And swinging there by the neck, there fell away old sneers from off
his lips, and scoffs that he had long since scoffed at God fell from
his tongue, and there rotted old bad lusts out of his heart, and
from his fingers the stains of deeds that were evil; and they all
fell to the ground and grew there in pallid rings and clusters. And
when these ill things had all fallen away, Tom's soul was clean
again, as his early love had found it, a long while since in spring;
and it swung up there in the wind with the bones of Tom, and with
his old torn coat and rusty chains.

And the wind blew and blew.

And ever and anon the souls of the sepultured, coming from
consecrated acres, would go by beating up wind to Paradise past the
Gallows Tree and past the soul of Tom, that might not go free.

Night after night Tom watched the sheep upon the downs with empty
hollow sockets, till his dead hair grew and covered his poor dead
face, and hid the shame of it from the sheep. And the wind blew and
blew.

Sometimes on gusts of the wind came someone's tears, and beat and
beat against the iron chains, but could not rust them through.
And the wind blew and blew.

And every evening all the thoughts that Tom had ever uttered came
flocking in from doing their work in the world, the work that may
not cease, and sat along the gallows branches and chirrupped to the
soul of Tom, the soul that might not go free. All the thoughts that
he had ever uttered! And the evil thoughts rebuked the soul that