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21 - The Flying Inn - GK Chesterton · Daily Classic Science Fiction Books

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty one, The Road to round About. Patrick Dolroy
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Speaker 1: looked at the invader with a heavy and yet humorous
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Speaker 1: expression and merely said, I didn't steal your car. Really
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Speaker 1: I didn't. Oh no, answered Dorian. I've heard all about
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Speaker 1: it since, And as you're rather the persecuted party, so
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Speaker 1: to speak, it wouldn't be fair not to tell you
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Speaker 1: that I don't agree much with Ivywood about all this.
0:26
Speaker 1: I disagree with him, or, rather, to speak medically, he
0:30
Speaker 1: disagrees with me. He has ever since. I woke up
0:34
Speaker 1: after an oyster supper and found myself in the House
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Speaker 1: of Commons with policemen calling out who goes home? Indeed,
0:42
Speaker 1: inquired Dolroy, drawing his red bushy eyebrows together. Do the
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Speaker 1: officials in Parliament say who goes home? Yes, answered Wimpole indifferently.
0:52
Speaker 1: It's a part of some old custom in the days
0:54
Speaker 1: when members of Parliament might be attacked in the street. Well,
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Speaker 1: inquired Patrick, in a rational tone. Why aren't they attacked
1:03
Speaker 1: in the street. There was a silence. It is a
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Speaker 1: holy mystery, said the captain at last, But who goes home?
1:12
Speaker 1: That is uncommonly good. The captain had received the poet
1:17
Speaker 1: into the car with all possible expressions of affability and satisfaction.
1:21
Speaker 1: But the poet, who was keen sighted enough about people
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Speaker 1: of his own sort, could not help thinking that the
1:27
Speaker 1: captain was a little absent minded. As they flew thundering
1:31
Speaker 1: through the mazes of South London, for Pump had crossed
1:34
Speaker 1: Westminster Bridge and was making for the Surrey Hills. The
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Speaker 1: big blue eyes of the big red haired man rolled
1:40
Speaker 1: perpetually up and down the streets, and after longer and
1:44
Speaker 1: longer silences, he found expression for his thoughts. Doesn't it
1:49
Speaker 1: strike you that there are a very large number of
1:51
Speaker 1: chemists in London nowadays? Are there? Asked Wimpole carelessly. Well,
1:57
Speaker 1: there certainly are two very close to each other just
1:59
Speaker 1: over there. Yes, and both the same name, replied Dolroy Crook,
2:05
Speaker 1: And I saw the same mister Krook chemicalizing round the corner.
2:09
Speaker 1: He seems to be a highly omnipresent deity. A large business,
2:14
Speaker 1: I suppose, observed Dorian Wimple, too large for its profits,
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Speaker 1: I should say, said Dolroy. What can people want with
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Speaker 1: two chemists of the same sort within a few yards
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Speaker 1: of each other? Do they put one leg into one
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Speaker 1: shop and one into the other and have their corns
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Speaker 1: done in both at once. Or do they take an
2:32
Speaker 1: acid in one shop and an alkali in the next
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Speaker 1: and wait for the fizz? Or do they take poison
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Speaker 1: in the first shop and the emetic in the second shop.
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Speaker 1: It seems like carrying delicacy too far. It almost amounts
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Speaker 1: to living a double life. But perhaps, said Dorian, he
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Speaker 1: is an uproariously popular chemist, this mister Krook. Perhaps there's
2:52
Speaker 1: a rush on some specialty of his. It seems to me,
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Speaker 1: said the captain, that there are certain limitations to such
2:59
Speaker 1: poppy larity in the case of a chemist. If a
3:02
Speaker 1: man sells very good tobacco, people may smoke more and
3:05
Speaker 1: more of it from sheer self indulgence. But I never
3:08
Speaker 1: heard of anybody exceeding in cod liver oil. Even castor oil,
3:12
Speaker 1: I should say, is regarded with respect rather than true affection.
