Latest / Children's Stories Collection / Parables From Nature Part 2 - Margaret Gatty

Transcript

Parables From Nature Part 2 - Margaret Gatty · Children's Stories Collection

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Came a little too much. He had only to run
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: off to a pool and take a bath, and then
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: was as fresh as ever in a minute. And now,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: just as the tide was at its lowest, where it
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: was likely to beat about for some time without much change,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: two other creatures appeared on the sands and approached the
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: very spot where the starfish lay in his distress, and
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: near which the crab was hid. Now there was a
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: ledge of rocks here which would have furnished seats for
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: dozens of human beings, and from the front of it
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: grew almost a forest of oreweed plants. What the creatures
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: were who came up to this place and stopped to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: observe it, I shall not say. But one of them
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: remarked to the other, Here again you see the same
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: old story as before, wasted life and wasted death, and
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: all within a few inches of each other. Useless lumbering
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: plants not seen half a dozen times in the year,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and helpless miserable sea creatures dying in health and strength.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: One doesn't know why. As the creature who spoke said this,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: it lifted up two or three tangle fronts with a
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: stick it carried in its hand, and then let them
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: flop suddenly down on the sand, after which it used
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the end of the same stick to chuck the unhappy
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: starfish into the air, who, tumbling by a lucky accident,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: under the shelter of the tangle, was hid for a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: time from sight. And so we go up, and so
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: we go down ourselves, continued the creature, A good many
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: of us, with no more end in life, and of
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: no more use that one can see than these vile,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: useless seaweeds, coming into the world, in fact, for no
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: earthly purpose, but to go out of it in some
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: such wretched manner as this, And here the creature kicked
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: three or four more stranded starfishes across the narrow sands,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: till he had fairly kicked them into the sea, muttering
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: as he did, so, what did you come into the world?
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: For?
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: I wander in you, in you, and.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: You purposeless life and purposeless death, the fate of thousands,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and I, for one, as useless as any of them,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: but at any rate, having the grace to acknowledge that
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: the world would get on quite as cleverly without me,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: as with where unto where, unto whereunto answer it? If
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you can, as the creature finished speaking. The two moved
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: on together, but what the companion answered was never exactly known,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: for though the voice sounded as if in dispute, what
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: was said was not heard by those who were left behind,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: for they began at once to chatter among themselves, and
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: first out popped the head of the crab from the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: crevice he had taken shelter in. And he cocked his
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: eyes knowingly, first to one side and then to the other,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and began to talk, For he had always plenty to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: say for himself, and was remarked arkably bold where there
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: was no danger. Miserable sea creatures was his first exclamation,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: repeating what the land creature had said. I suppose I
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: am included in that elegant compliment. I say, where are you,
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: old lilac legs? Have you contrived to crawl away?
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: After all?
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Come out of your corner or wherever you are for
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: a bit? Who was the creature that was talking such nonsense?
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Just now?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Only let me come across him, That's all, helpless sea creatures. Indeed,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I should like to have seen him hiding in a
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: crevince as nimbly as I can do. He'd better not
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: come with in reach of me any more, I can
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: tell him. It was all very well for the crab
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: to sit outside the rock, looking so fierce and brushing
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: his mouth so boldly with its whisker like feelers. Now
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that there was nobody to fight with, how he would
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: have scuttled away sideways into his hole if the creature
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: had reappeared. Everybody can guess you, happy fellow, answered the
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: meek voice of the starfish. Lilac legs, you can afford
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to joke about everything, and can do whatever you please.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: You have so many things in your favor, your stiff
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: coat and your jointed legs, and your claws with pincers
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: at their ends, and your large eyes. Dear me, what advantages.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And yet I have an advantage too, and that a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: very great one.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: Over you all.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: So I shall not grumble, especially not now that I
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: am in the shade. That sun was very unpleasant. Certainly
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: I felt something between scalded and baked horrible. But I
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: am sheltered now. And how did that come to pass?
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Do you think?
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: The starfish paused for an answer, but the crab declared
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: he couldn't think, had no time for thinking. It was
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: too slow work to suit him. Sir, Lilac Legs told
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: him how she had been chucked into the air by
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the stick, and how she had come down in the
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: midst of the tangle and fallen under shelter. So you see,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: added she in conclusion, that you were quite right in
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: saying what nonsense the creature talked.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: Why he said he was as.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Useless as these vile, useless seaweeds and had come into
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: the world like them for nothing, Whereas don't you see
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: he was born to save me, which was something to
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: be born for at any rate, that's quite clear. And
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: so was the vile useless seaweed, as he called it too. I,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: with my advantages, can tell them both that you go
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: in and out and in and out over people's remarks
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: till you make me quite giddy. I get so puzzled,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: replied the crab. And then you are always talking of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: your advantages. He continued, whisking his feelers backwards and forwards
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: conceitedly as he spoke. And I can't make out what
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: they are. I wish you would say at once what
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: you mean, Oh, my advantages you want to know about,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: answered Lilac Legs. Well, I certainly have one in each
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: leg near the end with which I but I don't
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: think I can describe it exactly. You have several advantages yourself,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: as I told you just now, and we have one
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: or two in common. For instance, the loss of a
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: leg or two is nothing to either of us. They
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: grow again so quickly. But still I am very helpless now,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and then I must admit on the sand, for instance,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: it is so soft, and the more I try to
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: lay hold, the more it slips away. Still, these advantages
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: in my legs make amends for a good deal. For
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: at any rate, I know my own superiority, and there's
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: a great comfort in that I can't explain, but you
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: may safely take it for granted that with my advantages,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: I know a good deal more than you give me
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: credit for. I know, for instance, that the poor ignorant
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: creature need not consider himself useless, since he was the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: means of chucking me here, and that this fine old
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: tangle hasn't lived for nothing, since it is sheltering me.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: How conceited some people are with their advantages, murmured a
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: silver voice from one of the tangle fronds. If the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: tangle had come into the world for nothing but to
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: shelter you, there would have been a fuss to very
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: little purpose. Indeed, can't your advantages tell you? There are
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: other creatures to the world as important as yourself, if
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: not more so, you poor helpless lilac legs.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: Do you know who is speaking? It is the blue
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: eyed limpet.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: I beg to say the patella pelacia, if you please.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: I have an advantage or two myself. My coat is
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: harder even than the crabs, and it is studded with
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: a row of azure spots, as bright as the turquoise itself.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: There is something to reflect upon in one's solitude, I
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: can assure you, and the tango plants are the natural
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: home and food of our lovely race. The creature was
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: ignorant enough in calling them useless therefore, of course, but
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: you were not much wiser in thinking they were put
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: into the world to shelter you. Ah flatter myself. I
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: have said enough to be the home and the food
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: of beings like us is caused sufficient, almost more than sufficient.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: I venture to think for the existence of any vegetable
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: that fringes these shores. And while they live for us,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: our turquoise gemmed backs are in return their highest ornament
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: and pride. The whole thing is perfect and complete. Anybody
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: with half an eye and a grain of understanding may
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: see that. Oh, the narrow mindedness of people who live
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: under a shell, murmured a score of whispers in unison
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: from another tangle frond close by. Oh, the assurance of you,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: poor immovable limpets, and talking about your home when you
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: do but stick to first one part of these vast leaves,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: and then another, moving from place to place, and never
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: fairly settling anywhere home. Indeed you call it? What sort
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: of a home is it? When an unlucky chance can
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: force you off at any moment, or some passing creature
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: pick you from your hold. The pretension would be disgusting
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: if it were not so absurd. Think of mere travelers,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: as one may say, talking of their lodging house as
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: if it were their own, and belonging to them by
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: a natural right. How ridiculous, if not wrong, we can
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: afford to speak, we of whose dwelling places it is
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: the foundation and support talk of the useless tangle. Indeed, yes,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: the creature was ignorant. Indeed who said so little? He
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: knew that it was the basis of the lives of millions.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Little he knew of the silver network we spread over
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: it from year to year, or of the countless inhabitants
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: of the beautiful web, a fairyland, of being so small
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: that the crab can scarcely see us, yet spreading so
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: far and wide, and accomplishing so much. But that is
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: because we work in unison. Of course, we never quarrel
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: among ourselves, as some folks do not altogether, unlike the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: crab in the crevice yonder, we work to one end,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: so that we are sure to continue strong, useless tangles forsooth,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: when they have been the foundations of colonies like ours
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: from the beginning of the world. Of course, the thing
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: is clear enough to those who choose to look into it.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Any One who knows us can tell people what the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: tangle is in the world. For I should think. Hear
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: how they talk, murmured another shell fish, no distant relation
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: of the blue eyed limpid, who had spoken before, and
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: who lay hidden in the midst of the twisted roots
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: by which the tangle stem held fast to the rock.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Hear how the poor scurfy creatures talk, to be sure,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: as if there was nobody in the world but themselves.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: But anything can talk, which has so many mouths.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: To talk with.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: I could say a good deal myself if I chose
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: to try with only one. But I don't care to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: let out my secrets into everybody's foolish ears. Much better
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: hold my tongue than let certain people not a hundred
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: miles off.
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: No, I am here.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: I don't fancy being sucked at by starfishes or picked
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: out of my place by crab claws. Of course, I
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: know what the tangle is in the world for as
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: well as anybody else. For while they are fighting merely
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: about his flapping leathery ends, here I sit in the
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: very heart of the matter, safe in the roots themselves,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: knowing what's with the cleverest of them. Useless tangle, the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: creature said, useless enough, perhaps as far as he could tell,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: who only looked at the long, loose, rubbishy leaves. But
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: those who want to know the truth of the matter
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: must use their eyes to a little more purpose and
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: find out what's going on at the roots. Ah they'd
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: soon see then what the tangle is. For I don't
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: speak of myself alone, though of course I know one
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: very sufficient reason why the tangles in the world, if
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I choose to say, am I right, little silver Tuft
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: in the corner there with the elegant doors to your house? Now,
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: little silver Tuft. The Corioline picked himself particularly on the
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: carving of the curious doors, which guarded the front of
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: every one of the numberless cells in which her family lived.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So she was flattered by the compliment, and owned that
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the limpet was right in the main. She was nevertheless
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: rather cool in her manner, for thought, she to herself,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: the rough fellow forgets that he is but a lodger here,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: as the sea mat said of his blue eyed cousin,
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: whereas everybody knows that I am a bonafide inhabitant, though
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: with a little more freedom of movement than people who
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: stick to their friends so closely as to cover them up.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: No offense to the sea Mat or anybody who can't
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: help himself. Nevertheless, my fibers, being firmly interlaced with the roots,
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: I am here by right forever. These lympets may talk
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: as they please, but nobody in their senses can suppose
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: the tangle came into the world merely to accommodate chance
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: travelers like them, Even though they may now and then
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: spend their lives in the place. But vanity blinds the judgment.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: That's very clear. Roots and plants have to grow for
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: such as myself and my silver tuffed cousins. However, but
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: that's quite another affair. There's a reason in that, a necessity.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I may say, we want them, and of course therefore
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: they are here. The thing is as straightforward and plain
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: to anybody of sense as But unfortunately the simile was lost,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: for a wave of the now returning tide interrupted silver
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Tuft's speech by breaking suddenly over the tangle with a
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: noisy splash. It drew back again for a bit immediately after,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: but meantime, both plants and animals were reveling in the
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: delicious moisture, and for a few moments thought of nothing else.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: And just then, hurrying along the narrow strip of sand
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: that yet remained exposed, as fast as their legs could
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: carry them, came the land creature and its companion. Before, however,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: they had passed the spot where they had stopped to
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: talk when the tide was low, another wave was seen
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: coming to avoid which the friends sprang together on the
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: ledge of the rock, and from thence watched the gathering
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: water as it fell, tumbling over the forest of tangle plants.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: And again and again this happened, and they remained to
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: observe it. And see how the huge fronds searched up
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: like struggling giants as the waves rushed in below, And
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: how by degrees as the tide rose higher and higher,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: their curved stems unbent, so that they resumed their natural position,
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: till at last they were bending and bowing in graceful
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: undulations to the swell of the water, as was their
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: wont And look at them, cried the creature's companion. For
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: the existence of even these poor plants in the world,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: I could give you a hundred reasons, and believed that
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: as many more might be found of their use. I
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: could tell you a hundred instances in proof there is
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: not one of them. But what gives shelter to the helpless,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: food to the hungry, a happy home to as many
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: as desire it, and vigor and health to the element
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: in which it lives? Purposeless life? You talk of such
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: a thing exists? Nowhere come I will explain to begin.
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: But see we must move on, for the wind as
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: well as the tide, is rising, and we might chance
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: to be caught. Follow me quick, for even we might
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: be missed. And besides, it is cowardly to shirk one's
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: appointed share of work and well doing before one's time.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: For if the vile sea weeds are able to do
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: good in the world, how much more. But here too,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: the discourse was cut short by the roar of a
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: breaking wave, which carried the conclusion out of hearing people
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: talk of the angry sea? Was he angry now at
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: what he had heard? No, he was only loud and
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: in earnest after all. But undoubtedly he and the risen
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: wind between them contrived to make a great noise over
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the tangle beds, and he gave his opinion pretty strong
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: on the subject in hand. For cried he, you foolish creatures,
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: one and all, What is all this nonsense about? Who
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: dares to talk of useless seaweeds? While I am here
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: to throw their folly in their face? And you poor
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: little worms and wretches who have been talking your small
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: talk together, as if it was in your power to
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: form the least idea of anything an inch beyond your
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: own noses, Well, well, well I won't undeceive you there there.
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: Believe what you like about yourselves and your trumpery little
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: comforts of lives. But if any really philosophical inquirer wants
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: to know what seaweeds are in the world for and
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: what good they do, I will roar them the true
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: answer all day long. If they please to keep me
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the great sea pure and sweet and healthy. There, now
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: that's the reply. They suck in my foul vapors as
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: food and give me back life supporting vapors in return,
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: vile and useless what fool has called anything? So only
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: let me catch him. Thus, bang, with what a roar
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: that wave came down, And yet it did no harm,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: didn't even dislodge the crab from the new crevac he
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: had squeezed himself into. For the presence, and as to starfish,
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: Lilac legs, she was spreading herself out in the rocking water,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: rejoicing in her regained freedom, and telling all her friends
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: of her wonderful escape and of the creature who.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: Had been born into the world on.
