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004 - The Elusive Companion of Parson White · Tales of the Long Bow

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Speaker 1: Chapter four of Tales of the Longbow. This is a
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Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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Speaker 1: Recording by Olivia Tales of the Longbow by G. K. Chesterton,
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Speaker 1: Chapter four, The Elusive Companion of Parson White. In the
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Speaker 1: Scriptures and the Chronicles of the League of the Longbow
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Speaker 1: or Fellowship of Foolish Persons Doing Impossible Things, it is
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Speaker 1: recorded that Owen Hood, the lawyer, and his friend Crane,
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Speaker 1: the retired colonel, were partaking one afternoon of a sort
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Speaker 1: of picnic on the river island that had been the
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Speaker 1: first scene of a certain romantic incident in the life
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Speaker 1: of the former. The burden of reading about which has
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Speaker 1: fallen upon other readers in other days, suffice it to
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Speaker 1: say that the island had been devoted by mister Hood
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Speaker 1: to his hobby of angling, and that the meal then
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Speaker 1: in progress was a somewhat early interruption of the same
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Speaker 1: leisurely pursuit. The two old cronies had a third companion, who,
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Speaker 1: though considerably younger, was not only a companion but a friend.
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Speaker 1: He was a light haired, lively young man, with rather
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Speaker 1: a wild eye, known by the name of Pierce, whose
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Speaker 1: wedding to the daughter of the Innkeeper of the Blue
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Speaker 1: Boar the others had only recently attended. He was an
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Speaker 1: aviator and given to many other forms of skylarking. The
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Speaker 1: two older men had eccentric tastes of their own, but
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Speaker 1: there is always a difference between the eccentricity of an
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Speaker 1: elderly man who defies the world and the enthusiasm of
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Speaker 1: a younger man who hopes to alter it. The old
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Speaker 1: gentleman may be willing in a sense to stand on
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Speaker 1: his head, but he does not hope, as the boy does,
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Speaker 1: to stand the world on its head. With a young
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Speaker 1: man like Hillary Pierce, it was the world itself that
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Speaker 1: was to be turned upside down, and that was a
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Speaker 1: game at which his more grizzled companions could only look
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Speaker 1: on as at a child they loved playing with a
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Speaker 1: big colored balloon. Perhaps it was this sense of a
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Speaker 1: division by time, altering the tone, though not the fact
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Speaker 1: of friendship, which sent the mind of one of the
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Speaker 1: older men back to the memory of an older friend.
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Speaker 1: He remembered he had had a letter that morning from
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Speaker 1: the only contemporary of his who could fitly have made
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Speaker 1: a fourth to their party. Owen Hood drew the letter
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Speaker 1: from his pocket with a smile that wrinkled his long, humorous,
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Speaker 1: cadaverous face. By the way, I forgot to tell you,
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Speaker 1: he said, I had a letter from White yesterday. The
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Speaker 1: bronzed visage of the colonel was also seamed with the
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Speaker 1: external signs of a soundless chuckle. Read it, yet, he asked, Yes,
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Speaker 1: replied the lawyer. The hieroglyphic was attacked with fresh vigor
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Speaker 1: after breakfast this morning, and the clouds and mysteries of
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Speaker 1: yesterday's laborious hours seemed to be rolled away. Some portions
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Speaker 1: of the cuneiform still wait in expert translation, but the
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Speaker 1: sentences themselves appear to be in the original English. Very
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Speaker 1: original English, snorted Colonel Crane. Yes, our friend is an
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Speaker 1: original character, replied Hood. Vanity tempts me to hint that
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Speaker 1: he is our friend because he has an original taste
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Speaker 1: in friends. That habit of his of putting the pronoun
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Speaker 1: on the first page and the noun on the next
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Speaker 1: has brightened many winter evenings for me. You haven't met
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Speaker 1: our friend White, have you, he added to Pierce. That
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Speaker 1: is a shock that still threatens you. Why what's the
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Speaker 1: matter with him, inquired Pierce. Nothing observed. Crane, in his
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Speaker 1: more staccato style, has a taste for starting a letter
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Speaker 1: with yours truly and ending it with dear sir, that's
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Speaker 1: all I should rather like to hear that letter, observed
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Speaker 1: the young man, So you shall answered, hood. There's nothing
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Speaker 1: confidential in it, and if there were, you wouldn't find
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Speaker 1: it out merely by reading it. The Reverend Wilding White,
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Speaker 1: called by some of his critics wild White, is one
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Speaker 1: of those country parsons to be found in corners of
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Speaker 1: the English countryside, of whom their old college friends usually
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Speaker 1: think in order to wonder what the devil their parishioners
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Speaker 1: think of them. As a matter of fact, my dear Hilary,
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Speaker 1: he was rather like you when he was your age,
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Speaker 1: And what in the world you would be like as
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Speaker 1: vicar in the Church of England aged fifty at first
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Speaker 1: stagger the imagination. But the problem might be solved by
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Speaker 1: supposing you'd be like him. But I only hope you
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Speaker 1: will have a more lucid style in letter writing. The
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Speaker 1: old boy is always in such a state of excitement
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Speaker 1: about something that it comes out anyhow. It has been
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Speaker 1: said elsewhere that these tales are, in some sense of
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Speaker 1: necessity told tale. Foremost, and certainly, the letter of the
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Speaker 1: Reverend Wilding White was a document suited to such a
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Speaker 1: scheme of narrative. It was written in what had once
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Speaker 1: been a good handwriting of the boulder sort, but which
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Speaker 1: had degenerated through excessive energy and haste, into an illegible scrawl.
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Speaker 1: It appeared to run as follows, quote, my dear Owen,
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Speaker 1: my mind is quite made up. Though I know the
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Speaker 1: sort of legal, long winded things you will say against it.
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Speaker 1: I know especially one thing a leathery old lawyer like
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Speaker 1: you is bound to say. But as a matter of fact,
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Speaker 1: even you can't say it in a case like this,
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Speaker 1: because the timber came from the other end of the
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Speaker 1: county and had nothing whatever to do with him or
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Speaker 1: any of his flunkies and syncophants. Besides, I did tell
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Speaker 1: it all myself, with a little assistance I'll tell you
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Speaker 1: about later, And even in these days, I should be
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Speaker 1: surprised to hear that sort of assistance could be anything
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Speaker 1: but a man's own affair. I defy you and all
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Speaker 1: your parchments to maintain that it comes under the game laws,
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Speaker 1: you won't mind me talking like this. I know jolly
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Speaker 1: well you'd think you were acting as a friend. But
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Speaker 1: I think the time has come to speak plainly end quote.
