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18 - Baron Trump's Marvellous Underground Journey · Classic Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter eighteen, Early History of the Pseudopsies, as related by Beryl Brow.
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  How they were driven to take refuge in the underworld, and how they came
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  upon the Marble Highway, their discovery of natural gas, which yields them light
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  and warmth, and of nature's magnificent treasure house, how they replaced their tattered
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  garments and began to build the city of silver, the strange misfortunes that came
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  upon them, and how they rose superior to them, terrible as they were.
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  And no doubt, dear friends, you would be glad to hear something
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  about the early history of the Pseudopsys. Who they were, where they came
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  from, and how they happened to find their way down into the world within
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  a world. At least, this was the way I felt after I had
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  been presented to the learned Barrel Brow. And so the next time I called
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  upon him, I waited patiently for him to finish reading the four books in
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  front of him, and then I said, be pleased, dear master,
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  to tell me something concerning the early history of thy people, and to explain
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  to me how they came to make their way down into this underground world ages
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  and ages ago. Wrote the learned barrel Brow. My people lived upon the
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  shores of a beautiful land, with a vast ocean to the north of it,
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  and in those days they had the same senses as the other people of
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  the upper world. It was a very fair land, indeed, so fair
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  that, in the words of the ancient chronicles, the sun looked in vain
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  for a farer. Its rivers were deep and broad, its plains were rich
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  and fertile, and its mountains stored full of silver and gold, and copper
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  and tin. And so easily mined were these metals that our people became famous
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  as metal workers, so deaft in their workmanship, that the other nations from
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  far and near came to us for swords and shields, and spear heads,
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  and suits of armor, and table service, and armlets and bracelets, and
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  above all for lamps, most gloriously chased and carved to hang in their palaces
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  and temples. And so we were very happy, until one terrible day the
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  great round world gave a twist, and we were turned away from the sun,
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  so that its rays went slantingly over our heads and gave us no warmth.
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  Oh me I could weep, now, exclaimed the learned barrel brow.
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  After all these centuries, when I think of the cruel fate that overtook my
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  people, in a few months, the whole face of our fair land was
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  covered with ice and snow, and our cattle dyed, and many of our
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  people too, before they could weave thick cloth to keep their delicate bodies from
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  the pinching cold. But this was not all. The great blue ocean,
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  which had until then dashed its warm waves and white foam up against our shores,
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  now breathe its icy breath full upon us, driving us into our cellars
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  to escape its fury. And in a few brief months, to our horror,
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  there came drifting down upon us fields and mountains of ice, which the
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  tempestuous waters cast up against our shores with deafening crash. To remain there meant
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  death, swift and terrible. So the command was given to abandon homes and
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  firesides and escape to the southward, And this most of them did. But
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  it so happened that several hundred families belonging to the metal working guilds, who
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  knew the underground passages to the mines as foresters know, the trackless wood,
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  had taken refuge in the vast underground caverns, with all the goods they could
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  carry, poor deluded creatures, They thought that this sudden coming of the winter
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  blast, of the blinding snow and vast floating fields of ice, was but
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  a freak of nature, and that in a few months the old warmth and
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  the old sunshine would come back again. Alas months went by, and their
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  supply of food was almost exhausted, and the entrances to the mines were closed
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  by gigantic blocks of ice, cemented into one great mass by the snow which
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  the gray clouds had sifted down upon them, there was now no escape that
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  way. Their only hope was to make their way underground to some portal to
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  the upper world. So, with lighted torches, but with hearts plunged in
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  the darkness of despair, they kept on their way, when one day or
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  one night, they knew not which their leaders, suddenly came upon a broad
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  street of marble, opened by nature's own hands. It was skirted by a
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  softly flowing river that swarmed with fish in scales and shells in skin. And
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  here are people halted to eat and drink and rest. And while one of
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  their number was striking his flint on one occasion to make a fire to cook
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  a meal. To his surprise and delight, a tongue of flame darted up
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  from the rocky floor and continued to burn, giving light and warmth to them.