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: Purpose to save her from an untimely death. It was
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: a very fine story, indeed, and the longer she told it,
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: the more pathetic she made it. Till at last there
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: was not a creature in the sea who could listen
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: to it with dry eyes end of Chapter sixteen seventeen.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: Purring when you're pleased out of the abundance of the heart,
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: the mouth speaketh Matthew twelve thirty four. They have been
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: licked over hundreds of times by the same mother, had
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: been brought up on the same food, lived in the
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: same house, learned the same lessons, heard the same advice,
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: and yet how different they were. Never were there two
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: kittens more thoroughly unlike than those two. The one with
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: an open, loving heart, which never could contain itself in
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: its joy, but purred it out at once to all
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: the world. The other, who scarcely ever purred at all,
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: and that never above its breath. Let him be as
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: happy or as fond as he would. It was partly
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: his mother's fault, perhaps, for she always set the children
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: the example of reserve, rarely purring herself, and then only
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: in a low tone. But or thing there were excuses
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: to be made for her. She had had so many troubles.
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: Cats generally have their kittens are taken away from them
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: so often, and they get so hissed about the house
• 20:11
  Speaker 2: when people are busy and the children pull them about
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: so heedlessly and make the dogs run after them, which
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: is so irritating that really the wonder is they ever
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: purr at all. Nevertheless, her not feeling inclined to purr
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: much herself was no good reason for her thinking it
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: silly or wrong in other people to purr when they
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: were pleased. But she did, and she and her purring
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: daughter were always having small TIFFs on the subject every morning.
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: For instance, when the nice, curly headed little boy brought
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: the kittens a saucer of milk from his breakfast, there
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: was sure to be a disturbance over the purring question,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: for even before the saucer had reached the floor, Puss
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: Missy was sure to be there, tail and head, erect
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: and eager, singing her loudest and best, her whole throat
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: vibrating visibly, while Puss's master, on the contrary, took his
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: food but said very little about it, or, if ever
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: tempted to express his natural delight, did it in so
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: low a tone that nobody could hear without putting their
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: ears close down to him to listen. Now, this was
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: what the mother cat called keeping up one's dignity and
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: self respect. So it can easily be imagined how angry
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: she used to get with the other child, wretched little creature,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: She would say to poor puss missy, who, even after
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: the meal was over, would lie purring with pleasure in
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: front of the fire. What in the world are you
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: making all that noise and fuss about? Why are you
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: to be always letting yourself down by thanking people for
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: what they do for you, as if you did not
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: deserve it and had not a right to expect it.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Isn't it quite right of them to feed you and
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: keep you warm. What a shame it would be if
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: they left you without food or fire. I am ashamed
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: to see you make yourself so cheap by showing gratitude
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: for every trifle. For goodness sake, have a little proper
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: pride and leave off such fawning ways. Look at your
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: brother and see how differently he behaves, takes everything as
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: a matter of course, and has the sense to keep
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: his feelings to himself, and people are sure to respect
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: him all the more. It keeps up one's friend's interests
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: when they are not too sure that one is pleased.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: But you, with your everlasting acknowledgments, will be seen through
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: and despised. Very soon have a little more esteem for
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: your own character. I do beg what is to become
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: of self respect if people are to purr whenever they
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: are pleased. Pus Missy had not the least notion what
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: would become of it in such a case, But she
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: supposed something dreadful. So she felt quite horrified at herself
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: for having done anything to bring it about, and made
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: a thousand resolutions to keep up her dignity, save self
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: respect from the terrible unknown fate in store, and purr
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: no more. But it was all in vain. As soon
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: as ever anything happened to make her feel happy and comfortable,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: throb went the little throat as naturally as flowers come
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: out in spring, And there she was in a fresh
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: scrape again, and the temptations were endless. The little boy's cousin,
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: pale and quiet and silent as she was, would often
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: take Puss Missy on her knee and nurse her for
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: half an hour at a time, stroking her so gently
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: and kindly. How could anyone help Herring or the boy
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: would tie a string with a cork at the end
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: of it to the drawer handle of a table, so
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: that the kittens could paw at it, and pat it
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: and spring at it as they pleased. How was it
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: possible not to give vent to one's delight in the
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: intervals of such a game, when the thing was swinging
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: from side to side before their very eyes, inviting the
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: next bound, and when there was nothing else to be
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: pleased about, there were always their own tales to run after,
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: and the fun was surely irresistible and well deserved a song.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: Yet the brother very seldom committed himself in that way.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: That was the great puzzle, and puss Missy grew more
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: perplexed as time went on. Nay, once, when they were
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: alone together, and her spirits had quite got the better
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: of her judgment, she boldly asked him, in as many words,
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: why do you not purr when you are pleased? As
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: if it was quite the natural and proper thing to do?
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: Whereat he seemed quite taken by surprise, but answered at last,
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: it's so weak minded, mother, says I should be ashamed. Besides,
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: added he after a short pause, to tell you the truth,
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: but don't say anything about it when I begin, or
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: something that chokes a little in my throat mind, you
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: don't tell it? Would let me down. So in Mother's eyes,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: she likes one to keep up one's dignity.
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: Had Mother Puss over heard these words, she might have
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: been a little startled by such a result of her teaching.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: But as it was, she remained in happy ignorance that
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: her son was influenced by anything but her advice. Yet,
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: strange to say, she had that choking in the throat
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: sometimes herself. But at last a change came in their lives.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: One day, their friend, the curly headed boy, came bounding
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: into the kitchen where Puss and her kittens were asleep
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: in raptures of delight, followed by the pale, quiet, silent cousin.
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: As quiet and silent as ever, the boy rushed to
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: the kittens at once, took up both together in his hands,
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: laid one over the other for fun, and then said
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: to the girl cousin, now they're going to give us
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: the kittens for our very own. Just tell me which
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: you like best. Really, I'm so afraid you won't choose
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: for yourself when they ask you. And then if I
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: have to choose instead, I shan't know what you would
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: rather have, And I want you to have the one
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: you like most, So do tell me beforehand. Oh, I
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: like them both, answered the girl, in the same unmoved,
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: indifferent tone in which she generally spoke, So do, I
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: replied her, cousin, But I know which I like best
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: for all that, and so must you. Only you won't say.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I wonder whether you like to have the kittens at all,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: added he, looking at the pale child a little doubtfully,
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: then whispering as he put them both to her face
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: to be kissed. Cousin, Dear, I wish I could see
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: when you were pleased by your face. See give a
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: smile when the one you like best goes by? Do
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: won't you this once? Just for once? It was in vain.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: He passed the kittens before her in succession, and that
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: she might see the markings of their fur. But she
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: still only said she liked both, and of course was
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: glad to have a kitten, and so on till at
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: last he was disheartened and asked no more. It is
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: a great distress to some people when their friends will
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: not purr when they are pleased. And as the children
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: went back together to the drawing room, the little boy
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: was the sadder of the two, though he could not
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: have explained why, And then just what he expected happened.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: The choice between the two kittens was offered first to
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: the girl, but instead of accepting it as a favor
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: and saying thank you for it, and being pleased as
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: she ought to have been, she would say nothing but
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: that she liked both, and it could not matter which
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: she had, Nay to look at her as she spoke,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: nobody would have thought she cared for having either at all.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: How was it that she did not observe how sorrowfully
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: her aunt was gazing at her as she spoke, ay
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: and with a sorrow, far beyond anything the Kitsons could occasion.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: But she did not, And presently her aunt said, well, then,
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: as she did not care, the boy should choose, on
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: which the poor boy colored with vexation. But when he
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: had sought his cousin's eyes again and again in vain
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: for some token of her feelings, he laid sudden hold
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: on puss Missy and colored her against his cheek, exclaiming,
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: then I will have this one. I like her much,
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: the best mother, because she purs when she is pleased.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: And then the little girl took up puss Master and
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: kissed him very kindly, but went away without saying another word.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: And so a week passed, and though the children nursed
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: their kittens, they never discussed the question of which was
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: liked best again, for as shyness had sprung up about
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: it ever since the day the choice had been made.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: But at the end of the week one's sunshiny morning,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: when the boy was riding his father's pony and only
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: the little girl was in the house, her aunt, coming
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: suddenly into the school, discovered her kneeling by the sofa,
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: weeping a silent rain of tears over the fur coat
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: of Puss Missy, who was purring loudly all the time,
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: while her own kitten, Puss Master, was lying asleep unnoticed
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: by the fire. Now, the pale, silent little girl had
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: been an orphan nearly two years, father and mother having
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: died within a few weeks of each other, and she
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: had been ever since took quite lately under the care
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: of a guardian, who, though married, had no children, and
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: was more strict and well intentioned than kind and comprehending,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: so that, between sorrow at first and fear afterwards, joined
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: to a timid, shrinking nature, she had, without knowing anything
• 29:41
  Speaker 2: about it, shut herself up in a sort of defensive
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: armor of self restraint, which till now neither aunt, nor uncle,
• 29:49
  Speaker 2: nor even loving cousin had been able to break through.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: But they had gently bided their time, and the time
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: had come at last, and puss Missy pointed the moral,
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: for with her aunt's arms folded round her, and a
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: sense of comforting tenderness creeping into the long, lonely heart,
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: she owned that she had fretted all the week in secret,
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: because actually it was so miserable to nurse a kitten
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: who would not purr when he was pleased. Anybody may
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: guess how nice it was ten minutes afterwards to see
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: the little girl with the roused color of warm feeling
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: on her cheeks, smiling through her tears at the thought
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: of how like the unpurring kitten she had been herself.
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: Anybody may guess too, with what riotous joy the loving
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: boy cousin insisted on her changing kittens at once and
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: having puss Missy for her very own. And now, on
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: the other hand, he set to work himself with a
• 30:43
  Speaker 2: resolute heart to make puss Master so fond of him
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: that purr he must, whether he would or no, And
• 30:50
  Speaker 2: how that now and then, by dint of delicate attentions,
• 30:54
  Speaker 2: such as choice morsels of food and judicious rubbing under
• 30:58
  Speaker 2: the ears, he worked the creature up to such a
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: pitch of complacency that the vibrations of his throat became,
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: at any rate visible to sight and perceptible to touch. Truly,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: they were a very happy party. For after pus Master
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: took puss Missy for friend, confidante, and adviser, he grew
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: so loving and fond that he could not help showing
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: his feelings in a thousand pretty pleasant ways. And the
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: mother cat herself relaxed by degrees, perhaps because she found
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: her kittens were not taken away, partly perhaps because puss
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: Missy's open heartedness stole into her heart at last with
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: a sense of comfort. Who knows. Certainly she left off
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: scolding and lecturing, and would not only watch their gambles,
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: but join in them at times herself. And if neither
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: she nor her son ever purred quite so much or
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: so loudly as their neighbors, the reason, no doubt, was
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: only that tiresome choking in the throat. Why the pale
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: little girl herself complained of having felt something very like
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: it during the sad two years before her kind aunt
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: made her happy again. It always used to come on
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: when she wanted to say what she felt. And perhaps
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: there is always something that chokes in the throat when
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: people do not purr when they are pleased. Let us
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: hope so end of Chapter seventeen.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Chapter eighteen, the voices of the earth, Let everything that
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: hath breath praise the Lord Psalm one fifty verse six.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Would that I could pass away and cease to be
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: murmured the wind as it performed its circuits round the
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: earth long ages ago? Would that I could cease to
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: be since the creation of man existence has become insupportable,
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: Thou art mad, cried the mountains and valleys over whom
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: the wind was passing with its outcry of lamentation. Is
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: not man the glory of the world, the favorite of Heaven?
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: Surely thou art mad or USh jealous of the greatness
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: of others, jealous of the masterpiece of creation? O thou
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: ungrateful and unwise to whom hast committed the privilege of
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: refreshing the earth and its inhabitants. Why turn aside to
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: hold judgment and condemn enough that Thou fulfill thine own
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: appointed work, and in so doing exist to the glory
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: of the Creator. Yet hear me impatience squealed the wind.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: It is for the honor of man and the glory
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: of his Creator, that I am so troubled. Hence comes
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: all my misery, I, who know no rest but in
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: his will, and once went on my way rejoicing. I
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: now am of all creatures, the most miserable oh Earth,
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: with thy mountains and valleys and forests, and fast flowing
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: rivers and seas. Do me justice, Thou knowest It was
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: not so with me of old when I was first
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: called into being. Thou knowest with what joy I roamed
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: over thy confines and beheld the universal beauty that then
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: was spread around. How tenderly I whispered through thy flowers,
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: How joyfully I carried up their fragrant odors as a
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: thank offering to Heaven. How merrily I sported upon the hills,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: or taught the branches of thy lofty trees to bow,
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: as in obedience to him who made them. Thou knowest
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: that I even failed, not in due obedient love. When
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: storms were needed, whether to drive the sluggish vapors through
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the sky, or rouse the sea itself to healthy action?
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: When have I ever failed? Have I not always fulfilled
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: His word? For even now, in these my days of misery,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: I carry out unwearyingly the great decree. Still I bear
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: aloft from tropical seas, in ceaseless revolution round the world,
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: those vapors which must descend in northern latitudes as do
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: or rain or snow. Still I labor. Still, I love
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: to labor in the way ordained.
• 35:07
  Speaker 5: But woe for me.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Another burden than labor is upon me now. Woe for
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the pollution I have suffered since the earth was overspread
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: by the wretched race of men. Woe for their civilized lands,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: which I must needs pass through. Woe for the cities
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: and towns and villages, their haunts and habitations, which I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: cannot avoid. Woe for I bear, thence in my bosom
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: the blasphemies of the multitudes, and am laden with the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: burden of ingratitude, denial, and doubt. Woe that I must
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: spread these black results of misguided reason from pole to pole.
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: Woe that I must carry up the jests of the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: scorner and the oaths of the intemperant as incense from
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: man to his maker, from man formed in his image,
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: and boasting in his faculties of sense. Oh, that I
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: could pass away and cease from being, and that with
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: me might perish these fruits of an evil heart of unbelief.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: Thou hast numbered curses breathed the mountains and valleys in reply,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: and alas that set should ever defile thee, thou messenger
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: of blessing.