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Speaker 1: Quite right, said the colonel. Yes, said young Pierce, with
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Speaker 1: a rather vague expression. I'm glad he feels that the
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Speaker 1: time has come to speak plainly. Quite so, observed the
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Speaker 1: lawyer dryly. He continues as follows quote. I've got a
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Speaker 1: lot to tell you about the new arrangement, which works
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Speaker 1: much better even than I hoped. I was afraid at
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Speaker 1: first it would really be an encumbrance, as you know
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Speaker 1: it's always supposed to be. But there are more things
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Speaker 1: and all the rest of it, and God fulfills himself
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Speaker 1: and so on and so on. It gives one quite
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Speaker 1: a weird asiatic feelings sometimes. End quote. Yes, said the colonel.
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Speaker 1: It does, what does, asked Pierce, sitting up suddenly like
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Speaker 1: one who can bear no more. You are not used
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Speaker 1: to the epistolary method, said Hood indulgently. You haven't got
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Speaker 1: into the swing of the style. It goes on quote.
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Speaker 1: Of course he's a big pot down here, and all
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Speaker 1: sorts of skunks are afraid of him and pretend to
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Speaker 1: Boycott me. Nobody could expect anything else of those Pineapple people.
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Speaker 1: But I confess I was surprised at Parkinson. Sally, of
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Speaker 1: course is as sound as ever, but she goes to
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Speaker 1: Scotland a good deal and you can't blame her. Sometimes
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Speaker 1: I'm left pretty severely alone, but I'm not downhearted. You'll
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Speaker 1: probably laugh if I tell you that Snowdrop is a
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Speaker 1: really very intelligent companion. I confess I am long past laughter,
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Speaker 1: said Hilary Peers sadly. But I rather wish I knew
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Speaker 1: whose Snowdrop is. M child, I suppose, said the colonel shortly. Yes,
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Speaker 1: I suppose it must be a child, said Pierce. Has
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Speaker 1: he any children? No, said the colonel Bachelor. I believe
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Speaker 1: he was in love with a lady in those parts
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Speaker 1: and never married. In consequence, said Hood. I'd be quite
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Speaker 1: on the lines of fiction and film drama if Snowdrop
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Speaker 1: were the daughter of the lady when she had married another.
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Speaker 1: But there seems to be something more about Snowdrop. That
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Speaker 1: little sunbeam in the house quote. Snowdrop tries to enter
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Speaker 1: into our ways, as they always do, But of course
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Speaker 1: it would be a little awkward if she played tricks.
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Speaker 1: How alarmed. They would all be if she took it
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Speaker 1: into her head to walk about on two legs like
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Speaker 1: everybody else. End quote. Nonsense, ejaculated Colonel Crane. Can't be
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Speaker 1: a child talking about it walking about on two legs,
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Speaker 1: after all, said Pierce, thoughtfully, A little girl does walk
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Speaker 1: about on two legs, bit startling if she walked about
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Speaker 1: on three, said Crane. If my learned brother will allow me,
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Speaker 1: said Hood in his forensic manner, would he describe the
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Speaker 1: fact of a little girl walking on two legs as alarming?
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Speaker 1: A little girl is always alarming, replied Pierce. I've come
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Speaker 1: to the conclusion myself, went on Hood, that snowdrop must
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Speaker 1: be a pony. It seems a likely enough name for
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Speaker 1: a pony. I thought at first it was a dog
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Speaker 1: or a cat, But alarming seems a wrong word, even
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Speaker 1: for a dog or a cat sitting up to bag.
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Speaker 1: But a pony on its hind legs might be a
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Speaker 1: little alarming, especially when you're writing it. Only I can't
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Speaker 1: fit this view in with the next sentence. Quote. I've
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Speaker 1: taught her to reach down the things I want end quote.
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Speaker 1: Lord cried Pierce. It's a monkey, that, replied Hood had
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Speaker 1: occurred to me as possibly explaining the weird Asiatic atmosphere.
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Speaker 1: But a monkey on two legs is even less unusual
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Speaker 1: than a dog on two legs. The reference to Asiatic
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Speaker 1: mystery seems really to refer to something else, and not
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Speaker 1: to any animal at all. For he ends up by
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Speaker 1: saying quote, I feel now as if my mind were
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Speaker 1: moving in much larger and more ancient spaces of time
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Speaker 1: or eternity, and as if what I thought at first
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Speaker 1: was an Oriental atmosphere was only an atmosphere of the orient,
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Speaker 1: in the sense of days, spring and the dawn. It
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Speaker 1: has nothing to do with the stagnant occultism of decayed
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Speaker 1: Indian cults. It is something that unites a real innocence
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Speaker 1: with the amensnsities, a power as of the mountains, with
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Speaker 1: the purity of snow. This vision does not violate my
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Speaker 1: own religion, but rather reinforces it. But I cannot help
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Speaker 1: feeling that I have larger views. I hope, in two senses,
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Speaker 1: to preach liberty in these parts, so I may live
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Speaker 1: to falsify the proverb. After all that added hood folding
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Speaker 1: up the letter is the only sentence in the whole
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Speaker 1: thing that conveys anything to my mind, as it happens,
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Speaker 1: we have all three of us lived to falsify proverbs.
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Speaker 1: Hillary Peers had risen to his feet with the restless
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Speaker 1: action that went best with his alert figure. Yes, he said,
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Speaker 1: I suppose we can all three of us say we
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Speaker 1: have lived for adventures, or had some curious ones anyhow,
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Speaker 1: And to tell you the truth, the adventure feeling has
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Speaker 1: come on me very strong this very minute. Have got
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Speaker 1: the detective fever about this parson of yours. I should
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Speaker 1: like to get at the meaning of that letter, as
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Speaker 1: if it were a cipher about buried treasure. Then he added,
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Speaker 1: more gravely, and if, as I gather, your clerical friend
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Speaker 1: is really a friend and worth having, I do seriously
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Speaker 1: advise you to keep an eye on him. Just now.
