Thomas, King of Gnomes

  The two men talked and smoked into the night, John Whitmore of the Big People, and Thomas the Gnome, king of the Kingdom of Snail Rock. John found himself with less and less to say, as he was content to just listen to what the smaller man had to say. He would say things like, The texture of the clouds must fold in upon themselves before they can squeeze a drop of rain. He spoke with authority about the rhythm of life, and how things came to be, the order of it all. He spoke with a great reverence about the secret things of the forest, and it seemed to John that he was quite wise!
  Now he had a lessor understanding of the world of which John had come from, but John was not the first of the Big People that Thomas had entertained over the years? In fact, he must have also been quite old, because when he spoke of some others that he, Thomas had met, John got the impression that some had been people from long ago? He looked to be quite old, his face had deep crevices in it, and his skin was the texture and color of leather? He had a long white beard, and a soft misshapen hat covered most of his straggly looking hair. He was an impressive fellow John thought, even though he was so small in stature.
  John was at his ease now, and he knew that he would soon be asleep, as try as he might, he could not think of one detail that had not been taken care of? So Thomas he finally said, may I call you Thomas? Of course the Gnome replied, I had thought that you might have some questions, go ahead sir, and speak on! Well then Thomas, how is it that one so small as you were able to prepare my camp, did you do all this by yourself, where are all of your people? Of course I didn't do all of this by myself, why that would be quite silly to think that, wouldn't you agree? But before we go on, you have not yet told me your name sir? Oh yes, quite rude of me, please except my apology, my name is John, John Witmore. With this, John settled deeper back into his bedding, and took a long pull on his cigar and said, but please my good man, you were saying about your people?
  My people are all out in the forest, because it is at night that we tend to our gardens, mushrooms you see, grow better in the darkness. It took many of us to prepare your camp and tend to those huge horses, for you are of the Big People, and where it would take many of us to do this thing, it would only take very few of you. After we finished the preparations here, everyone went into the forest to tend to their crops, I stayed behind to wait for you to awaken.