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: But this is not all.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: Thou bearest upon thy wings, other outpouring stream into thy bosom.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Other voices are wafted upon thee to the skies. Other
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: sounds are spread by thee from pole to pole. Hast
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: thou weighed in the balance against the utterances of the rebellious,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: the prayers of the faithful, the childlike and the pure,
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: the steadfast avowal of martyrs, the daily thanksgiving of saints,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the songs of holy praise and joy.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: Yet what are these? But what are due?
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: And more than do ten hundred thousandfold, exclaimed the angry wind.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: What merit can you find in these? How strike a
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: balance between them and the unnatural sin which says there
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: is no God? All His works everywhere have praised him
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: from the beginning. Only among men is their silence and doubt?
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And shall the remnant take credit for not joining in
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: their sin? Inanimate creation, and the beasts have never swerved
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: from their allegiance, What room is there for boasting?
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: In man?
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: Has he done more than these from the foundation of
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: the world. But he alone of all creation, with a free,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: intelligent will. The words came up in soft response from
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: the earth, and spread like harmony upon the air. He alone,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: of all creation, with a free intelligent will merit. There
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: can be none, indeed, but acceptability. Where can it ever
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: be found but in the free will worship of a spear,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: which has choice. And if choice, then of necessity liberty
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: to er, and with liberty to air comes alas the
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: everlasting contest between right and wrong. Yet why do I say,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: alas obedience to a law which cannot be resisted is
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: not the service of the heart. Not the highest tribute
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: to the creator's glory. Far dearer to him may be
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: the struggle by which the human will is subdued to
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: unison with the will Divine, in anticipation of that day
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: when all its wisdom shall be made known. Have patience, then,
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: with the contest between good and evil? So long as
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: the good is accepted of heaven. And while this is so,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: be contented to labor and to be yet listen once again,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: sighed the wind. I have been jealous for the glory
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: of the Maker, it is true, and troubled for the
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: honor of man. But I am also wretched for myself.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: O Earth, Earth, Earth, the Creator has made his human
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: favorite mortal. The mountains stand fast forever, The hills cannot
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: be moved. The very trees survive from generation to generation.
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: But man, the chosen, passes away like a shadow. He
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: cometh up and is cut down as the grass i
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: go over him, and his place knows him no more.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: As for the misery I am doomed to share. The
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: breath of the dying has passed into my soul for ages.
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: It is borne upon every breeze, It has tainted every air.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: I am filled with those bitter agonies, and loathe my
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: very being. Would that I could pass away into nothing
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: and be as though I had never been that, so
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I might taste no more the vile dishonor of death.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Thou judgest with the judgment of those who no but
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: in part came up the soothing answer from the hills
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: What if the dying breath, which falls so sadly on
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: thy breast, releases from its prison house of clay, some
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: spirit more ethereal than thine own, some essence subtler far
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: than thine, which thou must bear before the mercy seat.
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: Cast thou not trust thee Almighty with his own? Why
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: grieve for the last sigh of perishing flesh? If it
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: be also the first breathing of a freed, immortal soul,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: how rail it death? If it is he who strikes
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: the court of everlasting life, Yet once more hear me,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: and be just persisted. The wind, not the breath of
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: the dying, only overwhelms me with this wild desire to
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: be at rest. The breath of the living, whose suffer
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: is even worse. The sigh of natural grief which none
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: can blame, The moanings of the afflicted in mind, body,
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: or estate, the outcries of the oppressed and desperate, the
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: shrieks of madness and of pain, the groanings of despair,
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: all all are outpoured on me. Those dreadful voices haunt
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: me from all sides. This mass of human woe corrodes
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: my soul. I meet with it in the cottage, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: pass through to find it in the palace. I rush
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: from the battlefield to the cloister, but in vain, For
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: no seclusion can shut out man from sorrow. Wherever the
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: chosen creature is found, there must I gather up the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: voices of grief for low as the sparks fly upwards,
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: so man is born to trouble. Oh, that I might
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: pass away forever and cease to know the wretchedness I
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: have no power to avert. Yet Wait, wait, wait, implored
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: another whisperer from the earth. What if in human sorrow
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: may be found an answer to the riddle of human guilt?
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: What if a mist its saddest cries, Thou carriest up
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: the voice of heartfelt penitence on high. Wilt thou not
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: weigh against the transient, earthly grief, the joy in heaven
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: of one repenting sinner, Or if a mist the mortal
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: agony of the righteous. The triumph songs of faith grow
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: loud as those the angels sing round the throne. Thy will,
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: thy will, thy will doing, or suffering thy will be done.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: Woilst thou not fear to take away the one, lest
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: the other perchance should fail. From all the earth watch
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: well the balance between suffering and its fruits. But while
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: these rise acceptable on thee to heaven, Well, mayst thou
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: rest contented in thy work and re joice both to
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: labor and to be. Yet is man the favorite of
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: all creatures, the most wretched, moaned the wind, since he
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: alone must purchase happiness with pain, unjust unjust expostulated the earth,
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: Thou keepest record of men's sighe hast thou no consciousness
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: of the unceasing breathings of simple natural joys. Yet number
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: the one by thousands, and by tens of thousands of
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the other. Will I answer and refute thy words. The
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: peaceful respirations of health, unnoticed and alas how often unthankfully
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: enjoyed through years. Count them if thou cast, Count them
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: as they float to thee while the night hours pass
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: over the sleeper's head. Count them when he wakes with
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: the young daylight to a fresh existence. Count the laughs
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: of frolic childhood. Count the murmurs of happy love. Count
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: the stars if thou wilt. But thou canst never count
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: the daily outpourings of common earthly joys, alas for those
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: who judge of life only by startling periods, and are
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: deaf to the still small voices which tell of hourly mercies,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: hour by hour. Yet once more listen cried the wind,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: for more and worse remains behind the utterance of vice,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: o innocent earth, in whom the glory of the Creator
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: is yet left visible to all. I sicken at the
• 44:41
  Speaker 1: thought of what I know, of what I bear unwillingly
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: about the loathsome words of sin, the lies of the deceiver,
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the pritting of the fool, the seductions of the desolate,
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: the shouts of drunken revelry, the songs of the profane,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: the gifts of speech and thought misused to evil, those
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: voices horrible to God and man. Be they as dust
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: before thee, and thou as the angel of the Lord,
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: scattering them, shouted a cry of indignation from the earth.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Yet wait, wait, wait for thyself. Be thou still contented
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: to labor and to be Wilst thou be wiser than
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: the judge, wilt thou lose patience while he yet forbears
• 45:31
  Speaker 1: no Watch the balance as before, and weigh the evil
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: and the good. And so long as the prayers which
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: the faithful pour on thy bosom out value the words
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: of the scorner. So long as the blessings of the
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: righteous float above the curses of the blasphemer, so long
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: as the voice of penitence flows close upon the utterances
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: of sin, So long as pious obmission makes harmony of
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: the crist of grief. So long as thou carriest up
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: daily thanksgiving for unnumbered daily mercies, So long as souls
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: of saints are breathed up to heaven by death. So
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: long be thou contented to have patience and labor and be.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: But should the day ever come shouted the win in return,
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: when the balance is reversed, when vice only tolerated now
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: becomes triumphant, When sin reigns on the altars and no
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: man pulls it down, When the voice of the good
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: man's worship is drowned in the bad man's scorn, and
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: I cannot lift it to the skies, when the wretched
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: curse God and die, and men have forgotten to be thankful,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: Then then at last wilt thou acknowledge the justice of
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: my complaints and help me to pass away in peace?
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: Promise this, and till then I will watch the struggle,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: and be contented to labor and to be. And the
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: earth paused and consented, and the wind fled satisfied away
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: La envoy to the reader. And he is still careening
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: round the world, still gathering the voices of the earth,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: still watching the struggle between good and evil. In our
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: public walks, he meets us face to face, in our
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: private chambers. He is with us.
• 47:24
  Speaker 6: Still.
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: There is no secret corner where he cannot come, no
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: whisper which is not breathed into his ear. It behooves
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: us well, then, to be careful, lest by thoughtlessness or
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: sin we add weight to the wrong side of the scales.
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: For if the balance should ever incline to evil, and
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: the wind cease to blow, what would become of the world.
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: End of Chapter eighteen.
• 47:56
  Speaker 7: Chapter nineteen. The Master of the Harvest, that which thou
• 48:02
  Speaker 7: dost not understand when thou readest, thou shalt understand in
• 48:07
  Speaker 7: the day of thy visitation. For there are many secrets
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: of religion which are not perceived till they be failed,
• 48:16
  Speaker 7: and are not felt. But in the day of a
• 48:19
  Speaker 7: great calamity, Jeremy Taylor, the Master of the Harvest, walked
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: by the side of his corn fields in the early year,
• 48:27
  Speaker 7: and a cloud was over his face, for there had
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: been no rain for several weeks, and the heath was
• 48:32
  Speaker 7: hard from the parching of the coldest winds, and the
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: young weed had not been able to spring up. So
• 48:40
  Speaker 7: as he looked over the long ridges that lay stretched
• 48:43
  Speaker 7: in rows before him, he was vexed and began to
• 48:46
  Speaker 7: grumble and say the harvest would be backward, and all
• 48:50
  Speaker 7: things would go wrong, at the mere thought of which
• 48:53
  Speaker 7: he frowned more and more, and uttered words of complaint
• 48:57
  Speaker 7: against the heavens because there was no rain, against the earth,
• 49:01
  Speaker 7: because it was so dry and unyielding, against the corn
• 49:05
  Speaker 7: because it had not sprang up. And the mon's discontent
• 49:09
  Speaker 7: was whispered all over the field and all along the
• 49:11
  Speaker 7: long reaches where the corn seats lay, And when it
• 49:15
  Speaker 7: reached them, they murmured out, how cruel to complain? Are
• 49:20
  Speaker 7: we not doing our best? Have we let one drop
• 49:23
  Speaker 7: of moisture pass by unused? One moment of warmth come
• 49:27
  Speaker 7: to us in vain? Have we not ceased on every
• 49:31
  Speaker 7: chance and streaven every day to be ready for the
• 49:34
  Speaker 7: hour of breaking? Forth? Are we idle? Are we obstinate?
• 49:38
  Speaker 7: Are we indifferent. Shall we not be found waiting and watching?
• 49:43
  Speaker 7: How cruel to complain.
• 49:46
  Speaker 5: Of all this.
• 49:47
  Speaker 7: However, the master of the harvest heard nothing, so the
• 49:50
  Speaker 7: gloom did not pass away from his face. On the contrary,
• 49:54
  Speaker 7: he took it with him into his comfortable home and
• 49:57
  Speaker 7: repeated to his wife the dark words the door. All
• 50:00
  Speaker 7: things were going wrong, that the drought would ruin the harvest,
• 50:04
  Speaker 7: for the corner was not yet sprung. And still thinking,
• 50:07
  Speaker 7: thus he laid his head on his pillow and presently
• 50:11
  Speaker 7: fell asleep. But his wife sat up for a while
• 50:14
  Speaker 7: by the bed side and opened her bible and read
• 50:18
  Speaker 7: the harvest is the end of the world, and the
• 50:20
  Speaker 7: reapers are the angels. Then she wrote this text in
• 50:25
  Speaker 7: pencil on the flyleaf at the end of the book,
• 50:28
  Speaker 7: and after it the date of the day, and after
• 50:31
  Speaker 7: the date the words, O Lord, the husband man, thou
• 50:36
  Speaker 7: waitest for the precious fruit thou hast sown, and hast
• 50:40
  Speaker 7: long patience for it? Amen, O Lord, Amen. After which
• 50:47
  Speaker 7: the good woman knelt down to pray. And as she prayed,
• 50:50
  Speaker 7: she wept, for she knew that she was very ill.
• 50:53
  Speaker 7: But what she prayed that night was heard only in heaven,
• 50:58
  Speaker 7: and so A few days passed on as before, and
• 51:01
  Speaker 7: the house was gloomy with the discontent of its muster.
• 51:04
  Speaker 7: But at evening the wind changed, the sky became heavy
• 51:08
  Speaker 7: with clouds, and before midnight there was rain all over
• 51:12
  Speaker 7: the land. And when the master of the harvest came
• 51:15
  Speaker 7: in next morning, wet from his early walk by the
• 51:18
  Speaker 7: corn fields, he said it was well, it had came
• 51:21
  Speaker 7: up at last, and that at last the corner sprang up,
• 51:25
  Speaker 7: on which his wife looked at him with a smile
• 51:27
  Speaker 7: and said, how often things came right about which one
• 51:32
  Speaker 7: had been anxious and disturbed, to which her husband made
• 51:36
  Speaker 7: no answer, but s turned away and spoke of something else. Meantime,
• 51:41
  Speaker 7: the corn sets had been found ready in waiting when
• 51:44
  Speaker 7: the hour came, and the young sprouts burst out at once,
• 51:48
  Speaker 7: and very soon all along the ridges were to be
• 51:51
  Speaker 7: seen rows of tender blades tinting the hole filled with
• 51:55
  Speaker 7: a delicate green, And day by day the master of
• 51:59
  Speaker 7: the harve saw them and were satisfied. But because he
• 52:03
  Speaker 7: was satisfied and his anxiety was gone, he spoke of
• 52:07
  Speaker 7: other things and forgot to rejoice, and a murmur arose
• 52:11
  Speaker 7: among them. Should not the master have welcomed us life.