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Speaker 1: Writing letters upside down is all very well, and I
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Speaker 1: shouldn't be alarmed about that. Lots of people think they've
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Speaker 1: explained things in previous letters they never wrote. I don't
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Speaker 1: think it matters whose snowdrop is, or what sort of
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Speaker 1: children or animals he chooses to be fond of. That's
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Speaker 1: all being eccentric in the good old English fashion, like
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Speaker 1: poetical Tinkers and mad Squire's you're both of you eccentric
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Speaker 1: in that same sort of way, and it's one of
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Speaker 1: the things I like about you. But just because I
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Speaker 1: naturally knock about more among the new people, I see
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Speaker 1: something of the new eccentricities, and believe me, they're not
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Speaker 1: half so nice as the old ones. I'm a student
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Speaker 1: of scientific aviation, which is a new thing itself, and
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Speaker 1: I like it. But there's a sort of spiritual aviation
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Speaker 1: that I don't like at all. Sorry, observed Crane, really
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Speaker 1: no notion of what you're talking about. Of course you
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Speaker 1: haven't answered Pierce with engaging candor. There's another thing I
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Speaker 1: like about you, But I don't like the way your
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Speaker 1: clerical friend talks about new visions and larger religions and
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Speaker 1: light and liberty from the east. I've heard a good
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Speaker 1: many people talk like that, and they were Mount Banks,
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Speaker 1: or the dupes of Mount Banks. And I'll tell you
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Speaker 1: another thing. It's a long shot, even with a long bow.
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Speaker 1: We used to talk about. It's a pretty wild guess,
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Speaker 1: even in this rather wild business. But I have a
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Speaker 1: creepy sort of feeling that if you went down to
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Speaker 1: his house and private parlor to see snowdrop, you'd be
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Speaker 1: surprised by what you saw. What should we see, asked
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Speaker 1: the colonel, staring You'd see nothing at all, replied the
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Speaker 1: young man. What on earth do you mean? I mean,
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Speaker 1: replied Pierce, that you'd find mister White talking to somebody
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Speaker 1: who didn't seem to be there. Hillary Pierce, fired by
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Speaker 1: his detective Fever, made a good many more inquiries about
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Speaker 1: the Reverend Wilding White, both of his two old friends
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Speaker 1: and elsewhere. One long conversation with owen Hood did indeed
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Speaker 1: put him in possession of the legal outline of certain
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Speaker 1: matters which might be said to throw a light on
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Speaker 1: some parts of the strange letter, and which might, in
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Speaker 1: time even be made to throw a light on the rest.
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Speaker 1: White was the vicar of a parish lying deep in
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Speaker 1: the western parts of Somershire, where the principal landowner was
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Speaker 1: a certain Lord Arlington, and in this case there had
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Speaker 1: been a quarrel between the squire and the parson of
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Speaker 1: a more revolutionary sort than is common in the case
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Speaker 1: of parsons. The clergyman intensely resented that irony or anomaly
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Speaker 1: which has caused so much discontent among tenants in Ireland
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Speaker 1: and throughout the world. The fact that improvements or constructive
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Speaker 1: work actually done by the tenant only passed into the
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Speaker 1: possession of the landlord. He had considerably improved a house
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Speaker 1: that he himself rented from the squire, but in some
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Speaker 1: kind of crisis of defiance or renunciation, he had quitted
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Speaker 1: this more official residence, bag and baggage, and built himself
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Speaker 1: a sort of wooden lodge or bungalow on a small
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Speaker 1: hill or mound that rose amid the woods on the
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Speaker 1: extreme edge of the same grounds. This quarrel about the
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Speaker 1: claim of the tenant to his own work was evidently
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Speaker 1: the meaning of certain phrases in the letter, such as
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Speaker 1: the timber coming from the other end of the county,
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Speaker 1: the sort of work being a man's own affair, and
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Speaker 1: the general allusion to somebody's flunkies or sycophants who attempted
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Speaker 1: to boycott the discontented tenant. But it was not quite
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Speaker 1: clear whether the allusions to a new arrangement and how
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Speaker 1: it worked referred to the bungalow or to the other
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Speaker 1: and more elusive mystery of the presence of snowdrop. One
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Speaker 1: phrase in the letter he found to have been repeated
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Speaker 1: in many places and to many persons without becoming altogether
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Speaker 1: clear in the process. It was a sentence that ran quote.
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Speaker 1: I was afraid at first it would really be an encumbrance.
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Speaker 1: As you know, it's always supposed to be end quote.
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Speaker 1: Both Colonel Crane and Owen Hood, and also several other
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Speaker 1: persons whom he met later in his investigations, were agreed
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Speaker 1: in saying that mister White had used some expression indicating
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Speaker 1: that he had entangled himself with something troublesome or at
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Speaker 1: least useless, something that he did not want. None of
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Speaker 1: them could remember the exact words he had used, but
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Speaker 1: all could state in general terms that it referred to
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Speaker 1: some sort of negative nuisance or barren responsibility. This could
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Speaker 1: hardly refer to Snowdrop, of whom he always wrote in
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Speaker 1: terms of tenderness, as if she were a baby or
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Speaker 1: a kitten. Seemed hard to believe that it could refer
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Speaker 1: to the house he had built entirely to suit himself.
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Speaker 1: It seemed as if there must be some third thing
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Speaker 1: in his muddled existence, which loomed vaguely in the background
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Speaker 1: through the vapor of his confused correspondence. Colonel Crane snapped
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Speaker 1: his fingers with a mild irritation and trying to recall
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Speaker 1: a trifle. He said it was a you know, I've
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Speaker 1: forgotten the word a botheration or embarrassment. But he's always
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Speaker 1: in a state of botheration and embarrassment. I didn't tell you,
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Speaker 1: by the way, that I had a letter from him too,
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Speaker 1: came the day after I heard yours, shorter and perhaps
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Speaker 1: a little plainer, and he handed the letter to Hood,
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Speaker 1: who read it out slowly. I never knew the old
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Speaker 1: British populace here an avalon itself, could be so broken
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Speaker 1: down by squires and sneaking lawyers. Nobody dared help me
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Speaker 1: move my house again, said it was illegal, and they
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Speaker 1: were afraid of the police. But Snowdrop helped, and we
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Speaker 1: carted it all away in two or three journeys, took
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Speaker 1: it right clean, ey the old fool's land altogether. This time,
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Speaker 1: I fancy the old fool will have to admit there
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Speaker 1: are things in this world he wasn't prepared to believe in.
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Speaker 1: But look here, began Hood, as if impulsively, and then
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Speaker 1: stopped and spoke more slowly and carefully. I don't understand this.
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Speaker 1: I think it's extremely odd. I don't mean odd for
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Speaker 1: an ordinary person. But odd for an odd person. Odd
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Speaker 1: for this odd person. I know whit better than either
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Speaker 1: of you can, and I can tell you that though
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Speaker 1: he tells a tale anyhow, the tale is always true.
