The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Her master, the wizard old, has gone for the night

So at last the girl can test the powers of her might

On the wand laid to rest she lays her hands

So that the spirits do as she them commands

The girl speaks her magic, and so the wand’s orb glows

The girl smiles contently as to the tomb a sparkle flows

There lay the dead, once well at rest

But now they’ll become part of this test

As sparkles sprinkle in the wizard’s old mill

A deafening noise delivers a chill

The dead have come to live again, but dissolved soon her fear

She sees their dead eyes lurking, and ‘tis her clear

For when they bow before her, deeply, in the old wizard’s mill

She knows she’s succeeded, that they’ll do her will

And finish the chores that she was to start

But came to find them for herself too hard.

“Slowly the mill’s wheels grind

Slowly the river’s stream flows

And now I find

That my power grows

The bones must be crushed

To magic dust

And these servants dead

Will do so, they must.”

As many a hand makes heavy work light

The dead are ordered to turn tonight

The old mill’s wheel, so that it to dust

The bones it grinds and thus so they are crushed

The dust they collect and bring to the dray

Standing outside near the ghost town’s quay

Then they pull the cart to the black tower

Stapling the sacks as they would flour

Then they return to the mill, where the girl fell to sleep

Pleased with herself as her slaves creep

But too quickly an end has come to the work

They’ve done the job so quickly, the wheel runs berserk

Her slaves have increased their output, and as they crept

They’ve turned the stock empty, thus nothing could’ve kept

The cogwheels from squeaking—they’re so wildly turning

That the stream’s water turns, too, to mad churning

“Quickly the mill’s wheels grind

Quickly the river’s stream flows

And now that I find

That my power grows

They’ve crushed the bones

To magic dust

Now I must stop them,

Stop them I must!”

The orb glows still, the sparkles still sparkling

Yet fear now becomes this little darkling

As she hastens to find the proper spell

To stop them from doing their job done so well

Yet now she fails, she cannot find

The spell to change her minion’s minds

So to the axe she turns instead

And fiercely she cuts off their lifeless heads

Therewith the threesome finally at rest

The girl understands she failed her own test

Now that she’s learned well from her mischief

She nevertheless feels some relief

That all played out well, that despite her failing

Her presence of mind allowed her prevailing.

“Slowly once more the mill’s wheels grind

Slowly again the river’s stream flows

And now I find

That despite that my power grows

I have much to learn still

Before I can turn to my will

The dead and alive, so I shall hide

My old master’s wand, I’ll put it aside.”

And so the girl once more turns to sleep

And she starts to dream so very deep

But in the darkness dead eyes now lurk

As the dead bodies return to their work

Once more they return to turn the wheel

Once more they return to their ordeal

But they have nothing to fill full to the brim

The dray empty they pull, humming their ghostly hymn

While the sound of the wheel turns oh so shrill

And so again the cogwheels they squeak

As the dead again their way they seek

Up into the tower and back down to the mill

Willing once more to do the girl’s will

But no bones turn to dust, and as sparkles spread

The girl wakes up, and sees the working dead

“Must again the mill’s wheels grind?

Must again the river’s stream so strongly flow?

Why do I find

That on they go?

Oh, Master, help me,

For I do not know how

I should end this calamity now!”

Now the girl tries to stop quickly her fiends

With the axe their work she intervenes

But this to no avail, and instead the dead

Take hold of her strongly by the hair on her head

As the girl screams, and tries to fight

For her freedom she finds that her plight

Will soon come to an end, as the dead throw

Her into the shaft and push her down below

Now the mill grinds no longer dead bones

But instead the girl, who screams and groans

First come the feet, then come the legs

Then the torso is crushed, and as the girl begs

For mercy, which the dead do not know

They take now her head, and slowly they go

Into the tomb, from whence they came

For now they and the girl are all the same

No longer alive, the girl yet still draws breath

As the dead carry her head into the depth

The game has now finally come to a close

As have the spirits, the river town’s ghosts

And when the old wizard returns to his home

He finds that he is now quite alone

And soon understands what has become

Of his young student and the wrong she has done.

“No longer grinds my dear old mill

The river’s stream has come to a still

Now that I find

My student’s dream

To ashes turned

To dust it has burned

Now I must find, and quickly so

A new apprentice—but where to go?”

And so the old wizard takes up his wand

And sets off once more to the upper land

There Ab’aham once more he finds

A child young still, and in disguise

He lures him away, from his father’s keep

And brings him to his home, where the rivers weep.