• 52:15
  Speaker 7: He was angry but lately because the seed he had
• 52:18
  Speaker 7: sown had not yet brought forth. Now that it has
• 52:21
  Speaker 7: brought forth, why is he not glad? What more does
• 52:25
  Speaker 7: he want? Have we not done our best? Are we
• 52:29
  Speaker 7: not doing it? Minute by minute, hour by hour, day
• 52:33
  Speaker 7: by day, from the morning and evening dews, from the
• 52:36
  Speaker 7: glow of the mid day sun, from the juices of
• 52:39
  Speaker 7: the earth, from the breezes which freshened the air, even
• 52:42
  Speaker 7: from clouds and rain. Are we not taking in food
• 52:46
  Speaker 7: and strength, warmth and life, refreshment and joy, so that
• 52:50
  Speaker 7: one day the valleys may laugh and sing because the
• 52:53
  Speaker 7: good seed hath brought forth abundantly. Why does he not
• 52:58
  Speaker 7: rejoice as before? For however, of all they said, the
• 53:02
  Speaker 7: master of the harvest had nothing, and it never struck
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: him to think of the young corn blade strangling life. Nay, Once,
• 53:10
  Speaker 7: when his wife asked him if the wad was doing well,
• 53:13
  Speaker 7: he answered very fairly, and nothing more. But she, then,
• 53:18
  Speaker 7: because the evening was fine and the fairer weather had
• 53:21
  Speaker 7: revived her failing powers, said she would walk out by
• 53:24
  Speaker 7: the cornfields herself. And so it came to pass that
• 53:27
  Speaker 7: they went out together, and together they looked all along
• 53:31
  Speaker 7: the long green ridges of wheat, and watched the blades
• 53:34
  Speaker 7: as they quivered and glistened in the breeze which sprang
• 53:38
  Speaker 7: up with the setting sun. Together they walked together, they looked,
• 53:42
  Speaker 7: looking at the same things and with the same human eyes,
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: even as they had walked and looked and lived together
• 53:48
  Speaker 7: for years, but with the world dividing their hearts, and
• 53:52
  Speaker 7: what was ever to unite them? Even then as they
• 53:55
  Speaker 7: moved along, she murmured, half aloud, half to herself, thinking
• 53:59
  Speaker 7: of the anxiety that had passed away, Thou visitest the earth,
• 54:04
  Speaker 7: and blessest it, Thou makest it very plenteous, to which
• 54:10
  Speaker 7: he answered, if answer it may be called, why are
• 54:13
  Speaker 7: you always so gloomy? Why should scripture be quoted about
• 54:17
  Speaker 7: such common things? And she looked in his face and smiled,
• 54:22
  Speaker 7: but did not speak, And he could not read the smile,
• 54:25
  Speaker 7: for the life of her heart was as hidden to
• 54:27
  Speaker 7: him as the life of the corn blades in the field.
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: And so they went home together, no more being said
• 54:34
  Speaker 7: by either, for as he turned round, the sight of
• 54:37
  Speaker 7: the setting sun and of the young, freshly growing wheat
• 54:41
  Speaker 7: blades brought tears into her eyes. She might never see
• 54:46
  Speaker 7: the harvest upon earth again, for her that other was
• 54:49
  Speaker 7: at hand, whereof the reapers were to be angels. And
• 54:54
  Speaker 7: when she opened her bible that night, she wrote on
• 54:57
  Speaker 7: the flyleaf the text she had quarted to her husband,
• 55:00
  Speaker 7: and after the text the date of the day, and
• 55:03
  Speaker 7: after the date, the words bless me even me, also,
• 55:08
  Speaker 7: oh my Father, that I may bring forth fruit with patience.
• 55:13
  Speaker 7: Very peaceful were the next few weeks that followed, for
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: all nature seemed to rejoice in the weather, and the
• 55:19
  Speaker 7: corn blades shot up till they were nearly two feet high,
• 55:23
  Speaker 7: and about them the master of the harvest had no
• 55:25
  Speaker 7: complaints to make. But at the end of that time, behold,
• 55:29
  Speaker 7: the earth began to be hard and dry again, for
• 55:32
  Speaker 7: once more rain was wanted, and by degrees that growing
• 55:36
  Speaker 7: plants failed for want of moisture and nourishment, and lost
• 55:40
  Speaker 7: power and color, and became weak and yellow in hue.
• 55:44
  Speaker 7: And once more the husbandmen began to fear and tremble,
• 55:48
  Speaker 7: And once more the brow of the master of the
• 55:50
  Speaker 7: harvest was overclouded with angry apprehension. And as the man
• 55:55
  Speaker 7: got more and more anxious about the fate of his crops,
• 55:58
  Speaker 7: he grew more and more irrito and distrustful, and railed
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: as before, only louder now against the heavens because there
• 56:06
  Speaker 7: was no rain, against the earth because it lacked moisture,
• 56:10
  Speaker 7: against the corn plants because they had waxed feeble nay. Once,
• 56:15
  Speaker 7: when his sick wife reproved him gently, praying him to
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: remember how his fears had been turned to joy before,
• 56:22
  Speaker 7: he reproached her in his turn for sitting in the
• 56:24
  Speaker 7: house and pretending to judge of what she could know
• 56:27
  Speaker 7: nothing about, and bade her come out and see for
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: herself how all things were walking together for ill. And
• 56:34
  Speaker 7: although he spoke it in bitter jest, and she was
• 56:37
  Speaker 7: very ill, she said she would go, and went. So
• 56:41
  Speaker 7: once more they walked out together, and once more looked
• 56:44
  Speaker 7: over the corn fields. But when he stretched out his
• 56:47
  Speaker 7: arm and pointed to the long ridges of blades, and
• 56:50
  Speaker 7: she saw them shrunken and faded in hue, her heart
• 56:54
  Speaker 7: was grieved within her, and she turned aside and wept
• 56:57
  Speaker 7: over them. Nevertheless, she said she durst not cease from hope,
• 57:02
  Speaker 7: since an hourrow might renew the face of the earth,
• 57:05
  Speaker 7: if God so willed. Neither should she dare to complain,
• 57:09
  Speaker 7: even if the harvest were to fail, at which words
• 57:13
  Speaker 7: the master of the harvest and round amazed to look
• 57:16
  Speaker 7: at his wife, For her soul was growing stronger as
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: her body grew weaker, And she dared to say now,
• 57:23
  Speaker 7: think she would have had no courage to utter before.
• 57:26
  Speaker 7: But of all this he knew nothing. And what he
• 57:28
  Speaker 7: thought as he listened was that she was as weak
• 57:31
  Speaker 7: in mind as in body. And what he said was
• 57:35
  Speaker 7: that a man must be an idiot who would not
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: complain when he saw the bread taken from under his
• 57:40
  Speaker 7: very eyes. And his murmurings and her tears sent a
• 57:44
  Speaker 7: shudder all along the long ridges of sickly corn blades.
• 57:47
  Speaker 7: And they asked one another, why does he murmur? And
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: why does she weep? Are we not doing all we
• 57:54
  Speaker 7: can do? We slumber or sleep, and let opportunities pass
• 57:58
  Speaker 7: by unused? Are we not watching and waiting against the
• 58:02
  Speaker 7: times of refreshing? Shall we not be found ready at last?
• 58:07
  Speaker 7: Why does he murmur? And why does she weep? Is
• 58:11
  Speaker 7: she too fading and waiting? Has she too a master
• 58:15
  Speaker 7: who has lost patience? Meantime, when she opened her bible
• 58:19
  Speaker 7: that night, she wrote, on the fly leave the text.
• 58:22
  Speaker 7: Wherefore should a man complain a man for the punishment
• 58:26
  Speaker 7: of his scenes. And after the text the date of
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: the day, and after the date the words thou dost
• 58:34
  Speaker 7: turn thy face from us, and we are troubled. But Lord,
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: how long, how long? And by and by came on
• 58:44
  Speaker 7: the long delayed times of refreshing, but so slowly and
• 58:49
  Speaker 7: imperfectly that the change in the corn could scarcely be
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: detected for a while. Nevertheless, it told at last, and
• 58:56
  Speaker 7: stems struggled up among the blades and burst forth into flowers,
• 59:01
  Speaker 7: which gradually ripened into ears of grain. But a struggle
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: it had been, and continued to be, for the measure
• 59:09
  Speaker 7: of moisture was scant, and the due amount of warmth
• 59:12
  Speaker 7: in the air was wanting. Nevertheless, by straggling and effort,
• 59:16
  Speaker 7: the young weight advanced little by little in growth, preparing
• 59:21
  Speaker 7: itself minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day
• 59:26
  Speaker 7: as best it could for the great day of the harvest,
• 59:30
  Speaker 7: as best it could would the master of the harvest
• 59:34
  Speaker 7: ask more alas he had still something to find fault with.
• 59:39
  Speaker 7: For when he looked at the ears and saw that
• 59:41
  Speaker 7: they were small and poor, he grumbled and said the
• 59:44
  Speaker 7: yield would be less than it ought to be and
• 59:47
  Speaker 7: the harvest would be bad. And as small weeks went on,
• 59:52
  Speaker 7: and the same weather continued, and the progress was very,
• 59:55
  Speaker 7: very slow, he spoke out his vexation to his wife
• 59:59
  Speaker 7: at home, to his friends at the market, and to
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 7: the husbandmen who passed by and talked with him about
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: the crops. And the voice of his discontent was breathed
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 7: over the corn field, all along the long ridges, where
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 7: the plants were laboring and waiting and watching. And they
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: shuddered and murmured, how cruel to complain. Had we been idle,
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 7: had we been negligent, had we been indifferent, we might
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 7: have passed away without bearing foot at all. How cruel
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 7: to complain. But of all this the master of the
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 7: harvest heard nothing, so he did not cease to complain. Meantime,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 7: another week or two went on, and people, as they
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 7: glanced over the land, wished that a few good, rainy
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 7: days would come and do their work decidedly, so that
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 7: the corneers might feel and behold while the wig was
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 7: yet on their lips. The sky became charged with clouds.
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 7: Darkness spread over the country. A wild wind arose, and
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 7: the growling of thunder announced storm. And such a storm
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 7: people hid from it in cellards and closets and dark corners,
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 7: as if now for the first time they believed in
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 7: a god, and were trembling at the new found fact,
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 7: as if they could never discover him in his sunshining blessings,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 7: but only thus in his tempests and wrath. And all
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 7: along the long ridges of wheat plants drove the rain
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 7: laden blast, and they bent down before it, and rose
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 7: up again, like the waves of a laboring sea. Ears
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 7: over ears, they bowed down, ears above ears, they rose up.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 7: They bowed down, as if they knew that to resist
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 7: was destruction. They rose up, as if they had a
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 7: hole beyond the storm. Only here and there were the
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 7: whirlwinds were strongest. They fell down and could not lift
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 7: themselves again. So the damage done was but little, and
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 7: the general good was great. But when the master of
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 7: the harvest saw here on their patches of overweighted corn
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 7: yet dreeping from the thunder showers, he grew angry for them,
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 7: and forgot to think of the long ridges as stretched
• 1:02:09
  Speaker 7: over his fields, where the corn ears were swelling and rejoicing.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: And he came in gloomy to his home when his
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 7: wife was hoping that now at last all would be well.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 7: And when she looked at him, the tumult of her
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 7: sowre grew beyond control, and she knelt down before him
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 7: as he sat moody in his chair, and threw her
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 7: arms round him, and cried out, it is of the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 7: Lord's mercies that we are not utterly consumed, Oh husband,
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 7: pray for the corn and for me, that it may
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 7: go well with us at the last, carry me up stairs.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 7: And his anger was checked by fear, and he carried
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 7: her upstairs and laid her on the bed, and said
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 7: it must be the storm which had shaken her nerves.
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 7: But whether he prayed for either the corn or her
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 7: that night, she never knew, and presently came in new distress.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 7: For when the days of rain had accomplished their gracious
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 7: walk and everyone was satisfied, behold they did not cease.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 7: And as hitherto the cry had gone up for water
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 7: on the furrows. So now men's hearts failed them, for
• 1:03:22
  Speaker 7: fear lest it should continue to overflowing, and lest mildew
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 7: should set it upon the full rich ears, and the
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 7: glorious crop should be lost. And the master of the
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 7: harvest walked out by his corn fields, his face darker
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 7: than ever, and he railed against the rain because it
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 7: would not cease, against the sun, because it would not
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 7: shine against the wheat, because it might perish before the harvest.
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 7: But why does he always and only complain, moaned the
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 7: corn plants as the new terror was breathed over the field.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 7: Have we not done our best from the first? And
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: has not mercy been with us sooner or later all
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 7: along when moisture was scanned, and withdrove but little? Why
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 7: did he not rejoice over that little and wait as
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 7: we did for more? Now that abundance has come, and
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 7: we swell triumphant in strength and in hope. Why does
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 7: he not share our joy in the present and wait
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 7: in trust as we do for the future ripening change?