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Speaker 1: He's rather precise and pedantic when you do come to
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Speaker 1: the facts, these litiguous quarrelsome people often are. He would
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Speaker 1: do extraordinary things, but he wouldn't make them out more
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Speaker 1: extraordinary than they were. I mean, he's the sort of
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Speaker 1: man who might break all the squire's windows, but he
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Speaker 1: wouldn't say he'd broken six when he'd broken five. I've
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Speaker 1: always found, when I got to the meaning of these
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Speaker 1: mad letters that it was quite true. But how can
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Speaker 1: this be true? How could Snowdrop, whatever she is, have
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Speaker 1: moved a whole house or old white either. I suppose
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Speaker 1: you know what I think, said Pierce. I told you
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Speaker 1: that Snowdrop, whatever else she is, is invisible. I'm certain
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Speaker 1: your friend has gone spiritualist, and snowdrop is the name
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Speaker 1: of a spirit or a control, or whatever they call it.
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Speaker 1: The spirit would say, of course, that it was mere
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Speaker 1: child's play to throw the house from one end of
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Speaker 1: the county to the other. But if this unfortunate gentleman
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Speaker 1: believes himself to have been thrown house and all in
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Speaker 1: that fashion. I'm very much afraid he's begun really to
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Speaker 1: suffer from delusions. The faces of the two older men
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Speaker 1: looked suddenly much older. Perhaps for the first time they
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Speaker 1: looked old. The young man, seeing their dolorous expression, was
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Speaker 1: warmed and fired to speak quickly. Look here, he said, hastily.
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Speaker 1: I'll go down there myself and find out what I
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Speaker 1: can for you. I'll go this afternoon train journey takes ages,
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Speaker 1: said the colonel, shaking his head. Other end of nowhere,
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Speaker 1: told me yourself, you had an appointment at the Air
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Speaker 1: Ministry tomorrow. Down there in no time, replied Piers, cheerfully.
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Speaker 1: I'll fly down. And there was something in the lightness
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Speaker 1: and youth of his vanishing gesture that seemed really like
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Speaker 1: Icarus spurning the earth, the first man to mount upon wings.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps this literally flying figure shown them more vividly in
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Speaker 1: their memories, because when they saw it again, it was,
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Speaker 1: in a subtle sense changed. When the other two next
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Speaker 1: saw Hillary Pierce on the steps of the Air Ministry,
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Speaker 1: they were conscious that his manner was a little quieter,
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Speaker 1: but his wild eye rather wilder than usual. They adjourned
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Speaker 1: to a neighboring restaurant and talked of trivialities while luncheon
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Speaker 1: was served. But the colonel, who was a keen observer,
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Speaker 1: was sure that Pierce had suffered some sort of a shock,
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Speaker 1: or at least some sort of check. While they were
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Speaker 1: considering what to say, Pierce himself said, abruptly, staring at
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Speaker 1: the mustard pot on the table, what do you think
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Speaker 1: about spirits? Never touch em? Said the colonel sound port.
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Speaker 1: Never heard anybody, I mean, the other sort, said Pierce,
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Speaker 1: things like ghosts and all that. I don't know, said Owen.
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Speaker 1: The Greek for it is agnosticism, the Latin for it
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Speaker 1: is ignorance. But have you really been dealing with ghosts
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Speaker 1: and spirits down at poor White's parsonage? I don't know,
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Speaker 1: said Pierce gravely. You don't mean you really think you
18:13
Speaker 1: saw something? Cried Hood Sharply. The hair goes the agnostic,
18:17
Speaker 1: said Pierce, with a rather weary smile. The minute the
18:20
Speaker 1: agnostic hears a bit of real agnosticism, he shrieks out
18:24
Speaker 1: that it's superstition. I say, I don't know whether it
18:27
Speaker 1: was a spirit. I also say I don't know what
18:29
Speaker 1: the devil else it was if it wasn't in plain words,
18:33
Speaker 1: I went down to that place convinced that poor White
18:35
Speaker 1: had got some sort of delusions. Now I wonder whether
18:38
Speaker 1: it's I that have got the delusions. He paused a moment,
18:41
Speaker 1: and then went on in a more collected manner. But
18:44
Speaker 1: I'd better tell you about it to begin with. I
18:46
Speaker 1: don't admit it as an explanation, but it's only fair
18:49
Speaker 1: to allow, for it is a fact that all that
18:52
Speaker 1: part of the world seems to be full of that
18:53
Speaker 1: sort of thing. You know how the glamor of Glastonbury
18:57
Speaker 1: lies over all that land, and the lost whom of
18:59
Speaker 1: King Arthur, and the time when he shall return, and
19:02
Speaker 1: the prophecies of Merlin, and all the rest. To begin with,
19:06
Speaker 1: the village they call Ponder's End ought to be called
19:08
Speaker 1: World's end. It gives one the impression of being somewhere
19:12
Speaker 1: west of the sunset. And then the parsonage is quite
19:15
Speaker 1: a long way west of the parish, in large neglected
19:17
Speaker 1: grounds fading into pathless woods and hills. I mean the
19:21
Speaker 1: old empty rectory that our wild friend has evacuated. It
19:24
Speaker 1: stood there, a cold, empty shell of flat classical architecture,
19:28
Speaker 1: as hollow as one of those classical temples they used
19:31
Speaker 1: to stick up in country seats. But White must have
19:34
Speaker 1: done some sort of parish work there, for I found
19:36
Speaker 1: a great big empty shed on the grounds, the sort
19:39
Speaker 1: of thing that's used for a school room or drill
19:41
Speaker 1: hall or what not. But not a sign of him
19:44
Speaker 1: or his work can be seen there. Now I've said
19:46
Speaker 1: it's a long way west of the village that you
19:48
Speaker 1: come at last to the old house. Well, it's a
19:51
Speaker 1: long way west of that that you come to the
19:53
Speaker 1: new house, if you come to it at all. As
19:56
Speaker 1: for me, I came, and I came not as in
19:59
Speaker 1: some old middle of Merlin, but you shall hear. I
20:03
Speaker 1: had come down about sunset in a meadow near Ponder's End,
20:07
Speaker 1: and I did the rest of the journey on foot,
20:09
Speaker 1: for I wanted to see things in detail. This was
20:11
Speaker 1: already difficult, as it was growing dusk, and I began
20:13
Speaker 1: to fear that I should find nothing of importance before nightfall.
20:17
Speaker 1: I'd ask a question of one or two of the
20:18
Speaker 1: villagers about the vicar and his new self made vicarage.
