharia. And tell me, who are you?"
"I am only myself," said the child, "and my nurse is seeking after me, and she does not know
where I am."
Then the prophet gazed into space saying, "I too have escaped my nurse for awhile, but she
will find me out."
And the child said, "I know mine will find me out too."
At that moment a woman's voice was heard calling the child's name, "See," said the child, "I
told you she would be finding me."
And at the same moment another voice was heard, "Where art thou, Sharia?"
And the prophet said, "See my child, they have found me also."
And turning his face upward, Sharia answered, "Here I am."
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