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 7: Why does he always complain? Has he himself some master
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 7: who would fain reap when he has not sown, and
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 7: gather where he has not strode, and who has no
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 7: pity for his servants who strive. But of all this,
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 7: the master of the harvest heard nothing. And when the
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 7: days of rain had rolled into weeks, and the weeks
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 7: in two months, and the autumn set in, and the
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 7: corn still stood up green in the ridges, as if
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 7: it never meant to ripen at all. The boldest and
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 7: most hopeful became a easy and the master of the
• 1:05:02
  Speaker 7: harvest despaired. But his wife had risen no more from
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 7: her bed, where she lay in sickness and suffering, yet
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 7: impatient trust, watching the sky through the window that faced
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 7: her pillow, looking for the relief that came at last.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 7: For even at the eleventh hour, when hope seemed almost
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 7: over and men had half learnt to submit to their
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 7: expected trial, the dark days began to be buried by
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 7: a few hours of sunshine. And though these passed away,
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 7: and the gloom and rain returned again, yet they also
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 7: passed away in their turn, and the sun shone out
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 7: once more. And the poor sick wife, as she watched,
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 7: said to those around her that the weather was gradually changing,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 7: and that all would come right at last, and, sighing
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 7: a prayer that it might be so with herself also,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 7: she had her Bible brought to the bed and wrote
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 7: in the fly leaf the tadxt some thirty some sixty
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 7: some a hundredfold, and after the text the date of
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 7: the day, For on that day the sun had been
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 7: shining steadily for many hours, and after the date the
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 7: words under whom much is given of him, shall much
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 7: be required. Yet if thou Lord be extreme to mark iniquity,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 7: or Lord, who may stand and day by day the
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 7: hours of sunshine were more in number, and the hours
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 7: of rain and darkness fewer, And by degrees the green
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 7: corn ears ripened into yellow, and the yellow turned into gold.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 7: And the harvest was ready, And the laborer is not wanting,
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 7: And the bursting corn broke out into songs of rejoicing,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 7: and cried. At least we have not waited and watched
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 7: in vain. Surely goodness and mercy have followed us all
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 7: the days of our life, and we are crowned with
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 7: glory and honor. Where is the master of the harvest,
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 7: that he may claim his own with joy? But the
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 7: master of the harvest was bending over the bed of
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 7: his dying wife, and she whispered that her bible should
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 7: be brought, And he brought it, and she said, open
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 7: it at the fly leaf at the end, and write,
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 7: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 7: it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 7: It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 7: It is sown in natural body, it is raised a
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 7: spiritual body. And she bade him out the date of
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 7: the day, and after the date of the day, the words,
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 7: O Lord, in thy mercy, say of me. She hath
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 7: done what she could. And then she laid her hands
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 7: in his and so fell asleep in hope. And the
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 7: harvest of the earth was gathered into barble, and the
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 7: gathering day of rejoicing was over, and the master of
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 7: it all sat alone by his fireside, with his wife's
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 7: bible on his knee, and he read the text and
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 7: the dates and the prayers from the first day when
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 7: the corn sits were held back by drought, And as
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 7: he read, a new heart seemed to burst out within
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 7: him from the old one, a heart which the Lord
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 7: of the other harvest was making soft, and the springing
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 7: whereof he would bless. And henceforth, in his going out
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 7: and coming in from watching the fruits of the earth,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 7: the texts and the dates and the prayers were ever
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 7: present in his mind, often rising to his lips, and
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 7: he murmured and complained, no more, let the seasons be
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 7: what they would. And his fears, however great, for the
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 7: thought of the late sprang in his own dry, cold heart,
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 7: and of the long suffering of Him who was Lord
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 7: and Master of all, was with him night and day,
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 7: and more and more as he prayed for help, that
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 7: the weary struggle might be blessed, and the new born,
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 7: watching and waiting not to be in vain, so more
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 7: and more they came over his spirit, a yearning for
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 7: that other harvest, where he and she who had gone
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 7: before might be gathered in together. And thus, in one
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 7: hope of their calling, the long divided hearts were united
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 7: at last, and of the Master of the Harvest.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 5: Chapter twenty, The Deliverer sages, leave your kind templations, brighter
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 5: vasions beam of her Christmas Him. For years there had
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 5: been abroad over the earth a whisper that a deliverer
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 5: was about to arise, a deliverer who had been promised
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 5: from the earliest ages of the world, some mighty man
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 5: or king, some sage or conqueror, who would bring back
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 5: lost justice, goodness and happiness to the suffering race of
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 5: men and begin a reign of everlasting peace. And the
• 1:10:20
  Speaker 5: hearts of all whom the whisper reached caught fire at
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 5: the thought, For who is so dull as not to
• 1:10:29
  Speaker 5: know his own wretchedness, or not see that things around
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 5: him might be better than they were. Ah men knew
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 5: it but too well, death, sickness, the necessity of labor,
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 5: labor bestowed in vain, wronged affections, the triumph of might overright,
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 5: was and tumults, household divisions, and the thousand other miseries
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 5: of life had, from year to year in every age,
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 5: unfolded to each man in succession as he awoke to
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 5: reason the strange, sad fact that some prevailing disorder existed
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 5: in the world in his own particular day, while at
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 5: the same time a strong instinct in his soul told
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 5: him that it had not always been so, would not
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 5: be so forever. So the whisper of a deliverer stole
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 5: into all hearts with a promise of better things in store,
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 5: but obscure and indefinite. It was interpreted by many minds
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 5: in as many different ways, bring to the bent of
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: different wishes and feelings. Only in one thing all agreed,
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 5: namely that at the advent of this Mighty One, sorrow
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 5: and evil should flee away, joy and peace be spread
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 5: over the earth as the waters cover the sea. A deliverer,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 5: What should he deliver them from, if not from the
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 5: death so abhorred to every instinct of their being, From
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 5: the grinding sicknesses which made life a burden even to
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 5: the young, From the toil that kept the strong man back,
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 5: from ease and enjoyment, From the disappointments which rack the
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 5: tenderest and best emotions of their hearts, From the chains
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 5: of unjust oppression, from the strife of parties and of tongues,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 5: From the weakness of their own souls, which left them
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 5: a prey to evil imaginations from within, and a thousand
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 5: temptations from without. Truly, such life was but a weariness
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 5: at the best. And oh for a deliverer was the
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 5: cry that went up from each man's heart as his
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 5: own particular burden bore him down. Oh that the everlasting
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 5: doors were lifted up, that the King of Glory might
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 5: come in and touch the earth with some magic scepter,
• 1:13:38
  Speaker 5: restoring all things to order and joy. But the name
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 5: of the Mighty One was to be called Wonderful counselor
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 5: the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 5: and the government was to be upon his shoulders, although
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 5: he was to be a son and born a child.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 5: Where then, but in palaces could he be expected or
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 5: looked for? Where but in palaces brought forth and nurtured. Surely,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 5: kings must be his nursing fathers, and their queens his
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 5: nursing mothers. Who have he parents of a happy child?
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 5: Who great enough, who high enough to be so favored?
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 5: Yet the child of these great ones was to be
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 5: greater and mightier than all, to rule and triumph over all,
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 5: A king of kings, a lord of lords. Well might
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 5: the longing eyes of hope be fixed on palaces and
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 5: regal halls. Well might the murmured question arise, Can this
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 5: be he? When the cry of a new born prince
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 5: was heard within their walls? What wonder if sybil and
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 5: poets sang by anticipation of his fame. But ever, as
• 1:15:07
  Speaker 5: the children of these great ones grew up to manhood,
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 5: they merged, by the common lot of suffering and sin,
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 5: into common men, and hope was darkened. Yet, though darkened,
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 5: not extinguished, and the deliverer was still looked for as before. Some, however,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 5: there were, who found in the titles wonderful counselor another
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 5: meaning and another aim. Kingly, the deliverer might be by
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 5: influence and character, but not necessarily in his human birth.
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 5: The kingship of man's noblest faculty reason might be at
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 5: hand to overthrow all kingships of mere blood, the triumph
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 5: of mind over material things, the kingship of intellect over
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 5: brute passion and force. The poor wise man who saved
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 5: the city but had neither thanks nor honor for his pains,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 5: was a type of a state of things now at
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 5: last about to pass away, and the midnight oil had
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 5: not been wasted, nor the brain racked in vain. If
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 5: this were so, indeed, if the day and hour were
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 5: at hand when he should be exalted as universal counselor,
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 5: whom wisdom had made fit to rule, he would be
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 5: called Wonderful, who was great by the secrets of his mind.
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 5: And as sages and philosophers meditated on these things, there
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 5: glowed in their bosoms aspirations which bordered on devotion, and
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 5: they stretched out suffocating hands to the unseen ruler of all,
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 5: asking that the one wonderful, the Counselor, might bring them
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 5: light and truth. Indeed, and conquer with those arms alone
• 1:17:08
  Speaker 5: the ignorance and errors of the world. Oh for the
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 5: rising of that day, when the real majesty and power
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 5: of the human mind should be revealed to the ignorant
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 5: and multitude in all its magnificence. Here is the only
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 5: greatness worth the name, Here the only power fit for
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 5: universal rule. But year after year the wise man died
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 5: as the fool and his children followed him, and neither
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 5: among them had the deliverer arisen. But must be looked for,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 5: as before again, Prince of Peace mused others. In this
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 5: all is comprehended. The conquering spoken of is but the
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 5: overcoming of all wish strife, the rule in store, the
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 5: sovereignty of love, suppressing all desires. But that for universal joy. Ah, Surely,
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 5: when the Deliverer came, it would be to make all
• 1:18:16
  Speaker 5: men happy alike, and pour a healing balsam into every wound.
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 5: Then would all the old griefs be buried and forgotten,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 5: and the soothed minds of contented men trouble themselves no
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 5: more with struggle and labor. Oh, for the dawning of
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 5: that morn, when each man should be king and kingdom
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 5: to himself, and the world resound once more to the
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 5: songs of rejoicing which gladdened the Golden age. Had not
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 5: the sybils so spoken, and had not the poet so sung.
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 5: Then should every man sit under his own vine and
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 5: his fig tree, and poor and rich alike cease from
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 5: the land, for all should be equal and all happy.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 5: But whence should such a deliverer be looked for? Where
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 5: be expected to arise? Ah? Surely only in some happy
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 5: spot of nature, some valley peaceful and beautiful as that
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 5: of cashmere, among a race of pastoral simplicity, in some
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 5: perfect household, where disturbance was never known and one mind prevailed.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 5: Thence alone could come he who would cause the cruel
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 5: swords of war to be turned into plowshares and spears
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 5: into reaping hooks, an animate and inanimate nature to join
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 5: in one general song of joy. So these looked to
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 5: the lovely valleys and the quiet nooks of nature for
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 5: the magic spot where discorded never entered. But they too
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 5: looked and waited in vain. Yet looked and waited on
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 5: as before, and called upon Nature herself to confirm their hopes.
• 1:20:14
  Speaker 5: In the inanimate earth ooke at last to the consciousness
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 5: of some great approaching event, and listened to the whisper
• 1:20:23
  Speaker 5: of deliverance, even as before she had suffered and sunk
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 5: under the ancient curse. And spring by spring, as she
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 5: adorned herself in beauty, putting on verdure and flowers, the
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 5: sense of the mighty One, who was to restore and
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 5: renovate her lost glories, swelled through every pulse. But she
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 5: could not be troubled with the discordant expectations of men.
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 5: Come as he will, she cried, as King, as conqueror,
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 5: as sage, as God. Thus, thus thus in my bloom
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 5: and beauty, do I make myself meet and ready for
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 5: his advent. Thus, thus thus am I worthy to receive
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 5: my Lord and King when he comes? Shall not all
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 5: the hills leap for joy, and the valleys laugh and sing,
• 1:21:27
  Speaker 5: and the trees of the forest rejoice. So spring after
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 5: spring she adorned herself in hope, and summer after summer
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 5: she glowed with longing expectation. But spring and summer fled away,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 5: and no deliverer had come. And when the sap must
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 5: return back again to the roots of trees and plants,
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 5: and flowers and leaves decay, and a torpor as of
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 5: death prevail over them. For a while, she wept with
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 5: tears of regret, while they took sad leave of each other,
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 5: but said, with a new season there will be hope
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 5: once more. And earth echoed the words. But cold and desolate,
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 5: she felt no confidence and showed no signs of hope.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 5: Only the evergreens cheered her up, for said they, while
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 5: better things cannot be had be contented with us at
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 5: any rate. We will remind you of what is to come, Oh,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 5: ignorant man and ignorant earth alike. While darkness was over
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 5: the mind of one, and deadness over the face of
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 5: the other. When the eyes of the common world were
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 5: fixed on earthly palaces, and the thoughts of the wise,
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 5: on the fruits of earthly wisdom, yea, and the lovers
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 5: of pleasure hope for deliver, and scenes of earthly enjoyment. Behold,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 5: God had chosen the foolish things of the world to
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 5: confound the wise, the weak things of the world to
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 5: confound the things which are mighty and base things of
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 5: the world, and things which are despised. Had he chosen
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 5: that no flesh should glory in His presence, Turn aside
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 5: your eyes from earthly grandeurs, ye prisoners of hope, put
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 5: away from your hearts. The confidence of human wisdom. Generation
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 5: after generation had passed away, and the whole world lay
• 1:23:44
  Speaker 5: yet in wickedness. For in the wisdom of God, the world,
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 5: by wisdom knew not God, and not many wise men
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 5: after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 5: called by Him. And then lo in the stable of
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 5: a village inn, where the beasts of the field were
• 1:24:11
  Speaker 5: wont to take their rest, a weary, foot worn maiden
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 5: had lain down for shelter and ease, for no other
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 5: room could be found. And hark to the cry of
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 5: a new born babe, which rose thence unnoticed by the
• 1:24:32
  Speaker 5: busy world without, the first born of a mother whose
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 5: husband earned their bread by daily toil. What mattered this
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 5: common birth to other men? Yet, hark to another cry
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 5: which went up amidst the wailings of the lowly child,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 5: a cry of thanksgiving and praise. Glory be to God
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 5: in the highest and on earth peace good will towards
• 1:25:00
  Speaker 5: men unto you, is born this day in the city
• 1:25:03
  Speaker 5: of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 5: they who sang this clad Hosannah were the angels of Heaven,
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 5: Oh day of glory and delight, The deliver had come
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 5: at last, The day of redemption was there. But what
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 5: was the sign whereby the long expected mighty One might
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 5: be known? Had kings at last given birth to him,
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 5: had sages at last found him? Nay, to simple shepherds
• 1:25:41
  Speaker 5: abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flocks by night?
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 5: Was the news declared amidst the shining of the glory
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 5: of the Lord. And the sign whereby he was to
• 1:25:54
  Speaker 5: be known was that he should be found wrapped in
• 1:26:00
  Speaker 5: swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Oh, ignorant man
• 1:26:08
  Speaker 5: and ignorant earth alike, when the crime of that helpless
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 5: infant broke forth in the shadow of the village, inn
• 1:26:16
  Speaker 5: who untaught of heaven could have dreamt that at that moment,
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 5: And thus the desire of all nations had come among men.