20:21
Speaker 1: They were very reticent about the former, but I gathered
20:24
Speaker 1: to the latter stood on the extreme edge of his
20:26
Speaker 1: original grounds. On a hill rising out of a thicket
20:29
Speaker 1: of wood. In the increasing darkness, it was difficult to
20:32
Speaker 1: find the place, but I came on it at last,
20:35
Speaker 1: In a place where a fringe of forest ran along
20:37
Speaker 1: under the low brow of a line of rugged cliffs,
20:40
Speaker 1: such as sometimes break the curves of the great Downlands,
20:43
Speaker 1: I seemed to be descending a thickly wooded slope, with
20:46
Speaker 1: the sea of tree tops below me. And out of
20:48
Speaker 1: all that sea, like an island, rose the dome of
20:51
Speaker 1: the isolated hill, and I could see faintly the building
20:54
Speaker 1: on it, darker against the dark clouded sky. For a moment,
20:58
Speaker 1: a faint line of light from the masked moon showed
21:00
Speaker 1: me a little more of its shape, which seemed singularly
21:03
Speaker 1: simple and airy in its design. Against that pallid gleam
21:07
Speaker 1: stood four strong columns, with the bulk of the building
21:09
Speaker 1: apparently lifted above them. But it produced a queer impression,
21:14
Speaker 1: as if this Christian priest had built for his final
21:16
Speaker 1: home a heathen temple of the winds. As I leaned
21:20
Speaker 1: forward peering at it, I overbalanced myself and slid rapidly
21:24
Speaker 1: down the steep thicket into the darkest end trails of
21:26
Speaker 1: the wood. From there I could see nothing of the
21:29
Speaker 1: pillared house, or temple, or whatever it was on the hill.
21:32
Speaker 1: The thick woods had swallowed me up literally like a sea,
21:35
Speaker 1: and I groped from what must have been nearly half
21:37
Speaker 1: an hour amid tangled roots and low branches in that
21:41
Speaker 1: double darkness of night and shadow, before I found my
21:43
Speaker 1: feet slipping on the opposite slope and began to climb
21:46
Speaker 1: the hill on top of which the temple stood. It
21:49
Speaker 1: was very difficult climbing, of course, through the network of
21:51
Speaker 1: briars and branching trees, and it was some little time
21:54
Speaker 1: afterwards that I burst through the last screen of foliage
21:57
Speaker 1: and came out upon the bare hilltop. Yes, upon the
22:00
Speaker 1: bare hilltop. Rank grasses grew on it, and the wind
22:04
Speaker 1: blew them about like hair on a head. But for
22:06
Speaker 1: any trace of anything else, that green dome was as
22:09
Speaker 1: bare as a skull. There was no sign or shadow
22:12
Speaker 1: of the building I had seen there a little time before.
22:15
Speaker 1: It had vanished like a fairy palace. A broad track
22:18
Speaker 1: broken through the woods seemed to lead up to it,
22:20
Speaker 1: so far as I could make out in that obscurity,
22:23
Speaker 1: but there was no trace of the building to which
22:25
Speaker 1: it led, and when I saw that I gave up,
22:28
Speaker 1: something told me I should find out no more. Perhaps
22:31
Speaker 1: I had some shaken sense that there were things past
22:34
Speaker 1: finding out. I retraced my steps, descending the hill as
22:37
Speaker 1: best I might. But when I was again swallowed up
22:39
Speaker 1: on that leafy sea, something happened that, for an instant
22:43
Speaker 1: turned me cold as stone. And unearthly noise like long
22:48
Speaker 1: hooting laughter rang out in vast volume over the forest
22:51
Speaker 1: and rose to the stars. It was no noise to
22:54
Speaker 1: which I could put a name. It was certainly no
22:56
Speaker 1: noise I had ever heard before. It bore some sort
22:59
Speaker 1: of resemblance, yet to the neighing of a horse, immensely magnified.
23:03
Speaker 1: Yet it might have been half human. And there was
23:05
Speaker 1: triumph in it and derision. I will tell you one
23:08
Speaker 1: more thing I larnt before I left those parts. I
23:11
Speaker 1: left them at once, partly because I really had an
23:13
Speaker 1: appointment early this morning, as I told you. Partly also,
23:17
Speaker 1: I think because I felt you had the right to
23:19
Speaker 1: know at once what sort of things were to be faced.
23:22
Speaker 1: I was alarmed when I thought your friend was tormented
23:25
Speaker 1: with imaginary bogies. I am not less alarmed if he
23:28
Speaker 1: got mixed up with real ones. Anyhow, before I left
23:32
Speaker 1: that village, I had told one man what I had seen,
23:34
Speaker 1: and he told me he had seen it also, but
23:37
Speaker 1: he had seen it actually moving in dusk, turning to dark,
23:41
Speaker 1: the whole great house with its high columns, moving across
23:44
Speaker 1: the fields like a great ship sailing on the land.
23:48
Speaker 1: Owen Hood sat up suddenly with awakened eyes and struck
23:51
Speaker 1: the table. Look here, he cried, with a new ring
23:54
Speaker 1: in his voice. We must all go down to Ponder's
23:56
Speaker 1: end and bring this business to a finish. Do you
23:59
Speaker 1: think you'll bring it to a finish, ask Pierce gloomily,
24:02
Speaker 1: or can you tell what sort of a finish? Yes,
24:05
Speaker 1: replied Hood resolutely. I think I can finish it, and
24:09
Speaker 1: I think I know what the finish will be. The
24:11
Speaker 1: truth is, my friend, I think I understand the whole
24:14
Speaker 1: thing now, as I told you before. Wild and White,
24:17
Speaker 1: so far as being deluded by imaginary bogies, is a
24:20
Speaker 1: gentleman very exact in his statements in this matter. He
24:23
Speaker 1: has been very exact. That has been the whole mystery
24:25
Speaker 1: about him, that he has been very much too exact.
24:29
Speaker 1: What on earth do you mean by that, ask Pierce,
24:32
Speaker 1: I mean, said the lawyer that I have suddenly remembered
24:35
Speaker 1: the phrase he used. It was very exact. It was
24:38
Speaker 1: dull literal truth. But I can be exact too. They
24:44
Speaker 1: found the village of Ponder's End in a condition as
24:47
Speaker 1: comically incongruous as could well be with the mystical experiences
24:51
Speaker 1: of mister Hillary Pearce. When we talk of such places
24:54
Speaker 1: as sleepy, we forget that they are very wide awake
24:57
Speaker 1: about their own affairs, and especially on their own festive occasions.
25:01
Speaker 1: Piccadilly Circus looks much the same on Christmas Day or
25:04
Speaker 1: any other, but the market place of a country town
25:07
Speaker 1: or village looks very different on the day of the fair.
