"Nothing is left of the dead but earth. Can you refute this wisdom?
--Perhaps I can.
-And how will you do it, hero boy?
--By the legend of my life, with which I refute all sophistries. By a myth of homecoming and a myth of resurrection.
Come back to Raintree County, wandering child. Remember the great deaths and the great homecomings. Come back, and bring a sprig of lilac. For you will always be on trains and coming home, and the legend that recalled you from the City will always be tingling along the wires of the Republic. Come back to Raintree County and find your home again. And you will find again the sphinxlike silence of the earth. Knock hard, young hero, on the gates of death.
Listen to the wail of the train at the crossing. This is the myth of America and of those who cross America on trains. This is the myth of those who come back home.
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