3:18
Speaker 1: After a few minutes of silence, he said, is it
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Speaker 1: safe to stop here for an instant pump? I think so,
3:24
Speaker 1: replied Humphrey, if you'll promise me not to have any
3:27
Speaker 1: adventures in the shop. The motor car stopped before yet
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Speaker 1: a fourth arsenal of mister Crook and his pharmacy, and
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Speaker 1: Dolroy went in. Before Pump and his companion could exchange
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Speaker 1: a word, the captain came out again, with a curious
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Speaker 1: expression on his countenance, especially round the mouth. Mister Wimpole said, Dowry,
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Speaker 1: will you give us the pleasure of dining with us
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Speaker 1: this evening? Many would consider it an unceremonious invitation to
3:52
Speaker 1: an unconventional meal, and it may be necessary to eat
3:56
Speaker 1: it under a hedge or even up a tree. But
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Speaker 1: you are a man of taste, and one does not
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Speaker 1: apologize for Hump's rum or Hump's cheese. To persons of taste,
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Speaker 1: we will eat and drink of our best to night.
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Speaker 1: It is a banquet. I am not very certain whether
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Speaker 1: you and I are friends or enemies, but at least
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Speaker 1: there shall be peace to night, friends, I hope, said
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Speaker 1: the poet, smiling. But why peace, especially tonight, because there
4:20
Speaker 1: will be war tomorrow, answered Patrick Dolroy. Whichever side of
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Speaker 1: it you may be on, I have just made a
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Speaker 1: singular discovery. And he relapsed into his silence. As they
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Speaker 1: flew out of the fringe of London into the woods
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Speaker 1: and hills beyond Croydon. Dolroy remained in the same mood
4:37
Speaker 1: of brooding Dorian was brushed by the butterfly wing of
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Speaker 1: that fleeting slumber that will come on a man hurried
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Speaker 1: through the air after long lounging and hot drawing rooms.
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Speaker 1: Even the dog koodle was asleep at the bottom of
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Speaker 1: the car. As for Humphrey Pump, he very seldom talked
4:55
Speaker 1: when he had anything else to do. Thus it happened
4:58
Speaker 1: that long landscapes and perspectives were shot past them like
5:02
Speaker 1: suddenly shifted slides, and long stretches of time elapsed before
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Speaker 1: any of them spoke again. The sky was changing from
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Speaker 1: the pale golds and greens of evening to the burning
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Speaker 1: blue of a strong summer night, a night of strong stars.
5:19
Speaker 1: The walls of woodland that flew past them like long assagies,
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Speaker 1: were mostly at first of the fenced and park like sort,
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Speaker 1: endless oblong blocks of black pine wood shut in by
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Speaker 1: boxes of thin gray wood. But soon fences began to sink,
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Speaker 1: and pine woods to straggle, and roads to split and
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Speaker 1: even to sprawl. Half an hour later, Dolroy had begun
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Speaker 1: to realize something romantic and even faintly reminiscent in the
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Speaker 1: role of the country and Humphrey Pump had long known
5:51
Speaker 1: he was on the marshes of his native land. So
5:55
Speaker 1: far as the difference could be defined by a detail,
5:59
Speaker 1: it seemed to conceal not so much in the road
6:01
Speaker 1: rising as in the road perpetually winding. It was more
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Speaker 1: like a path, And even where it was abrupt or aimless,
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Speaker 1: it seemed the more alive. They appeared to be ascending
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Speaker 1: a big, dim hill that was built of a crowd
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Speaker 1: of little hills with rounded tops. It was like a
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Speaker 1: cluster of domes. Among these domes, the road climbed and
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Speaker 1: curled in multitudinous curves and angles. It was almost impossible
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Speaker 1: to believe that it could turn itself and round on
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Speaker 1: itself so often without tying itself in a knot and choking,
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Speaker 1: I say, said Dolroy, breaking the silence. Suddenly this car
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Speaker 1: will get giddy and fall down, perhaps, said Dorian, beaming
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Speaker 1: at him. My car, as you may have noticed, was
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Speaker 1: much steadier. Patrick laughed, but not without a shade of confusion.