25:09
Speaker 1: A bazaar, and Hilary Pierce, who had first come down
25:12
Speaker 1: there to find in a wood at midnight the riddle
25:15
Speaker 1: that he thought worthy of Merlin, came down the second
25:18
Speaker 1: time to find himself plunged suddenly into the middle of
25:21
Speaker 1: a bustling bathos of a jumble sale. It was one
25:24
Speaker 1: of those bazaars to provide bargains for the poor, at
25:27
Speaker 1: which all sorts of odds and ends are sold off,
25:30
Speaker 1: but it was treated as a sort of fate, and
25:32
Speaker 1: highly colored posters and handbills announced its nature. On every side.
25:37
Speaker 1: The bustle seemed to be dominated by a tall, dark
25:39
Speaker 1: lady of distinguished appearance, whom Owen Hood, rather to the
25:42
Speaker 1: surprise of his companions, hailed as an old acquaintance, and
25:46
Speaker 1: managed to draw a side for a private talk. She
25:49
Speaker 1: had appeared to have her hands full at the bazaar. Nevertheless,
25:52
Speaker 1: her talk with Hood was rather a long one. Pierce
25:55
Speaker 1: only heard the last words of it. Oh, he promised
25:57
Speaker 1: he was bringing something for the sale. I assure you
26:00
Speaker 1: he always keeps his word. All Hood said when he
26:04
Speaker 1: rejoined his companion was that's the lady White was going
26:07
Speaker 1: to marry. I think I know now why things went wrong,
26:11
Speaker 1: and I hope they may go right. But there seems
26:13
Speaker 1: to be another bother. You see that clump of clod
26:16
Speaker 1: hopping policemen over there, inspector and all. It seems they
26:20
Speaker 1: are waiting for White. Say he's broken the law in
26:23
Speaker 1: taking his house off the land, and that he has
26:25
Speaker 1: always eluded them. I hope there won't be a scene
26:28
Speaker 1: when he turns up. If this was mister Hood's hope,
26:32
Speaker 1: it was ill founded and destined to disappointment. A scene
26:36
Speaker 1: was but a faint description of what was in store
26:38
Speaker 1: for that hopeful gentleman. Within ten minutes, the greater part
26:42
Speaker 1: of the company were in a world in which the
26:44
Speaker 1: sun and moon seemed to have turned topsy turvy, and
26:47
Speaker 1: the last limit of unlikelihood had been reached. Pierce had
26:50
Speaker 1: imagined he was very near the limit of the imagination
26:53
Speaker 1: when he groped after the vanishing temple in the dark forest.
26:56
Speaker 1: But nothing he had seen in that darkness and solitude
26:59
Speaker 1: was so fantastic as what he next saw in broad daylight,
27:03
Speaker 1: in a crowd. At one extreme edge of the crowd,
27:06
Speaker 1: there was a sudden movement, a wave of recoil and
27:09
Speaker 1: wordless cries. The next moment it had swept like a
27:13
Speaker 1: wind over the whole populace, and hundreds of faces were
27:16
Speaker 1: turned in one direction, in the direction of the road
27:19
Speaker 1: that descended by a gradual slope towards the woods that
27:22
Speaker 1: fringed the vicarage grounds. Out of those woods at the
27:25
Speaker 1: foot of the hill had emerged something that might, from
27:28
Speaker 1: its size have been a large, light, gray omnibus. But
27:31
Speaker 1: it was not an omnibus. It scaled the slope so
27:35
Speaker 1: swiftly in great strides that it became instantly self evident
27:39
Speaker 1: what it was. It was an elephant, whose monstrous form
27:43
Speaker 1: was molded in gray and silver in the sunlight, and
27:47
Speaker 1: on whose back sat a very vigorous, middle aged gentleman
27:50
Speaker 1: in black clerical attire, with blanched hair and a rather
27:53
Speaker 1: fierce aquiline profile that glanced proudly to left and right.
27:58
Speaker 1: The police inspector managed to make one stepped forward, and
28:01
Speaker 1: then stood like a statue. The vicar, on his vast steed,
28:06
Speaker 1: sailed into the middle of the market place, as serenely
28:09
Speaker 1: as if he had been the master of a familiar circus.
28:12
Speaker 1: He pointed in triumph to one of the red and
28:14
Speaker 1: blue posters on the wall, which bore the traditional title
28:17
Speaker 1: of white Elephant sail. You see, I've kept my word,
28:22
Speaker 1: he said to the lady, in a loud, cheerful voice,
28:24
Speaker 1: I've brought a white elephant. The next moment, he had
28:27
Speaker 1: waved his hand hilariously in another direction, having caught sight
28:31
Speaker 1: of Hood and Crane in the crowd. Splendid of you
28:34
Speaker 1: to come, he called out. Only you were in the secret.
28:38
Speaker 1: I told you I'd got a white elephant, so he did,
28:42
Speaker 1: said Hood. Only it never occurred to us that the
28:44
Speaker 1: elephant was an elephant and not a metaphor. So that's
28:49
Speaker 1: what he meant by asiatic atmosphere and snow and mountains,
28:53
Speaker 1: and that's what the big shed was really for. Look here,
28:56
Speaker 1: said the inspector, recovering from his astonishment and breaking in
29:00
Speaker 1: on these felicitations. I don't understand all these games, but
29:03
Speaker 1: it's my business to ask a few questions. Sorry to
29:06
Speaker 1: say it, sir, but you've ignored our notifications and evaded
29:10
Speaker 1: our attempts to have I inquired, mister White brightly, have
29:14
Speaker 1: I really evaded you? Well? Well, perhaps I have an elephant?
29:18
Speaker 1: Is such a standing temptation to evasion, like evanescence, to
29:22
Speaker 1: fading away like a dew drop? Like a snowdrop, perhaps
29:26
Speaker 1: would be more appropriate. Come on, snowdrop. The last word
29:30
Speaker 1: came smartly, and he gave a smart smack to the
29:32
Speaker 1: huge head of the pacoderm. Before the inspector could move
29:36
Speaker 1: or anyone had realized what had happened, the whole bulk
29:39
Speaker 1: had pitched forward with a plunge like a cataract, and
29:42
Speaker 1: went in great whirling strides, the crowds scattering before it.