• 1:26:28
  Speaker 5: Yet thus thus, thus in the councils of God, it
• 1:26:34
  Speaker 5: was decreed it should be thus at his first coming
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 5: he should come an example to all men. I. Thus
• 1:26:45
  Speaker 5: thus thus in poverty and lowliness, Thus thus thus, while
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 5: nature lay torpid and hopeless, and half the world was
• 1:26:57
  Speaker 5: winter wrapped in snow. Us thus thus with healing on
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 5: his wings, But not the healing they sought for. Not
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 5: a deliverance from death or sorrow, not a freedom from
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 5: toil or pain, not even a ransom from temptation and sin.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 5: But behold, by the strength and wisdom of God's right
• 1:27:24
  Speaker 5: hand and the power of his Holy spirits to make
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 5: men through all these things more than conquerors. We strive
• 1:27:37
  Speaker 5: after signs and wonders. We look for visible manifestations, We
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 5: long for sensible experiences, and when unanswered, we fall back
• 1:27:49
  Speaker 5: without a hope. But how often, and often and often
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 5: must the lesson of the advent be repeated? Not always
• 1:27:59
  Speaker 5: where in how we look for him does the Divine
• 1:28:02
  Speaker 5: One make his presence known to ourselves. Not always, even
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 5: when we are hopeful and earnest, Not always when in
• 1:28:13
  Speaker 5: confidence we cry Thus, Thus, thus am I meet to
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 5: receive my Lord and King? Does he come? Indeed, then
• 1:28:24
  Speaker 5: hang up the holly, the ivy, and the ewe o'er
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 5: the Christmas snows as memorials of a hope which human
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 5: reason could never teach. Not by the glories of summer
• 1:28:36
  Speaker 5: was the comforter ushered into the world in the season
• 1:28:40
  Speaker 5: of cold and of darkness. He came to his own
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 5: in the winter and humiliation of our souls. When the
• 1:28:49
  Speaker 5: robes of earthly righteousness have been laid aside, It may
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 5: be he will draw near again, when learning and research
• 1:28:58
  Speaker 5: cannot find him. It may be he will reveal himself
• 1:29:02
  Speaker 5: to the simple in hearts. When the expectations of great
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 5: men perish, He may come with healing on his wings,
• 1:29:14
  Speaker 5: to the soul of the lowly and meek. End of
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 5: the Deliverer, Chapter twenty one.
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 6: How when and I whence that God give no reply?
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 6: Let so it is suffice and cease to question, why, Gerta?
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 6: What do they say? What do they say? What do
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 6: they say? What can they have to say? Those noisy
• 1:29:44
  Speaker 6: calling rooks? As they sail along the sky over our heads,
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 6: gathering more and more friends, as they go on to
• 1:29:50
  Speaker 6: the appointed place of meeting? What have they to say?
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 6: What have we to say? They may equally ask. They
• 1:29:58
  Speaker 6: have life and labor, food and children to say their
• 1:30:02
  Speaker 6: say about. And if they do not say it in
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 6: what we are pleased to call language, they say it
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 6: in a way intelligible to each other, which is all
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 6: that is wanted. That they do understand each other's say
• 1:30:13
  Speaker 6: is clear, For they are collecting from far and near
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 6: in large numbers for a definite object, viz. That of
• 1:30:20
  Speaker 6: assembling in some field or some open pasturage or park,
• 1:30:24
  Speaker 6: where they were settled down together for upwards of an hour,
• 1:30:28
  Speaker 6: and walk or hop about as if they had serious
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 6: thoughts of giving up flying all together and taking to
• 1:30:33
  Speaker 6: an earthly life, saying a say all the while, whereof
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 6: we are all together as ignorant as they would be
• 1:30:41
  Speaker 6: of ours round a large dinner table. If they had
• 1:30:44
  Speaker 6: the opportunity of hearing it. We call their say noisy cawing.
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 6: What they would call ours round the large dinner table.
• 1:30:52
  Speaker 6: One cannot guess. But if they concluded it had no
• 1:30:56
  Speaker 6: meaning because they did not happen to understand it, their
• 1:30:59
  Speaker 6: judgment would not be worth much. As to the noises,
• 1:31:03
  Speaker 6: there is not much to choose between them and the
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 6: matter of agreeableness. Nay, of the two, perhaps the din
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 6: produced by human voices is the more discordant and confused.
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 6: If you never thought of this before, o reader, think
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 6: of it now, and take an early opportunity of listening
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 6: and judging for yourself. Listen not as listening to the
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 6: meaning of what is uttered, but to the mass of
• 1:31:25
  Speaker 6: noise as mere noise. Listen to it, as you might
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 6: imagine a rook to do, ignorant of human speech, and
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 6: judging only of the hubbub of sounds, and then own
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 6: to yourself, for conscience will force you to do so.
• 1:31:38
  Speaker 6: That there is neither sweetness nor sublimity, neither melody or
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 6: majesty in the shouting and piping and whistling and hissing
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 6: and barking of closely intermixed human voices and laughter. Alas
• 1:31:53
  Speaker 6: for the barriers which lie so mysteriously between us and
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 6: the other creatures among whom we are born and pass
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 6: our sh short existence upon earth, alas for a desire
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 6: for intercommunion is one of the strong instincts of our nature.
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 6: And yet it is one which, as regards all the
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 6: rest of creation, but our fellow human beings, we have
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 6: to unlearn from babyhood. See the little child as she
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 6: babbles to her cat on the rug, and would fain
• 1:32:20
  Speaker 6: be friends with the soft plaything. Observe in every action
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 6: how she expects it to understand her and return her love.
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 6: Look at the angry disappointment. If a vicious bite or
• 1:32:31
  Speaker 6: scratch disturb the security of the affectionate dream, it is
• 1:32:35
  Speaker 6: not pain alone. The child feels. Let the matter of fact,
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 6: observers say what he will. There is a vexation of
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 6: hurt feelings as well. Push should not have behaved so
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 6: to her Puss, with whom she had so gladly shared
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 6: her breakfast of milk, Puss, whom she had nursed on
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 6: her knee, Puss, who must have known how much she
• 1:32:55
  Speaker 6: loved her. And then follows the lesson. It may have
• 1:33:01
  Speaker 6: been given before, but it has to be given again.
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 6: And while Mamma tells the little one that poor Pussy
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 6: does not know what she means, cannot hear what she says,
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 6: cannot talk as she can, has no sense to know
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 6: how much she loves her, and therefore is not to
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 6: blame for biting, although she must be slept when she
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 6: does it to make her remember not to do it again.
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 6: Behold how the wistful eyes of the listening child haze
• 1:33:24
  Speaker 6: over with a dull dreaminess as she becomes more and
• 1:33:28
  Speaker 6: more perplexed. It is all far too puzzling for her
• 1:33:32
  Speaker 6: to understand. And when she turns again to Puss, as
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 6: if by looking at her to make it out, lo
• 1:33:39
  Speaker 6: the veil between the two natures remains as thick as
• 1:33:42
  Speaker 6: before neither the bite nor anything else has to be explained.
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 6: But practically the unlearning of the instinct has begun, and
• 1:33:51
  Speaker 6: so practically the lesson goes on until we get so
• 1:33:55
  Speaker 6: used to it we forget it was ever a lesson
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 6: at all. And only a few of us here in
• 1:33:59
  Speaker 6: there and grown up life are haunted, as we stand
• 1:34:03
  Speaker 6: among the lower forms of creation by a painful wonder
• 1:34:07
  Speaker 6: at the gulf which lies between. That the lower should
• 1:34:10
  Speaker 6: not fully understand the higher, that they should not understand
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 6: us is comprehensible enough, Nay, is a necessity involved in
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 6: the very idea of a lower and higher. Let the
• 1:34:23
  Speaker 6: philosophers rave as they will at the chains thereby hung
• 1:34:26
  Speaker 6: around their own necks. But that the higher should not
• 1:34:29
  Speaker 6: fully understand the lower, that we should not fully understand
• 1:34:33
  Speaker 6: them is a mystery, indeed, and one of which no
• 1:34:37
  Speaker 6: solution has been offered. What more natural than that the
• 1:34:40
  Speaker 6: dog should not know much about its master? What more
• 1:34:44
  Speaker 6: strange than that the master should know so little of
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 6: his dog. In one sense, of course, he knows all
• 1:34:50
  Speaker 6: about him, i e. The uses he can put him to,
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 6: and what he may expect from him. But of the
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 6: inner world of the dog's life his feelings and motives
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 6: of action. He knows almost nothing, nay even of his
• 1:35:02
  Speaker 6: physical capabilities. He has no complete idea. Who has ever
• 1:35:06
  Speaker 6: explained by what power a dog will take a short
• 1:35:09
  Speaker 6: cut across the country to the house where his master is,
• 1:35:12
  Speaker 6: although he's never been the road before, or why he never,
• 1:35:15
  Speaker 6: even by accident or mistake, brings back any but the
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 6: stone his master through, thrown perhaps with a gloved hand,
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 6: and into wet meadow grass, and not found for several minutes. Verily,
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 6: in more than one sense, we are strangers and pilgrims
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 6: upon earth, For from the first moment of walking to
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 6: conscious thought, we find ourselves in a country where all
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 6: utterances are our own, are to us a blank, all
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 6: the creatures strange, all life unintelligible, both in its beginning
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 6: and its end, All the present as well as past
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 6: and future a mystery. Only children or childlike men, says Novalis,
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 6: have any chance of breaking through the charm which holds
• 1:35:58
  Speaker 6: nature thus as it were, frozen around us like a
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 6: petrified magic city. Oh, if this be true, who would
• 1:36:07
  Speaker 6: not be a child again? Reader? Can you hear this
• 1:36:10
  Speaker 6: and remain unmoved? Or shall you and I become children
• 1:36:13
  Speaker 6: in heart once more come own with me. How hateful
• 1:36:17
  Speaker 6: were the lessons which undeceived us from our earlier instincts
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 6: of faith and sweet companionship with all created things. Let
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 6: us go forth together and for a while forget such teaching,
• 1:36:31
  Speaker 6: hand in hand in the dear, confiding way in which
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 6: only children use. Let us go forth into the fields
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 6: and read the hidden secrets of the world. Clasp mine
• 1:36:41
  Speaker 6: firmly as I clasp yours. See there is magic in
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 6: the action itself. So we place our hands in those
• 1:36:49
  Speaker 6: of our parents, so our children love to place theirs
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 6: in our own. So then, even so, let us too,
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 6: walk trustingly and lovingly together for a while, and join
• 1:37:00
  Speaker 6: again the broken threads of old feelings, wishes, friendships, and hopes. Hush,
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 6: is it a parliament or a congregation?
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 5: Or what?
• 1:37:12
  Speaker 6: The darkens over yonder field are rook politics?
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 3: Or rook?
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 6: Faith? Or rook? Domestic hopes and fears? The subjects that
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 6: everlasting calling, those restless movements, those hoppings and peckings and
• 1:37:24
  Speaker 6: changes of position, cower down here with me by this
• 1:37:28
  Speaker 6: hole in the hedge. Let us lean against this old
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 6: elm root and look through. See the honeysuckle is twined
• 1:37:36
  Speaker 6: in the thorn above our heads, and is giving out
• 1:37:39
  Speaker 6: its scent around us, as if to bid us welcome. Oh,
• 1:37:43
  Speaker 6: dear companion, do you see the dark, glossy creatures at
• 1:37:46
  Speaker 6: their play? Their play? Am I not bold to do so?
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 6: They have come here for some object, with some distinct
• 1:37:54
  Speaker 6: intention and purpose. Yonder, in the tall oaks that overlooks
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 6: the field, in the opposite corner, I see the sentinel guard,
• 1:38:04
  Speaker 6: who will never stir from his post until the assembly
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 6: has dispersed, unless he hears or sees symptoms of danger
• 1:38:10
  Speaker 6: or interruption, And then he will dash out and fly
• 1:38:13
  Speaker 6: among them, making his warning cry so different from all others,
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 6: that any one who has once heard it will recognize
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 6: it again. We must whisper our remarks very softly, then,
• 1:38:24
  Speaker 6: or he may give notice of our presence here, and
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 6: all the flock may forsake the field. How solemn and grave,
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 6: yet how keen and attentive he looks, how patient and observant,
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 6: contented not to join the fund himself, so that he
• 1:38:39
  Speaker 6: may but promote it unselfish, dark watchman, are you paid
• 1:38:44
  Speaker 6: for your trouble? And if so, how or do you
• 1:38:47
  Speaker 6: do it out of love and affection? For your brethren,
• 1:38:50
  Speaker 6: expecting love and affection from them in return on some
• 1:38:53
  Speaker 6: future occasion, when one of them will watch and you
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 6: will be allowed to play play. I still say, but
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 6: can this be only play? Indeed, surely something graver and
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 6: more important than play must be brought these different companies
• 1:39:06
  Speaker 6: and families from their often distant homes to this spot. Alas,
• 1:39:12
  Speaker 6: how vain are my questionings? Nature remains mute around me,
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 6: and man is ignorant and unable to answer. Yes, ignorant
• 1:39:21
  Speaker 6: and unable to answer, Let him say what he will.
• 1:39:24
  Speaker 6: Hear this, O, you philosophers, you lights of the world,
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 6: with your books and papers and diagrams and collected facts
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 6: and self confidence unlimited, you who turn the bull's eye
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 6: of your miserable lanterns upon isolated corners of the universe,
• 1:39:40
  Speaker 6: And fancy you are sitting in the supreme light of
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 6: creative knowledge. Hear this? You are ignorant and unable to
• 1:39:48
  Speaker 6: answer or disprove it of you can by showing me
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 6: that you do know this one simple thing which puzzles me.
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 6: Now tell me what the rooks are doing and saying,
• 1:39:59
  Speaker 6: those in inferior animals about whom you, in your wisdom,
• 1:40:02
  Speaker 6: ought to know everything. Tell me that, and I will
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 6: own that your eyes have been opened indeed, and that
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 6: you are as gods, knowing good and evil. Tell me
• 1:40:14
  Speaker 6: what these grand assemblies are for. Tell me how they
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 6: are called. Tell me how they are conducted. Tell me
• 1:40:20
  Speaker 6: by what message the distant colonies are warmed of the
• 1:40:23
  Speaker 6: particular spot and hour of meeting. Tell me by what
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 6: rules the place is chosen. Tell me how the messenger
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 6: is instructed. Tell me by what means he delivers his message.
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 6: Tell me why they meet on level ground and walk
• 1:40:36
  Speaker 6: like men, and not rather in their own deep woods,
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 6: where they might fly and roost on branches and run
• 1:40:42
  Speaker 6: no danger and need no guard. Tell me what do
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 6: they say, What do they say? What do they say
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 6: when they meet at last? And whether they are here
• 1:40:55
  Speaker 6: for business or for play? Tell me these things, and
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 6: I will listen to you. When you point out to
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 6: me the counsels and workings of the creator of rooks
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 6: and of men, but miserable guides, miserable comforters. Are you
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 6: all better a thousand times to be a child as
• 1:41:12
  Speaker 6: I am now lying under this twining honeysuckle and listening
• 1:41:16
  Speaker 6: reverently to the unknown murmurs in the field. But oh, twining, honeysuckle,
• 1:41:21
  Speaker 6: Why do you breathe out only scent around me? Stoop
• 1:41:25
  Speaker 6: stoop stoop? I know you know? Why not whisper in
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 6: my ear? Then what they say? Tell me? What do
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 6: they say? Childlike? I ask? Childlike? Must I always ask
• 1:41:38
  Speaker 6: in vain? But hush for a moment. Someone speaks, some
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 6: stranger interrupts us. Already calls gentlemen, as if gentlemen were here. Oh, go, go, go,
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 6: whoever you may be. There are no gentlemen here, only children, children,
• 1:41:55
  Speaker 6: for one brief hour of weary, grown up life. Leave us. Yes,
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 6: let us dream our dream in peace. But how is this?