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Speaker 1: I hope you got your car back all right, he said.
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Speaker 1: This is really nothing for speed, but it's an uncommonly
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Speaker 1: good little climber, and it seems to have some im
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Speaker 1: to do just now, and even more wandering. The roads
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Speaker 1: certainly seem to be very irregular, said Dorian reflectively. Well,
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Speaker 1: cried Patrick with a queer kind of impatience. You're English
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Speaker 1: and I'm not. You ought to know why the road
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Speaker 1: winds about like this? Why the Saint's deliver us, he cried.
7:20
Speaker 1: It's one of the wrongs of Ireland that she can't
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Speaker 1: understand England. England won't understand herself. England won't tell us
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Speaker 1: why these roads go wriggling about. Englishmen won't tell us.
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Speaker 1: You won't tell us. Don't be too sure, said Dorian,
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Speaker 1: with a quiet irony. Doalroy, with an irony far from quiet,
7:41
Speaker 1: emitted a loud yellow victory. Right, he shouted more songs
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Speaker 1: of the car club. We're all poets here. I hope
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Speaker 1: each shall write something about why the road jerks about
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Speaker 1: so much? So much as this, for example, he added,
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Speaker 1: as the whole vehicle nearly rolled over in a ditch.
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Speaker 1: For indeed, Pump appeared to be attacking such inclines as
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Speaker 1: are more suitable for a goat than a small motor car.
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Speaker 1: This may have been exaggerated in the emotions of his companions,
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Speaker 1: who had both for different reasons. Seen much of mere
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Speaker 1: flat country lately, the sensation was like a combination of
8:17
Speaker 1: trying to get into the middle of the maze at
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Speaker 1: Hampton Court and climbing the spiral staircase to the belfry
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Speaker 1: at Bruges. This is the right way to round about,
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Speaker 1: said Dolroy, cheerfully, charming place, salubrious spot. You can't miss it.
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Speaker 1: First to the left and right, and straight on round
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Speaker 1: the corner and back again. That'll do for my poem.
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Speaker 1: Get on, you slackers. Why aren't you writing your poems.
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Speaker 1: I'll try one if you like, said Dorian, treating his
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Speaker 1: flattered egotism lightly. But it's too dark to write, and
8:47
Speaker 1: getting darker. Indeed, they had come under a shadow between
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Speaker 1: them and the stars, like the brim of a giant's hat,
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Speaker 1: only through the holes and rents in which the summer
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Speaker 1: stars could now look down on them. The hill, like
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Speaker 1: a cluster of domes, though smooth and even bare in
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Speaker 1: its lower contours, was topped with a tangle of spanning
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Speaker 1: trees that sat above them like a bird brooding over
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Speaker 1: its nest. The wood was larger and vaguer than the
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Speaker 1: clump that is the crown of the hill at Chacktonbury,
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Speaker 1: but was rather like it and held much the same
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Speaker 1: high and romantic position. The next moment they were in
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Speaker 1: the wood itself and winding in and out among the
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Speaker 1: trees by a ribbon of paths. The emerald twilight between
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Speaker 1: the stems, combined with the dragon like contortions of the
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Speaker 1: great gray roots of the beeches, had a suggestion of
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Speaker 1: monsters in the deep sea, especially as a long litter
9:43
Speaker 1: of crimson and copper colored fungi, which might well have
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Speaker 1: been the more gorgeous types of aneenemone or jelly fish,
9:51
Speaker 1: reddened the ground like a sunset dropped from the sky.
