Expectation

The parents were asleep, the tall old clock ticked monotonously, the wind sounded in the cracks in the window frames while the moon’s light from time to time fell into the room. The young man lay awake, feverishly thinking of the stories the stranger had told. It is not material treasures which I desire, he thought. But I do greatly desire to see the blue sailboat. I cannot stop thinking about it, it haunts me. I have never felt like this before; it is as if I had dreamed of the sailboat long ago, or had a vision of it in some other world. For who in this world would trouble himself so much about a blue sail?