(set: $tryshlt to 0)
[]<strt|[cold]<cld|[]<cmn|
(click:?cld)[(replace:?strt)[A ](replace:?cmn)[ coming we had of it,]
Just the worst time of the year
For a [journey]<jrny|,(click:?jrny)[and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the [[camels]]
]]
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the [[lack of shelters]]
galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
[[regret]]A hard time we had of it.
Stay in cities (click-replace:'Stay in cities')[They are hostile]
Stay in towns (click-replace:'Stay in towns')[They are unfriendly]
Stay in villages (click-replace:'Stay in villages')[They are dirty, and charging high prices]
[[Travel all night]]At dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Look
(click:'Look')[
[At the running stream]<strm|
[At the sky]<sky|
[At the meadow]<mdw|
[Down the valley]<vlly|(click-replace:?strm)[and a water-mill beating the darkness,](click-replace:?sky)[three trees on the low sky,](click-replace:?mdw)[And an old white horse galloped away,](click-replace:?vlly)[Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation,(replace:?tvrn)[And ahead a [[tavern]] with vine leaves over the lintel.]]
[]<tvrn|
]
At the end we preferred to [[travel]] all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly. Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
[[Dice with them]]
[[Kick with them]]
(set: $d1 to (random: 1,6))
(set: $d2 to (random: 1,6))
We roll a $d1 and a $d2, (set:$sm to $d1+$d2) (if: $sm is 7 or $sm is 11)[but this meant nothing,](else:)[alas,]
And there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) [[satisfactory]].(set: $k1 to (random: 1,2))
(if: $k1 is 1)[We kick and miss. What is it doing here?
What are we doing here?
We found no reason, ](else:)[We have lost our taste for old wine,
]and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) [[satisfactory]].There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us.Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death. All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but [set down
This]<sdt|(click:?sdt)[ set ]
(click:?sdt)[ down](click:?sdt)[ [this:]<ths| ]
(click:?ths)[were we led all that way for
[[Birth]] or [[Death]]?]