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Speaker 1: And yet contradictorily enough, they had also a strong, long
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Speaker 1: sense of being high up and even near to heaven,
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Speaker 1: and the brilliant summer stars that stared through the chinks
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Speaker 1: of the leafy roof might almost have been white starry
10:10
Speaker 1: blossoms on the trees of the wood. But though they
10:15
Speaker 1: had entered the wood as if it were a house,
10:18
Speaker 1: their strongest sensation still was the rotatory. It seemed as
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Speaker 1: if that high green house went round and round like
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Speaker 1: a revolving lighthouse or the whiz gig temple in the
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Speaker 1: old pantomimes. The stars seemed to circle over their heads,
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Speaker 1: and Dorian felt almost certain he had seen the same
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Speaker 1: beech tree twice. At length, they came to a central place,
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Speaker 1: where the hill rose in a sort of cone in
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Speaker 1: the thick of its trees, lifting its trees with it.
10:46
Speaker 1: Here Pump stopped the car, and, clambering up the slope,
10:49
Speaker 1: came to the crawling colossal roots of a very large,
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Speaker 1: but very low beech tree. It spread out to the
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Speaker 1: four quarters of heaven, more in the manner of an
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Speaker 1: octopus than a tree, and within its low crown of
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Speaker 1: branches there was a kind of hollow like a cup,
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Speaker 1: into which mister Humphrey Pump of the old ship Pebblewick
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Speaker 1: suddenly and entirely disappeared. When he appeared, it was with
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Speaker 1: a kind of rope ladder, which he politely hung over
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Speaker 1: the side for his companions to ascend by, But the
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Speaker 1: captain preferred to swing himself on to one of the
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Speaker 1: octopine branches with a whirl of large wild legs worthy
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Speaker 1: of a chimpanzee. When they were established there, each propped
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Speaker 1: in the hollow against a branch, almost as comfortably as
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Speaker 1: in an arm chair. Humphrey himself descended once more and
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Speaker 1: began to take out their simple stores. The dog was
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Speaker 1: still asleep in the car. An old haunt of yours, Hump,
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Speaker 1: I suppose, said the captain. You seem quite at home.
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Speaker 1: I am at home, answered Pump with gravity at the
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Speaker 1: sign of the old ship, and he stuck the old
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Speaker 1: blue and red sign board erect among the toadstools, as
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Speaker 1: if inviting the passer by to climb the trees. For
12:00
Speaker 1: the tree just topped the mound or clump of trees,
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Speaker 1: and from it they could see the whole champagne of
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Speaker 1: the country they had passed, with the silver roads roaming
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Speaker 1: about in it like rivers. They were so exalted they
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Speaker 1: could almost fancy the stars would burn them. Those roads
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Speaker 1: remind me of the songs you've all promised, said Dolroy.
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Speaker 1: At last, let's have some supper, Hump, and then recite.
12:23
Speaker 1: Humphrey had hung one of the motor lanterns on to
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Speaker 1: a branch above him, and proceeded, by the light of
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Speaker 1: it to tap the keg of rum and hand round
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Speaker 1: the cheese. What an extraordinary thing, exclaimed Dorian Wimple. Suddenly,
12:35
Speaker 1: why I'm quite comfortable such a thing has never happened before.
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Speaker 1: I should imagine, and how holy this cheese tastes. It
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Speaker 1: has gone on a pilgrimage, answered Dolroy, or rather a crusade.
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Speaker 1: It's a heroic a fighting cheese, cheese of all cheeses,
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Speaker 1: cheeses of all the world. As my compatriot mister Yates
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Speaker 1: says to the something or other of battle, it's almost
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Speaker 1: impossible that this cheese can have come out of such
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Speaker 1: a coward as a cow I suppose, he added wistfully.
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Speaker 1: I suppose it wouldn't do to explain that in this
13:07
Speaker 1: case hump had milked the bowl that would be classed
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Speaker 1: by scientists among Irish legends, those that had the Celtic
13:14
Speaker 1: glamour and all that. No, I think this cheese must
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Speaker 1: have come from that dun cow of Dunsmore Heath, who
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Speaker 1: had horns bigger than elephant's tusks, and who was so
13:24
Speaker 1: ferocious that one of the greatest of the old heroes
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Speaker 1: of chivalry was required to do battle with it. The
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Speaker 1: rum's good too. I've earned this class of rum, earned
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Speaker 1: it by Christian humility. For nearly a month, I've lowered
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Speaker 1: myself to the beasts of the field and gone about
13:39
Speaker 1: on all fours like a teetotaler. Hump, circulate the bottle,
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Speaker 1: I mean the cask, and let us have some of
13:45
Speaker 1: this poetry you're so keen about. Each poem must have
13:48
Speaker 1: the same title. You know, it's a rattling good title.