29:45
Speaker 1: The police had not come provided for elephants. Which are
29:48
Speaker 1: rare in those parts. Even if they had overtaken it
29:52
Speaker 1: on bicycles, they would have found it difficult to climb
29:54
Speaker 1: it on bicycles. Even if they had revolvers. They had
29:58
Speaker 1: omitted to conceal about their persons anything in the way
30:00
Speaker 1: of big game rifles. The White Monster vanished rapidly up
30:04
Speaker 1: the long white road, so rapidly that when it dwindled
30:07
Speaker 1: to a small object and disappeared, people could hardly believe
30:10
Speaker 1: that such a prodigy had ever been present, or that
30:13
Speaker 1: their eyes had not been momentarily bewitched. Only as it
30:16
Speaker 1: disappeared in the distance, Pierce heard once more the high
30:20
Speaker 1: nasal trumpeting noise, which, in the eclipse of night, had
30:23
Speaker 1: seemed to fill the forest with fear. It was at
30:27
Speaker 1: a subsequent meeting in London that Crane and Pierce had
30:29
Speaker 1: an opportunity of learning more or less the true story
30:32
Speaker 1: of the affair, in the form of another letter from
30:35
Speaker 1: the parson to the lawyer. Now that we know the secret,
30:38
Speaker 1: said Pierce cheerfully, even his account of it ought to
30:40
Speaker 1: be quite clear. H quite clear, Quite clear, replied Hood calmly.
30:47
Speaker 1: His letter begins, Dear Owen, I am really tremendously grateful
30:51
Speaker 1: in spite of all I used to say against leather
30:53
Speaker 1: and about horse hair. About what asked Pierce horsehair, said
30:58
Speaker 1: Hood with severity. He goes on quote. The truth is
31:02
Speaker 1: they thought they could do what they liked with me,
31:04
Speaker 1: because I always boasted that I hadn't got one and
31:06
Speaker 1: never wanted to have one. But when they found out
31:08
Speaker 1: I had got one, and I must say, a jolly
31:10
Speaker 1: good one. Of course, it was all quite different. Peers
31:14
Speaker 1: had his elbows on the table and his fingers thrust
31:17
Speaker 1: up into his loose yellow hair. He had rather the
31:19
Speaker 1: appearance of holding his head on. He was muttering to himself,
31:22
Speaker 1: very softly, like a schoolboy learning a lesson. He hadn't
31:26
Speaker 1: got one, but he didn't want one, and he hadn't
31:30
Speaker 1: got one, and he had a jolly good one one.
31:34
Speaker 1: What asked Crane irritably seems like a missing word competition.
31:38
Speaker 1: I've got the prize, observed Hood placidly. The missing word
31:42
Speaker 1: is solicitor. What he means is that the police took
31:45
Speaker 1: liberties with him because they knew he would not have
31:48
Speaker 1: a lawyer. And he is perfectly right, for when I
31:50
Speaker 1: took up the matter on his behalf. I soon found
31:53
Speaker 1: that they had put themselves on the wrong side of
31:55
Speaker 1: the law at least as much as he had. In short,
31:58
Speaker 1: I was able to extricate him from this police business,
32:01
Speaker 1: hence his hearty, if not lucid gratitude. But he goes
32:04
Speaker 1: on to talk about something rather more personal, and I
32:07
Speaker 1: think it really has been a rather interesting case, if
32:09
Speaker 1: he does not exactly shine as a narrator of it,
32:12
Speaker 1: as I dare say you noticed. I did know something
32:15
Speaker 1: of the lady whom our eccentric friend went courting years ago,
32:18
Speaker 1: rather in the spirit of Sir Roger de Koverley when
32:21
Speaker 1: he went courting the widow. She is a miss Julia Drake,
32:24
Speaker 1: daughter of a country gentleman. I hope you won't misunderstand
32:27
Speaker 1: me if I say that she is a rather formidable lady.
32:30
Speaker 1: She is really a thoroughly good sort. But that air
32:33
Speaker 1: of the black browed juno she has about her does
32:36
Speaker 1: correspond to some real qualities. She is one of those
32:39
Speaker 1: people who can manage big enterprises, and the bigger they are,
32:42
Speaker 1: the happier she is. When that sort of force functions
32:46
Speaker 1: within the limits of a village or small valley, the
32:48
Speaker 1: impact is sometimes rather overpowering. You saw her managing the
32:52
Speaker 1: white elephant's sale at Ponder's end. Well, if it had
32:55
Speaker 1: been literally an army of wild elephants, it would hardly
32:58
Speaker 1: have been on too large a scale or her tastes.
33:01
Speaker 1: In that sense, I may say that our friend's white
33:03
Speaker 1: elephant was not so much of a white elephant. I
33:07
Speaker 1: mean that in the sense that it was not so
33:08
Speaker 1: much of an irrelevancy, and hardly even a surprise. But
33:13
Speaker 1: in another way, it was a very great relief. You're
33:17
Speaker 1: getting nearly as obscure as he is remonstrated, Pierce, what's
33:20
Speaker 1: all this mysterious introduction leading up to what do you mean?
33:24
Speaker 1: I mean? Replied the lawyer. That experience has taught me
33:28
Speaker 1: a little secret about very practical public characters like that lady.
33:32
Speaker 1: It sounds a paradox, but those practical people are often
33:35
Speaker 1: more morbid than theoretical people. They are capable of acting,
33:39
Speaker 1: but they are also capable of brooding when they are
33:41
Speaker 1: not acting. Their very stoicism makes too sentimental a secret
33:45
Speaker 1: of their sentimentalism. They misunderstand those they love and make
33:49
Speaker 1: a mystery of the misunderstanding. They suffer in silence, a
33:53
Speaker 1: horrid habit. In short, they can do everything, but they
33:57
Speaker 1: don't know how to do nothing. Dearists, happy people who
34:01
Speaker 1: do nothing, like our friend Pierce. Look here, cried the
34:05
Speaker 1: indignant Pierce. I should like to know what the devil
34:07
Speaker 1: you mean. I've broken more law than you ever read
34:10
Speaker 1: in your life. If this psychological lecture is the new lucidity,
34:13
Speaker 1: give me mister White, oh very well, replied Hood. If
34:17
Speaker 1: you prefer his text to my exposition, he describes the
34:21
Speaker 1: same situation as follows quote. I ought to be grateful,
34:25
Speaker 1: being perfectly happy after all this muddle. I suppose one
34:28
Speaker 1: ought to be careful about nomenclature, But it never even
34:31
Speaker 1: occurred to me that her nose would be out of joint.
34:33
Speaker 1: Rather funny to be talking about noses, isn't it. For
34:36
Speaker 1: I suppose really it was her rival's nose that figured
34:39
Speaker 1: most prominently. Think of having a rival with a nose
34:41
Speaker 1: like that to turn up at you talk about a
34:44
Speaker 1: spire pointing to the stars, I think, said Crane, interposing
34:48
Speaker 1: mildly that it would be better if you resumed your
34:51
Speaker 1: duties as official interpreter. What was it you were going
34:54
Speaker 1: to say about the lady who brooded over misunderstandings I
34:58
Speaker 1: was going to say, replied the lawyer, that when I
35:00
Speaker 1: first came upon that crowd in the village and I
35:03
Speaker 1: saw that tall figure and dark, strong face dominating it
35:06
Speaker 1: in the old way, my mind went back to a
35:08
Speaker 1: score of things I remembered about her in the past.