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 6: I see no one near. Yet the voice is louder
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 6: than before. Companion, where are you look? There is no
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 6: disturbance in the field. The sentry sits firm at his post.
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 6: The rest are hopping, pecking, jumping as before. And yet
• 1:42:20
  Speaker 6: I hear, Oh what do I hear? A voice? And
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 6: from among the rooks themselves? Have my senses left me?
• 1:42:29
  Speaker 6: Or have I received another? Anyhow? The spell is broken
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 6: at last, and language, language, language resounds on every side.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker 6: Quick Then my tablets, let me record what I see
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 6: and hear? One among them comes forward, A crowd surrounds him.
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 6: He is congratulated. He inclines his head. He thanks his
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 6: friends for a reception so far beyond his merits or
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 6: his hopes. Oh folly are they aping the mockeries of men? Wait?
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 6: He is serious once more, And here on my tablet
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 6: I record what the rook says. The origin therefore of
• 1:43:08
  Speaker 6: these creatures, these men, whom we equally fear and dislike,
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 6: is decidedly the most useful of all subjects of study.
• 1:43:17
  Speaker 6: How can it be otherwise? Their treatment of us and
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 6: our feelings to them, can never be placed on proper
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 6: footing until we know something of the nature of the
• 1:43:27
  Speaker 6: people themselves. In fact, my friends, I base my whole
• 1:43:31
  Speaker 6: inquiry upon these two assumptions. First, that it is desirable
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 6: to ascertain the exact truth on the subject. Secondly, that
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 6: it is possible to ascertain the exact truth upon any subject,
• 1:43:44
  Speaker 6: if one chooses to try. Whoever goes along with me
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 6: on these points, will be so good as to rise
• 1:43:50
  Speaker 6: from the ground by a hop and give a call
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 6: thank you, Thank you, gentlemen, for your applause. My recognition
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 6: of our common capabilities is acceptable to you. I perceive
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 6: unlimited faith in them is indeed the keystone of all knowledge.
• 1:44:05
  Speaker 6: Thank you, thank you, thank you once more. But I,
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 6: the transcriber of this arrogant nonsense, am ready, as I
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 6: listened to their senseless cause, to throw down my tablets
• 1:44:17
  Speaker 6: in despair. Oh, to think of finding the false glassings
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 6: of philosophical conceit among the birds of the air, and
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 6: as welcome as But hush, he speaks again. How, when, whence?
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 6: And why? Then are the questions we must put and
• 1:44:33
  Speaker 6: learn to answer. How came this creature in the land?
• 1:44:36
  Speaker 6: And whence? When was he firs our foe? And why
• 1:44:41
  Speaker 6: why also is he here at all? These are difficult questions, indeed,
• 1:44:46
  Speaker 6: and before we answer them, let us look at the
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 6: facts of the case. Unhappily, they are too well known
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 6: to need much description. It is and has been from
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 6: time immemorial. I have made inquiry of our oldest relations,
• 1:44:58
  Speaker 6: a system of encroachment on one side and retreat on
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 6: the other. He comes near us, and we fly. He
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 6: pursues us again, and again we retire before him. Old
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 6: solitudes and woodland homes are invaded and made public, and
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 6: we seek fresh retreats, only to be driven out afresh.
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 6: It is a terrible position, and a time will certainly
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 6: come when we must seek a new world or cease
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 6: to exist unless some remedy for the threatened evil can
• 1:45:25
  Speaker 6: be found. Now, the why of our yielding our place
• 1:45:29
  Speaker 6: to man is fear. We can none of us deny it,
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 6: a cowardly terror which seems to have possessed our race
• 1:45:36
  Speaker 6: as far back as our oldest grandsires can recollect. But
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 6: the why of this fear?
• 1:45:43
  Speaker 3: What is that?
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 6: I am told on all sides, that is our sense
• 1:45:47
  Speaker 6: of man's superiority to ourselves. Hence we give way, overawed
• 1:45:52
  Speaker 6: by his presence. And here I will at once confess
• 1:45:55
  Speaker 6: that I was, for a long time myself as firm
• 1:45:57
  Speaker 6: a believer in this old tradition as any of you
• 1:46:00
  Speaker 6: can be. At the present moment, when I beheld ancient
• 1:46:03
  Speaker 6: woods deserted, ancient homes forsaken, how could I fail to
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 6: tremble before him, who I was told was the mighty
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 6: cause of such disturbance. But thanks to the awakened spirit
• 1:46:15
  Speaker 6: of inquiry, I emerged at last from the labyrinth of
• 1:46:18
  Speaker 6: what I now believed to be an old wives tale.
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 6: The why of our giving way was fear. That was
• 1:46:25
  Speaker 6: obvious enough, the why of the fear man's superiority? So
• 1:46:30
  Speaker 6: it was said at least? But of this, what proofs?
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 6: Was my next demand? And no one could give me
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 6: an answer. Here was a position for an intelligent creature,
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 6: everything mysterious, unknown, and taken for granted, nothing proved. I
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 6: shouted my proofs till I was hoarse, but everyone turned
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 6: away silent. Who can wonder then, that my next inquiry
• 1:46:54
  Speaker 6: was a doubt? Is man superior to ourselves? After all?
• 1:47:00
  Speaker 6: No one can show me the fact by proofs. May
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 6: not this old tradition then be a mere myth, the
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 6: delusion of timid minds imposed upon weak ones. For truth,
• 1:47:09
  Speaker 6: My friends, the moment when I asked myself these questions
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 6: was the turning point of my life. Henceforth I resolved
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 6: to inquire and investigate for myself, and the result of
• 1:47:21
  Speaker 6: my labors I am going to place before you. Yet,
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 6: lest you should accuse me also of mere assertion making,
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 6: let me guide you into examining the facts of the
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 6: matter fairly for yourselves. Now, all common observation is against
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 6: the superiority of men. While we fly swiftly through the sky,
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 6: behold him creeping slowly along the ground, while we soar
• 1:47:46
  Speaker 6: to the very clouds a brief jump, and come down again,
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 6: as all his utmost efforts can accomplish. Though I have
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 6: seen him practicing to get higher and higher in his leaps,
• 1:47:55
  Speaker 6: as if at a game, and at all times, if
• 1:47:59
  Speaker 6: one of his legs is up, the other is obliged
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 6: to be down, or the superior creature would apt to
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 6: tumble on his nose. Yet it is in this miserable,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 6: lopsided manner he moves from place to place unless he
• 1:48:12
  Speaker 6: can get some other being more skillful than himself to
• 1:48:15
  Speaker 6: carry him along again. While we are clothed in a natural, thick,
• 1:48:20
  Speaker 6: glossy plumage, available equally for summer or winter. Behold man
• 1:48:26
  Speaker 6: not possessing in himself the means of production against any
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 6: sort of weather whatsoever. Neither the warmth of summer nor
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 6: the cold of winter suits his uncomfortable skin. In all
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 6: seasons he must wear clothes clumsy encumbrances, with which he
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 6: is driven by a sad necessity to supply the place
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 6: of the feathers or fur with which every other creature
• 1:48:47
  Speaker 6: on earth but himself is blessed. What sort of superiority
• 1:48:51
  Speaker 6: is this one more instance out of many, and I
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 6: shall have said enough for the present. It is one
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 6: the force of which every filhilosophical mind will appreciate. While
• 1:49:02
  Speaker 6: we are satisfied with ourselves and all around us, man
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 6: is ever discontented and uneasy, seeking rest in everlasting change,
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 6: but neither finding it himself nor allowing it to others,
• 1:49:15
  Speaker 6: as we know, to our bitter cost. Ah, my friends,
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 6: if reathless dissatisfaction be a proof of superiority, who would
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 6: not be glad to be an inferior animal? Now then
• 1:49:29
  Speaker 6: have I shaken the old faith in the old tradition.
• 1:49:32
  Speaker 6: If so, you will be better disposed to accept the
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 6: new one. Whoever is satisfied of this, let him soar
• 1:49:39
  Speaker 6: from the ground and give a caw. What a rising
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 6: of dark forms in the air, What an outburst of cause?
• 1:49:47
  Speaker 6: Verily tis a beautiful language after all, and beautiful creatures
• 1:49:51
  Speaker 6: they are themselves. Only I am not sure I do
• 1:49:55
  Speaker 6: not like them better so than the would be wisdom
• 1:49:58
  Speaker 6: of men. Yes, if they had but the sense not
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 6: to sit in judgment upon things beyond their power. But hush,
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 6: he speaks again. One objection remains to be answered. It
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 6: was suggested by a keen sighted friend. Now I am
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 6: proud to say a warm supporter of my views. In
• 1:50:17
  Speaker 6: some of the unmannerly invasions of our premises already alluded to,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 6: painful events occur while standing under roosting trees. These creatures
• 1:50:26
  Speaker 6: men will occasionally level at as sticks of the most
• 1:50:30
  Speaker 6: contemptible size, by which, owing to some contrivance which I
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 6: have not at all present had the time to investigate,
• 1:50:37
  Speaker 6: make suddenly an abominable banging noise and very unpleasant smoke.
• 1:50:41
  Speaker 6: And no sooner do our youngsters see and hear all
• 1:50:44
  Speaker 6: this than some of them are pretty sure to fall
• 1:50:46
  Speaker 6: down upon the ground, as if crouching at the very
• 1:50:48
  Speaker 6: feet of our foe. All fathers of families here present
• 1:50:52
  Speaker 6: will admit the truth of this description and know the
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 6: terrible result. The prostrate young ones are carried away, unresisting
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 6: and are never heard of more. Now this has actually
• 1:51:05
  Speaker 6: been brought forward as proof of the superiority of men.
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 6: Though in what way wanton cruelty prove superiority, I confess
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 6: I am unable to see. And what cannot we flatter
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 6: ourselves we have proved when our minds are warped by
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 6: a theory I looking at the fact with an unprejudiced eye,
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 6: seeing it nothing but the miserable fruits of a delusion
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 6: encouraged through so long a succession of ages, that we
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 6: have transmitted to our very offspring an inheritance of paralyzing fear.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 6: For observe it is rarely, very rarely the grown up
• 1:51:41
  Speaker 6: bird who is the victim of this terror, Only the
• 1:51:44
  Speaker 6: tender and susceptible young ones, with which no experience of
• 1:51:48
  Speaker 6: life to counteract the insane cowardice which our obstinate adorance
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 6: to the old wives tale has bequeathed to their constitutions.
• 1:51:57
  Speaker 6: Enough of this, I pass now to the pleasanter part
• 1:52:00
  Speaker 6: of my task, the statement of a theory respecting the
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 6: origin of men, which affords a beautiful and consistent explanation
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 6: of all the puzzling facts we have been considering, and
• 1:52:11
  Speaker 6: opens up a vista of triumph to the whole rook race. Mercy,
• 1:52:17
  Speaker 6: what thunders of applause? I am deafened, but curiosity has
• 1:52:22
  Speaker 6: awakened at last? What folly?
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 2: Yet?
• 1:52:25
  Speaker 6: If ingenuity were wisdom, well, well, if it were, judges
• 1:52:30
  Speaker 6: would be overruled by barristers, and a thousand unjust verdicts
• 1:52:34
  Speaker 6: become law again, he opens his bill. My friends, man
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 6: is not our superior, and never so, for he is
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 6: neither more nor less than a degenerated brother of our
• 1:52:46
  Speaker 6: own race. Yes, I venture confidently to look back thousands
• 1:52:50
  Speaker 6: on thousands of generations, and I see that men were
• 1:52:54
  Speaker 6: once rooks like us. They were covered with feathers like us,
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 6: lived in trees, flew instead of walking, roosted instead of
• 1:53:02
  Speaker 6: squatting in stone boxes. And we're happy and contented as
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 6: we are.
• 1:53:06
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 1:53:07
  Speaker 6: This is a bold proposition, and I do not ask
• 1:53:10
  Speaker 6: you to assent to it at once. But if, on
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 6: testing it in various ways, you are forced to admit
• 1:53:15
  Speaker 6: that by it you are able to explain things hitherto inexplicable,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 6: and to account for things otherwise unaccountable, though ocular proof
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 6: cannot be had, then I insist that you cannot reasonably
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 6: reject my solution without offering me a better one in exchange.
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 6: If things are not so, how are they? Is the
• 1:53:36
  Speaker 6: ground I stand upon, For remember, we have already laid
• 1:53:40
  Speaker 6: down the maxim that everything ought to be and can
• 1:53:43
  Speaker 6: be explained well here then I advance another step forward.
• 1:53:49
  Speaker 6: I give an explanation, supported of course by facts and
• 1:53:52
  Speaker 6: I challenge you either to accept it or to answer
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 6: the searching inquiry. If things are not so, how are they?
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 6: Gentlemen who see the justice of this remark will perhaps
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 6: afford me a congratulatory cause. Almost unanimous, I declare, And
• 1:54:10
  Speaker 6: my venerable friends who hesitate, well, well, it is from
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 6: the young I look for support. A natural distaste to
• 1:54:17
  Speaker 6: disturbance of ideas comes on with declining years. Thank you, gentlemen. Again,
• 1:54:22
  Speaker 6: the voices of my young supporters are loud and impressive.