13:52
Speaker 1: It's called an inquiry into the causes geological, historical, agricultural, psychological, psychical, moral, spiritual,
13:59
Speaker 1: in theological of the alleged cases of double, treble, quadruple
14:03
Speaker 1: and other curvature in the English Road, conducted by a
14:06
Speaker 1: specially appointed secret commission in a hole in a tree,
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Speaker 1: by admittedly judicious and academic authorities, specially appointed by themselves
14:14
Speaker 1: to report to the dog koodle, having power to add
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Speaker 1: to their number and also to take away the number
14:20
Speaker 1: they first thought of. God save the King. Having delivered
14:24
Speaker 1: this formula with blinding rapidity, he added, rather breathlessly, that's
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Speaker 1: the note to strike the lyric note. For all his
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Speaker 1: rather formless hilarity, Dolroy still impressed the poet as being
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Speaker 1: more distrait than the others, as if his mind were
14:39
Speaker 1: laboring with some bigger thing in the background. He was
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Speaker 1: in a sort of creative trance, and Humphrey Pump who
14:45
Speaker 1: knew him like his own soul, knew well that it
14:48
Speaker 1: was not mere literary creation. Rather, it was a kind
14:51
Speaker 1: of creation which many modern moralists would call destruction. For
14:55
Speaker 1: Patrick Dolroy was not a little, to his misfortune, what
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Speaker 1: is called a man of action, as Captain Dawson realized
15:02
Speaker 1: when he found his entire person of bright, pea green,
15:06
Speaker 1: fond as he was of jokes and rhymes. Nothing he
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Speaker 1: could write or even sing, ever, satisfied him like something
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Speaker 1: he could do. Thus it happened that his contribution to
15:15
Speaker 1: the metrical inquiry into the Crooked Roads was avowedly hasty
15:19
Speaker 1: and flippant, while Dorian, who was of the opposite temper,
15:23
Speaker 1: the temper that receives impressions instead of pushing out to
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Speaker 1: make them, found his artist's love of beauty fulfilled as
15:30
Speaker 1: it had never been before in that noble nest, and
15:33
Speaker 1: was far more serious and human than usual. Patrick's verses
15:37
Speaker 1: ran some say that the guy of Warwick, the man
15:40
Speaker 1: that killed the cow and brake the mighty boar alive
15:44
Speaker 1: beyond the bridge and slough, went up against a loathly
15:48
Speaker 1: worm that wasted all the downs, and so the roads
15:51
Speaker 1: they twist and squirm, if I may be allowed the
15:55
Speaker 1: term from the writhing of the stricken worm that died
15:59
Speaker 1: in seven towns. I see no scientific proof that this
16:03
Speaker 1: idea is sound, And I should say they wound about
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Speaker 1: to find the town of round About, the merry town
16:11
Speaker 1: of round About that makes the world go round. Some
16:15
Speaker 1: say that Robin Goodfellow, whose lantern lights the meads to
16:19
Speaker 1: steal a fray, Sir Walter Scott in heaven no longer
16:22
Speaker 1: needs such dance around the trysting place the moon struck
16:26
Speaker 1: lover leads, which superstition I should scout. There is more
16:30
Speaker 1: faith in honest doubt, as Tennyson has pointed out, than
16:34
Speaker 1: in those nasty creeds. But peace and righteousness Saint John
16:39
Speaker 1: in round About can kiss. And since that's all that's
16:43
Speaker 1: found about the pleasant town of round About, the roads
16:47
Speaker 1: they simply bound about to find out where it is.