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  As they had brought their tools, their drills and chisels, and files
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  and gravers and blowpipes with them in their carts and wagons, they made haste
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  to fit a pipe to this opening in the rock and set up a cluster
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  of lights with food and water and warmth and light. Their hearts grew lighter,
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  especially as they soon discovered that in many of the vast caverns, gigantic
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  mushrooms grew in the wildest profusion. The wisest of them continued, the learned
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  barrel brow at once made up their minds that there must be reservoirs of this
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  gas farther along on this beautiful marble highway. So day by day they pushed
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  farther into this world within a world, halting every now and then to set
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  up a light house, as they called it. After advancing several leagues,
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  the exploring party, upon lighting a cluster of gas jets, were stricken,
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  almost speechless with wonder at finding themselves upon the very sill of a tower portal,
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  opening into a succession of vast chambers, some with flat ceiling, some
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  arched, some domed, upon the floors and walls of which lay and hung
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  inexhaustible quantities of pure silver. Those magnificent caverns were, in reality nature's vast
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  storehouses of the glorious white metal. And our people made haste to set up
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  clusters of gas jets here and there so that they might view the wondrous treasure
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  house. Here they determined to remain, for here was food and water and
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  never failing supplies, and here they would have light and warmth. And here
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  they could forget their miseries by working at their calling, using the precious metal
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  with lavish hand to build them living chambers and to fashion the thousand and one
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  things necessary for every day life. So great was their delight as metal workers
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  to come upon this exhaustless supply of pure silver, that they could hardly sleep
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  until they had set up clusters of gas jets throughout these vast caverns. For
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  no doubt, little Baron thou hast already guessed that this is the spot I
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  am telling me of that right here it was where our people halted to build
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  the city of silver. But one thought troubled them, and that was where
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  to find needful clothing, for the old was fast falling into shreds and tatters,
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  When to their delight they came upon a bed of mineral wool. With
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  this they managed to weave some claw, although it was rather stiff and harsh,
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  yet it was better than none. While exploring a new cavern one day,
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  one of my wise ancestors saw a large night moth alike near him,
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  and, gently loosening some of its eggs, he carried them home, more
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  as a curiosity than aught else. Imagine how rejoiced he was, however,
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  to see one of the worms, which hatched out, set to work spinning
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  a cocoon of silk half as big as his fist. There was great feasting
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  and merrymaking among our people upon hearing of this glad news, And it was
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  not very long before many a silver shuttle was rattling in a silver loom,
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  and the soft bodies of our people were warmly and comfortably clad. Now long
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  periods of time went by, which cut up into your months, would have
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  made many many years. Our people had everything but sunlight, and this,
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  of course those who were born in the underworld knew nothing about, and therefore
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  did not miss. But as was to be expected, great changes gradually took
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  place in our people. To their inexpressible grief, they noticed that as they
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  busied themselves beautifying their new homes by erecting arches and bridges and terraces, and
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  lining them with glorious candelabra and statues, all in cast and rot or hammered
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  silver, their sight was gradually failing them, and that in not a very
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  great length of time they should be totally blind. This result, little Baron,
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  continued, the learned barrel brow was very natural, for the sense of
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  sight was in reality created for sunlight. For as thou no doubt knowest all
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  the fish that swim in our rivers have no eyes, having no need of
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  them, it happened just as they had expected. In a few generations more,
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  our people discovered that their eyes could no longer see things as thou dost,
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  but yet they could feel them if they were not too far away,
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  just as I can feel thy presence now, and tell where thou sittest,
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  and how tall thou art, and how broad thou art, and whether thou
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  movest right or left, forward or backward. But I cannot tell exactly how
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  thou art made until I reach out and touch thee Then I know all,
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  yes, far better than thou canst know. For our sense of feeling is
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  keener than thy so called sight. One off, my people can feel a
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  grain or roughness upon a silver mirror, which to thy eyes seems smoother than
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  glass. Well strange to relate, and yet not strange. Our ancestors,
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  with the going out of their sense of sight, also felt their sense of
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  hearing on the wain, our ears, as thou callest them, having nothing
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  more to listen to. For eternal silence, as thou knowest, reigns in
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  this underworld, became as useless to us as the tail of the polywog would
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  be to the full grown frog. And of course, with the loss of
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  our sense of hearing, our children were soon unable to learn to talk,
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  and in a certain lapse of time we came to merit fulwell our new name
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  of former folk or aunt people, for we were now blind and death and
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  numb. It is long, very very long, Little Baron continued the learned
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  pseudopsy, since all recollection of sunlight, of color, of sound dyed out
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  of our minds. To day. My people don't even know the names of
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  these things, and thou wouldst have as much chance of success. Wert thou
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  to attempt to tell them what light or sound is as thou wouldst have it.
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  Thou shouldst try to explain to a savage that there is nothing under the
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  world to hold it up, and yet it doesn't fall. But if thou
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  shouldst delay several pieces of metal in a row and ask one of my people
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  to tell thee what they were, he would try the weight of each,
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  and feel its grain carefully, possibly smell them or touch his tongue to them,
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  and then he would make answer that this is gold, this is silver,
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  that is copper, that is lead, that is tin, that is
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  iron. But thou wouldst say they are all differently colored. Canst not perceive
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  that I know not what thou meanest by color? He would reply, But
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  mark me. Now, I hide them all beneath this silken handkerchief, and
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  still, by touching them with my finger tips, I can tell which metal
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  each one is. If thou canst do it, then art thou as good
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  a man as I what sayest now, little Baron, asked the learned barrel
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  Brow, while his face was wreathed in a smile of triumph. Dost think
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  thou wouldst be as good a man as this Pseudopsy? Nay, indeed I
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  do not, wise, master, wrote I upon my silver tablet, and
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  I thank THEE for all thou hast told me and taught me. And I
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  ask leave o beryl Brow, to come again and converse with THEE that thou
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  mayest. Little Baron graced the learned Pseudopsy upon his silver tablet, and then
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  as I turned to leave his chamber, he reached quickly after me and touched
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  me with a bent forefinger, which meant return thy pardon, Little Baron,
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  he wrote, But thou art leaving my study without thy faithful Bulgar? Am
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  I not right? I was astounded, For indeed he was right. And
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  though without the sense of sight, he had seen more than I with two
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  good eyes wide open, there lay Bulger, fast asleep on a silken covered
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  hassock. Our silent conversation had so worried him that he had sailed off into
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  the land of Nod on the wings of a dream. He hung his head
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  and looked very shamefaced when my call aroused him, and he discovered that I
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  had actually reached the doorway without his knowing it. End of Chapter eighteen.