35:11
Speaker 1: Though we've not met for ten years, I knew from
35:13
Speaker 1: the first glimpse of her face that she had been
35:15
Speaker 1: worrying in a powerful, secretive sort of way, worrying about
35:19
Speaker 1: something she didn't understand and would not inquire about. I remember,
35:23
Speaker 1: long ago, when she was an ordinary fox hunting squire's daughter,
35:27
Speaker 1: and how White was one of Sidney Smith's wild curates,
35:30
Speaker 1: how she sulked for two months over a mistake about
35:33
Speaker 1: a postcard that could have been explained in two minutes.
35:36
Speaker 1: At least, it could have been explained by anybody except White.
35:39
Speaker 1: But you will understand that if he tried to explain
35:42
Speaker 1: the postcard on another postcard, the results may not have
35:45
Speaker 1: been luminous, let alone radiant. But what has all this
35:48
Speaker 1: to do with noses, inquired Pierce. Don't you understand, yet,
35:53
Speaker 1: asked could with a smile. Don't you know who is
35:55
Speaker 1: the rival with the long nose. He paused a moment,
35:59
Speaker 1: and then continued. It occurred to me as soon as
36:01
Speaker 1: I had guessed at the nature of the nose, which
36:03
Speaker 1: may certainly be called the main feature of the story,
36:06
Speaker 1: an elusive, flexible and insinuating nose, the serpent of their eden. Well,
36:13
Speaker 1: they seem to have returned to their eden now, and
36:15
Speaker 1: I have no doubt it will be all right, For
36:17
Speaker 1: it is when people are separated that these sorts of
36:19
Speaker 1: secrets spring up between them. After all, it was a
36:23
Speaker 1: mystery to us, we cannot be surprised if it was
36:25
Speaker 1: a mystery to her. A good deal of this is
36:28
Speaker 1: still rather a mystery to me, remarked Pierce, though I
36:31
Speaker 1: admit it is getting a little clearer. You mean that
36:34
Speaker 1: the point that has just been cleared up, the point
36:37
Speaker 1: about snowdrop, replied Hood. We thought of a pony, and
36:40
Speaker 1: a monkey, and a baby, and a good many other
36:43
Speaker 1: things that snowdrop might possibly be, But we never thought
36:46
Speaker 1: of the interpretation which was the first to occur to
36:49
Speaker 1: the lady. There was a silence, and then Crane laughed
36:53
Speaker 1: in an eternal fashion. Well I don't blame her, he said,
36:56
Speaker 1: One could hardly expect a lady of any delicacy to
36:59
Speaker 1: de elephant. It's an extraordinary business when you come to
37:03
Speaker 1: think of it, said Pierce. Where on earth did he
37:06
Speaker 1: get the elephant? He says something about that too, said Hood.
37:11
Speaker 1: Referring to the letter, he says, quote, I may be
37:14
Speaker 1: a quarrelsome fellow, but quarrels sometimes do good. And though
37:17
Speaker 1: it wasn't actually one of Captain Pierce's caravans, no hang
37:21
Speaker 1: it all, cried Pierce. This is really too much to
37:25
Speaker 1: see one's own name entangled in such hieroglyphics. It reminds
37:28
Speaker 1: me of seeing it in a Dutch paper during the
37:30
Speaker 1: war and wondering whether all the other words were terms
37:32
Speaker 1: of abuse. I think I can explain, answered Hood patiently.
37:36
Speaker 1: I assure you the rever gentleman is not taking liberties
37:39
Speaker 1: with your name in a merely irresponsible spirit. As I
37:42
Speaker 1: told you before, He is strictly truthful. When you get
37:44
Speaker 1: to the facts, though they may be difficult to get
37:47
Speaker 1: at curiously enough, there really is a connection. I sometimes
37:51
Speaker 1: think there is a connection beyond coincidence, running through all
37:54
Speaker 1: our adventures, a purpose in these unconscious practical jokes. It
37:58
Speaker 1: seems rather eccentric to make friends with a white elephant.
38:01
Speaker 1: Rather eccentric to make friends with us, said the colonel.
38:05
Speaker 1: We are a set of white elephants. As a matter
38:07
Speaker 1: of fact, said the lawyer. This particular last prank of
38:11
Speaker 1: the parson really did arise out of the last prank
38:14
Speaker 1: of our friend Pierce. Me said, peers, in surprise, Have
38:17
Speaker 1: I been producing elephants without knowing it? Yes, replied Hood.
38:21
Speaker 1: You remember when you were smuggling pigs in defiance of
38:24
Speaker 1: the regulation you indulged, I regret to say, in a
38:27
Speaker 1: deception of putting them in cages and pretending you were
38:30
Speaker 1: traveling with a menagerie of dangerous animals. The consequence was,
38:34
Speaker 1: you remember that the authorities forbade menageries altogether. Our friend
38:38
Speaker 1: White took up the case of a traveling circus being
38:40
Speaker 1: stopped in his town as a case of gross oppression,
38:43
Speaker 1: and when they had to break it up, he took
38:45
Speaker 1: over it the elephant sort of a small payment for
38:47
Speaker 1: his services, I suppose, said Crane, curious idea taking a
38:51
Speaker 1: tip in the form of an elephant. He might not
38:54
Speaker 1: have done it if he'd known what it involved, said Hood.
38:57
Speaker 1: As I say, he was a quarrelsome fellow, with all
39:00
Speaker 1: his good points. There was a silence, and then Pierce said,
39:04
Speaker 1: in an amusing manner, it's odd it should be the sequel
39:06
Speaker 1: of my Little pig adventure, a sort of reversal of
39:09
Speaker 1: the parturient montes. I put in a little pig, and
39:12
Speaker 1: it brought forth an elephant. It will bring forth more monsters. Yet,
39:16
Speaker 1: said owen Hood, we have not seen all the sequels
39:19
Speaker 1: of your adventures as a swineherd attaching the other monsters,
39:22
Speaker 1: or monstrous events so produced. The reader has already been warned,
39:26
Speaker 1: nay threatened, that they are involved in the narrative called
39:29
Speaker 1: the exclusive Luxury of enoch Oats, And for the moment
39:33
Speaker 1: the threat must hang like thunder in the air. End
39:37
Speaker 1: of Chapter four recording by Olivia