16:52
Speaker 1: Some say that when Sir Launcelot went forth to find
16:56
Speaker 1: the grail, gray Merlin wrinkled up the roads for hope
17:00
Speaker 1: that he should fail. All roads led back to Lionesse
17:04
Speaker 1: and Camelot in the vale. I cannot yield assent to
17:08
Speaker 1: this extravagant hypothesis. The plain shrewd Britain will dismiss such
17:14
Speaker 1: rumors daily mail. But in the streets of Roundabout are
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Speaker 1: no such factions found, or theories to expound about or
17:23
Speaker 1: roll upon the ground about, in the happy town of
17:26
Speaker 1: Roundabout that makes the world go round. Patrick Dowroy relieved
17:32
Speaker 1: his feelings by finishing with a shout, draining a stiff
17:35
Speaker 1: glass of his sailor's wine, turning restlessly on his elbow,
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Speaker 1: and looking across the landscape toward London. Dori and Whimple
17:44
Speaker 1: had been drinking golden rum and strong starlight and the
17:47
Speaker 1: fragrance of forests, And though his verses, too were burlesque,
17:52
Speaker 1: he read them more emotionally than was his wont Before
17:56
Speaker 1: the Roman came to Rye, or out to Severn Strode
18:00
Speaker 1: the rolling English drunkard maid, the rolling English road, a
18:05
Speaker 1: reeling road, a rolling road that rambles round the shire.
18:10
Speaker 1: And after him the parson ran, the Sexton and the
18:13
Speaker 1: squire a merry road, a maazy road, and such as
18:17
Speaker 1: we did tread that night we went up Birmingham by
18:20
Speaker 1: way of Beechy Head. I knew no harm of Bonaparte,
18:25
Speaker 1: and plenty of the Squire, and for to fight the
18:28
Speaker 1: Frenchman I did not much desire, but I did bash
18:32
Speaker 1: their bagonets, because they came a raid to straighten out
18:36
Speaker 1: the crooked road an English drunkard maid where you and
18:40
Speaker 1: I went down the lane with ail mugs in our hands.
18:43
Speaker 1: The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin's Sands,
18:48
Speaker 1: his sins they were forgiven him? Or why do flowers
18:52
Speaker 1: run behind him? And the hedges all strengthening in the sun.
18:57
Speaker 1: The wild thing went from left to right, and noon
19:00
Speaker 1: which was which? But the wild rose was above him
19:03
Speaker 1: when they found him in the ditch. God, pardon us,
19:07
Speaker 1: nor hardness we did not see so clear the night
19:12
Speaker 1: we went to Fannockburn by way of Brighton Peer. My friends,
19:17
Speaker 1: we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
19:21
Speaker 1: or stretch the folly of our youth to be the
19:23
Speaker 1: shame of age. But walk with clearer eyes and ears
19:27
Speaker 1: this path that wandereth, and see undrugged in evening light,
19:32
Speaker 1: the decent inn of death. For there is good news
19:35
Speaker 1: yet to hear, and find things to be seen before
19:39
Speaker 1: we go to paradise by way of Kensal Green. Have
19:43
Speaker 1: you written one hump? Asked Dolroy Humphrey, who had been
19:47
Speaker 1: scribbling hard under the lamp, looked up with a dismal face. Yes,
19:52
Speaker 1: he said, but I write under a great disadvantage. You see,
19:56
Speaker 1: I know why the road curves about, and he read
19:59
Speaker 1: very rapidly. All on one note. The road turned first
20:03
Speaker 1: toward the left where Pinker's quarry made the cleft. The
20:06
Speaker 1: path turned next toward the right because the mastiff used
20:09
Speaker 1: to bite, then left because of slippery height, and then
20:12
Speaker 1: again toward the right. We could not take the left
20:15
Speaker 1: because it would have been against the loss. Squire closed
20:19
Speaker 1: it in King William's day because it was a right
20:21
Speaker 1: of way. Still right to dodge the ridge of chalk
20:24
Speaker 1: where Parson's ghost it used to walk till some one
20:28
Speaker 1: Parson used to know met him blind, drunk and callow.
