The Old Man and the Moon

In Need Of A Good Night Sleep had not slept for many years; his
future looked as bleak as an endless prairie.

"I miss my dreams," he said to the moon. "You have stolen them from me,
and for that I cannot forgive you."

Usually the moon paid little attention to the tirades of the tired old
warrior. It looked upon the old man as the wind looks upon a feather --
with a curious indifference to his helplessness. But that night the
moon lost his patience

"Tell me this, "the moon said. "Was it I who spilled the blood of a
thousand enemy warriors? Was it I who burned their homes while the
children lay sleeping? Your dreams departed with the spirits of a
thousand dead souls. Shame is the thief, old man."

The old one balked at the moon's insolence and decided he would paddle
his canoe around the lake.

Not wishing to be seen by the old man, the moon shielded itself behind
a wandering cloud.

"It is I who could use the sleep," the moon said. "He tires me."

The old man grew fearful of the sudden darkness and stopped
paddling.

"You are a thief and a coward!" he shouted at the moon. "Now I have
nothing."

Legend has it that the old man then flooded his canoe with a million
tears of remorse and sank to the bottom of the lake.

"That would not surprise me," the moon said. "Not at all."