20:31
Speaker 1: Then left a long way round to skirt the good land,
20:35
Speaker 1: where old Doggy Birt was owner of the Crown and Cup,
20:39
Speaker 1: and would not give his freehold up right, missing the
20:42
Speaker 1: old river bed. They tried to make him take instead right,
20:46
Speaker 1: since they say Sir Gregory went mad and let the
20:49
Speaker 1: gypsies be, and so they had their camp secure, and
20:53
Speaker 1: though not honest, they are poor, and that is something.
20:56
Speaker 1: Then along on first to right, No, I am wrong
21:00
Speaker 1: second to write, of course, the first is what the
21:03
Speaker 1: holy sisters cursed, and none defy their awful oaths, since
21:07
Speaker 1: the policeman lost his clothes because of fairies. Right again
21:13
Speaker 1: what used to be high Toby Lane, left by the
21:16
Speaker 1: double larch, and right until the milestone is in sight,
21:20
Speaker 1: because the road is firm and good from past the
21:23
Speaker 1: milestone to the wood. And I was told by doctor Lowe,
21:27
Speaker 1: whom mister Wimple's aunt would know, who lives at Oxford
21:31
Speaker 1: writing books, and ain't so silly as he looks. The
21:35
Speaker 1: Romans did that little bit, and weaved in all the
21:37
Speaker 1: rest of it, by which we hardly seemed to score. Left,
21:41
Speaker 1: and then forward as before, to where they nearly hanged
21:45
Speaker 1: Miss Brown, who told them not to cut her down,
21:48
Speaker 1: but loose the rope or let her swing, because it
21:51
Speaker 1: was a waste of string. Left once again by Hunker's cleft,
21:55
Speaker 1: and right beyond the elm, and left by Pills right
21:59
Speaker 1: by nine nicks ann left, No, no, no, hump, hump, hump,
22:05
Speaker 1: cried Dollroy in a sort of terror. Don't be exhaustive,
22:08
Speaker 1: don't be a scientist, hump, and lay waste fairyland. How
22:12
Speaker 1: long does it go on. Is there a lot more
22:14
Speaker 1: of it? Yes, said Pump in a stony manner. There
22:18
Speaker 1: is a lot more of it, and it's all true,
22:21
Speaker 1: inquired Dorian Wimpole with interest. Yes, replied Pump with a smile.
22:27
Speaker 1: It's all true, my complaint exactly, said the captain. What
22:31
Speaker 1: you want is legends. What you want is lies, especially
22:34
Speaker 1: at this time of night, and on rum like this,
22:37
Speaker 1: and on our first and our last holiday. What do
22:40
Speaker 1: you think about rum, he asked Wimpole, about this particular rum,
22:44
Speaker 1: in this particular tree, at this particular moment, answered Wimpole,
22:49
Speaker 1: I think it is the nectar of the younger gods.
22:52
Speaker 1: If you ask me in a general synthetic sense what
22:55
Speaker 1: I think of rum, well, I think it's rather rum.
22:58
Speaker 1: You find it a trifle sweet, I suppose, said Dowroy
23:02
Speaker 1: with some bitterness. Siberite, by the way, he said, abruptly,
23:06
Speaker 1: what a silly word. That word, Heedonist is the really
23:09
Speaker 1: self indulgent people generally like sour things and not sweet
23:13
Speaker 1: bitter things like caviare and curries or what not. It's
23:17
Speaker 1: the saints who liked the sweets. At least I've known
23:20
Speaker 1: at least five women who were practically saints, and they
23:23
Speaker 1: all preferred sweet champagne. Look here, wimpole, shall I tell
23:26
Speaker 1: you the ancient oral legend about the origin of rum.
23:30
Speaker 1: I told you what you wanted was legends. Be careful
23:33
Speaker 1: to preserve this one and hand it on to your children,
23:36
Speaker 1: for unfortunately my parents carelessly neglected the duty of handing
23:40
Speaker 1: it on to me. After the words A farmer had
23:43
Speaker 1: three sons, all that I owe to traditions ceases. But
23:48
Speaker 1: when the three boys last met in the village market place,
23:51
Speaker 1: they were all sucking sugar sticks. Nevertheless, they were all discontented,
23:56
Speaker 1: and on that day parted forever. One remained on as
23:59
Speaker 1: far's farm, hungering for his inheritance. One went up to
24:04
Speaker 1: London to seek his fortune, as fortunes are found to
24:07
Speaker 1: day in that town. Forgotten of God. The third ran
24:10
Speaker 1: away to sea, and the first two flung away their
24:13
Speaker 1: sugar sticks in shame. And he on the farm was
24:16
Speaker 1: always drinking smaller and sourer beer for the love of money.
24:20
Speaker 1: And he that was in town was always drinking richer
24:23
Speaker 1: and richer wines, that men might see that he was rich.
24:27
Speaker 1: But he who ran away to sea actually ran on
24:30
Speaker 1: board with the sugar stick in his mouth, and Saint Peter,
24:34
Speaker 1: or Saint Andrew, or whoever is the patron of men
24:37
Speaker 1: and boats, touched it and turned it into a fountain
24:40
Speaker 1: for the comfort of men upon the sea. That is
24:43
Speaker 1: the sailor's theory of the origin of rum. Inquiry addressed
24:47
Speaker 1: to any busy captain with a new crew in the
24:49
Speaker 1: act of shipping an unprecedented cargo, will elicit a sympathetic agreement.
24:55
Speaker 1: Your rum, at least, said Dorian Good humoredly, may well
24:59
Speaker 1: produce a fairy tale. But indeed, I think all this
25:02
Speaker 1: would have been a fairy tale without it. Patrick raised
25:05
Speaker 1: himself from his arboreal throne and leaned against his branch
25:08
Speaker 1: with a curious and sincere sense of being rebuked. Yours
25:12
Speaker 1: was a good poem, he said, with seeming irrelevance, and
25:15
Speaker 1: mine was a bad one. Mine was bad partly because
25:19
Speaker 1: I'm not a poet as you are, but almost as
25:21
Speaker 1: much because I was trying to make up another song
25:23
Speaker 1: at the same time, and it went to another tune.
25:26
Speaker 1: You see. He looked out over the rolling roads and said,
25:29
Speaker 1: almost to himself. In the city upon slime and loam,
25:34
Speaker 1: they cry in their parliament, who goes home. And there
25:37
Speaker 1: is no answer in arch or dome, for none in
25:40
Speaker 1: the city of graves goes home. Yet these shall perish,
25:44
Speaker 1: and understand, for God has pity on this great land. Men.
25:48
Speaker 1: That are men again? Who goes home? Tocsin and Trumpeter?
25:52
Speaker 1: Who goes home? For there's blood on the field, and
25:55
Speaker 1: blood on the foam, and blood on the body when
25:59
Speaker 1: man goes home? And a voice valedictory? Who is for victory?
26:04
Speaker 1: Who is for liberty? Who goes home? Softly and idly?
26:11
Speaker 1: As he had said this second rhyme, there were circumstances
26:14
Speaker 1: about his attitude that must have troubled or interested any
26:18
Speaker 1: one who did not know him. Well, May I ask,
26:21
Speaker 1: asked Dorian, laughing, why it is necessary to dry your
26:25
Speaker 1: sword at this stage of the affair, because we have
26:28
Speaker 1: left the place called roundabout, answered Patrick, And we have
26:32
Speaker 1: come to a place called right about. And he lifted
26:35
Speaker 1: his sword toward London, and the gray glint upon it
26:39
Speaker 1: came from a low gray light in the east. End
26:43
Speaker 1: of chapter twenty one,