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 6: Oh birds of the air. The world and the vanities
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 6: and folly of it are as deep in your hearts
• 1:54:33
  Speaker 6: as in ours. But again, he resumes the test I
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 6: begin with. Is this, supposing that my theory be true,
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 6: and that men are degenerated rooks, what would be the
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 6: condition of their minds, what their feeling and conduct towards
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 6: us the original race? Would not the painful sense of degradation,
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 6: in the first place cause them to be restless and
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 6: uneasy with their present condition, as in fact we see
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 6: they are, And would it, not, in the second place,
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 6: stimulate them to an incessant craving for reassociation, a desire
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 6: to be with us among us, of us, and like
• 1:55:08
  Speaker 6: us once more, What more natural then that they should
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 6: pursue us with almost tireless pertinacity, a fact inexplicable on
• 1:55:18
  Speaker 6: the theory of man's superiority, And that when we retreat
• 1:55:21
  Speaker 6: before them in fear, that they should still follow us, not, however,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 6: as we have so long imagined, with evil intent, but
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 6: with the outstretched arms of love, My friends, I feel
• 1:55:34
  Speaker 6: the moisture tremble in my eyes at the thought of
• 1:55:36
  Speaker 6: the gross misconceptions we have cherished with respect to this
• 1:55:39
  Speaker 6: much maligned human race. How cruel, how cold we must
• 1:55:43
  Speaker 6: have appeared to them, how heartless. Pardon my emotion, Give
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 6: me encouragement by an approving call, louder than ever, only
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 6: hoarse with suppressed emotion. The dream of nonsense is becoming
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 6: real and exciting, he speaks. And now even for the
• 1:56:05
  Speaker 6: terrible loss of our young ones, and explanation dawns, and
• 1:56:09
  Speaker 6: their probable fate becomes clear, and happily it is one
• 1:56:14
  Speaker 6: of which, in the midst of parental regrets, we cannot
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 6: be proud. Yes, I'd boldly pictured to myself those lost
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 6: young ones carried away to become the friends and instructors
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 6: of the race we have dreaded as enemies, I do
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 6: not hesitate to imagine them tenderly nursed and watched in
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 6: the stone boxes into which we cannot see, but which
• 1:56:36
  Speaker 6: they inhabit as homes. Every movement an object of interest
• 1:56:40
  Speaker 6: to their captors, every action creating admiration, and made a
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 6: subject of imitation. And I see no improbability in the picture.
• 1:56:50
  Speaker 6: For if, as I shall now present show by unanswerable proofs,
• 1:56:54
  Speaker 6: men are imitating not only our appearance, but our very
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 6: customs and manners, there being able to do so, can
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 6: be only attributed to the instructions imparted to them, whether
• 1:57:05
  Speaker 6: by example or precept by our own offspring, For who
• 1:57:10
  Speaker 6: else can have taught them? Ages may pass away before
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 6: the reunion of the two races takes place, But when
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 6: it does, and I look forward to it in confident faith,
• 1:57:20
  Speaker 6: it will be our own children who will have been
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 6: the means of bringing those long parted brethren together, those
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 6: children who once fell down in fear at the feet
• 1:57:29
  Speaker 6: of men, and over whose fate hitherto the veil of
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 6: an impenetrable mystery has been thrown. My friends, it is
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 6: my proud delight at this moment to lift that veil
• 1:57:42
  Speaker 6: and reveal to the affectionate mourners the bright and pleasurable reality.
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 6: And thus the mysteries of men's pursuit and apparent ill
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 6: usage of us become, in the light of my theory,
• 1:57:55
  Speaker 6: natural and intelligible facts. But you have a right to
• 1:57:59
  Speaker 6: reply clear as all this would be if the thing
• 1:58:02
  Speaker 6: itself could be, that still remains to be shown. By
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 6: what possible means could birds ever degenerate into men? Nothing
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 6: can be more reasonable than the inquiry, Nothing more conclusive,
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 6: I believe, than the explanation I am able to give
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 6: at this very moment. Then, my friends, we are ourselves
• 1:58:24
  Speaker 6: living examples of a first step in the same direction.
• 1:58:27
  Speaker 6: Here we are assembled from all quarters of the country,
• 1:58:30
  Speaker 6: having deserted our trees and woods, to meet in an
• 1:58:33
  Speaker 6: open field. As men meet walk lopsided, as they walk
• 1:58:37
  Speaker 6: with one leg up and the other down, or jump
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 6: in short hops instead of using our wings, what account
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 6: can we give of this? To descend to the earth
• 1:58:47
  Speaker 6: for a few moments for food, sticks, or wool, as
• 1:58:49
  Speaker 6: they are needed, is one thing to prolong our stay
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 6: upon it as we do now is a matter of
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 6: dangerous choice, alas indolence and a fatal tendon to yield
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 6: to the ease of the moment are the causes of
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 6: our own conduct, And so they were. I can have
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 6: no doubt whatever of the degradation of our ancestors. Ages
• 1:59:10
  Speaker 6: indeed may pass away without any perceptible effect being produced
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 6: upon the individuals of a race by the bad habits
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 6: in which all are indulging. In fact, where a gradual
• 1:59:21
  Speaker 6: change is creeping over all, it attracts the attention of
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 6: none but heap ages upon ages and other ages upon them,
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 6: in a succession to which the century lives of our
• 1:59:32
  Speaker 6: grandfathers are a tiny fraction of time. And what then,
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 6: anything is possible in the course of such a period.
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 6: Can anyone disprove what I say? If so, let him
• 1:59:43
  Speaker 6: call it publicly out. If not, let him hold his tongue.
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 6: You are silent. I perceive that you assent. Now, then
• 1:59:54
  Speaker 6: let us imagine a race of bygone rooks, less energetic
• 1:59:58
  Speaker 6: even than ourselves. Nay, we will, if you please imagine
• 2:00:02
  Speaker 6: them with some temporary weakness in their wings. Such deviations
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 6: from a general standard are quite possible, and indulging gradually
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 6: more and more in the relief afforded to the evil
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 6: by this pernicious habit of ground walking. There seems to
• 2:00:18
  Speaker 6: be no great difficulty in believing that a weakness so
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 6: indulged should gain ground in proportion to the extent of
• 2:00:23
  Speaker 6: the indulgence, until, in the course of the long ages
• 2:00:27
  Speaker 6: alluded to and by many inheritances of increased want of power,
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 6: the mischief, once trifling, became insurmountable, and a race incapable
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 6: of using their wings at all arose. Now it is
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 6: well known to you all, by observation of our young ones,
• 2:00:44
  Speaker 6: that wings grow by use. After the young brood makes
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 6: efforts at flying, those necessary appendages increase. Thus much, therefore
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 6: is clear practice brings power, and power brings on growth
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 6: and enlargement, and in a similar manner, want of practice
• 2:01:02
  Speaker 6: brings a falling away of strength and diminution in size.
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 6: Why then, should there be any insuperable difficulty in further
• 2:01:10
  Speaker 6: believing it possible that the never used and consequently constantly
• 2:01:13
  Speaker 6: diminishing wings of generation after generation should disappear at last
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 6: entirely as wings, leaving us only the outer bone remaining
• 2:01:23
  Speaker 6: as a sort of claw whereby to lay hold onto
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 6: what was wanted, bared of all its beauty and ornament,
• 2:01:30
  Speaker 6: in fact the long, uncouth arm of the present man,
• 2:01:35
  Speaker 6: And I can hardly doubt that in a similar manner
• 2:01:38
  Speaker 6: the other unused feathers on back and breast and legs
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 6: would also gradually fail. No air blowing through them, no
• 2:01:44
  Speaker 6: freedom of action, no battling with the breeze. On the contrary,
• 2:01:49
  Speaker 6: a stuffy life in close stone boxes, enclosed on all sides. Well,
• 2:01:55
  Speaker 6: might wings diminish in size, and feathers decrease in quantity,
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 6: until at length, in the naked, claw armed, bare legged
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 6: creature not a trace of them can be found. Every
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 6: probability is in favor of such a result, provided you
• 2:02:11
  Speaker 6: only allow time enough for the imperceptible action of the change,
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 6: and now reflect upon the miserable creature presented to your
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 6: imagination enlarged, It is true in length, for his lazy
• 2:02:24
  Speaker 6: habits encourage that sort of feeble growth, and the power
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 6: which once produced feathers must needs develop in some other form.
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 6: But behold him, a featherless, thin skinned, biped, neither beast
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 6: nor bird nor fish, wandering shivering over the face of
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 6: the earth, needing help from every other creature around him,
• 2:02:47
  Speaker 6: yet never satisfied with anything he gets. Need I fill
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 6: up the picture further, or will not everyone recognize at
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 6: once in this miserable animal the portrait of the superior
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 6: being Man? Well, may the listeners call, well? May they
• 2:03:03
  Speaker 6: wheel round and round an exalting flight? I myself grow
• 2:03:07
  Speaker 6: giddy and confused? Am I then half convinced? Yet for
• 2:03:12
  Speaker 6: an imperfect being to hope to fathom the higher nature?
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 5: Bah?
• 2:03:16
  Speaker 6: What blerdash of folly? But hark, he has begun afresh
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 6: that such a degradation is possible. Is therefore clear. And
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 6: of the thousand difficulties cleared away by the establishment of
• 2:03:29
  Speaker 6: this fact, I will offer you one more. You must
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 6: all admit that one of the most puzzling wies in
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 6: connection with man is why he wears clothes, a habit which,
• 2:03:40
  Speaker 6: viewing him as a perfect animal, it would be impossible
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 6: to account for, but which, on the contrary, considering him
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 6: as a degenerated one, is just what might be expected.
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 6: He had his natural clothes once, like the rest of
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 6: the animals on earth, He has lost them now through
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 6: the disease of his deterioration, and must supply himself with
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 6: the miserable makeshifts of dress. My friend's time does not
• 2:04:05
  Speaker 6: allow me to give you more than a few examples
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 6: of my collection of proofs, the extent of which is enormous.
• 2:04:11
  Speaker 6: For even after my own convictions were fixed forever by
• 2:04:14
  Speaker 6: the discoveries I have already named, I never relaxed in
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 6: my researches, but being unable to be personally in more
• 2:04:21
  Speaker 6: places than one at a time, I employed in active
• 2:04:24
  Speaker 6: investigations several distinguished friends I will mention, particularly mister Ravenwing,
• 2:04:30
  Speaker 6: Mister Yellowbeak, and mister Gray Legs. Furnished with a complete
• 2:04:34
  Speaker 6: understanding of what I believed and wished to be proved,
• 2:04:38
  Speaker 6: these gentlemen have been unremitting in their efforts to procure
• 2:04:41
  Speaker 6: corroborative facts, of which therefore I will, before I conclude,
• 2:04:46
  Speaker 6: mention a few of the most striking. Mister Ravenwing's particular
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 6: line was to find evidence of attempts on the part
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 6: of man to recover the color of the original race,
• 2:04:55
  Speaker 6: namely black, And to this end he did not shrink
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 6: even from the distasteful task of approaching those vast masses
• 2:05:02
  Speaker 6: of men's stone boxes, which they call cities, towns, or villages,
• 2:05:06
  Speaker 6: in order that he might observe the proceedings of their
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 6: inhabitants and he came back to me, absolutely overwhelmed with
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 6: what he had met. With black in all the streets,
• 2:05:15
  Speaker 6: struggling to overpower every other hue. Black, queiscant on the
• 2:05:19
  Speaker 6: pavements and walls, Black rising triumphantly into the air from
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 6: the mouths of those smaller boxes which are placed on
• 2:05:26
  Speaker 6: the summit of the larger ones, apparently to raise their height,
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 6: of which, singular fact, I shall have more to say.
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 6: By and by black also the usual color of the
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 6: coverings by which men protect their heads from the outer air. Black,
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 6: even in the clumsy boots which cover their feet. Black
• 2:05:43
  Speaker 6: pretty nearly covers everything everywhere, mister raven Wing positively declared,
• 2:05:49
  Speaker 6: And on another occasion, in some parts of the country,
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 6: he came upon whole races of men who left their
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 6: homes every morning at an early hour white, but returned
• 2:05:59
  Speaker 6: to them every evening black, having accomplished this transformation during
• 2:06:03
  Speaker 6: the course of the day. But by what means this
• 2:06:06
  Speaker 6: significant change was affected, he could not precisely ascertain, For
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 6: the places to which these creatures resorted for the purpose
• 2:06:13
  Speaker 6: were either deep holes in the earth into which they
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 6: descended and soon disappeared from sight, or large dark enclosures
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 6: full of fire and heat and smoke into which no
• 2:06:23
  Speaker 6: bird could follow them and live, so that all he
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 6: knew of them was that everything there being black people
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 6: became blackened who remained there long enough. Alas what sufferings
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 6: men endure in their struggles to become like ourselves, it
• 2:06:37
  Speaker 6: is pitiful to reflect upon, and the repetition of the
• 2:06:40
  Speaker 6: endurance is not the least remarkable fact for the case.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 6: For unhappily, the desired result appears only to last for
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 6: the period of one day. These many merged from their
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 6: stone boxes next morning, pallid as before again, to go
• 2:06:54
  Speaker 6: forth to similar haunts, and to undergo the same tortures
• 2:06:58
  Speaker 6: to bring back for the same short time. I'm the
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 6: coveted color to their cheeks. All these circumstances, gentlemen, fell
• 2:07:05
  Speaker 6: under mister Ravenwing's personal observation, and of them therefore no
• 2:07:09
  Speaker 6: doubt can be entertained. But it is fair to tell
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 6: you also that he did, in the course of his travels,
• 2:07:14
  Speaker 6: hear of another class of facts highly corroborative of these,
• 2:07:18
  Speaker 6: but of which as depending upon hearsay evidence, I cannot
• 2:07:21
  Speaker 6: so positively speak that hearsay evidence went to show that
• 2:07:25
  Speaker 6: there are already existing in the world a class of
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 6: men whose black color remains with them for life, nay
• 2:07:32
  Speaker 6: to transmit it to their offspring. So effectual have been
• 2:07:36
  Speaker 6: the means used by their ancestors of acquiring it. Singular
• 2:07:39
  Speaker 6: and interesting as the circumstance is, if true, I do
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 6: not wish to dwell upon it. Imperfect evidence is the
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 6: one thing in the world on which no fair inquirer
• 2:07:48
  Speaker 6: likes to build. On the other hand, mister Yellowbeek's mission
• 2:07:53
  Speaker 6: was to obtain proofs of man's endeavor to resume his
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 6: life in trees, and of this some very interesting instances
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 6: were reduced. In the same cities or towns which were
• 2:08:03
  Speaker 6: the seat of mister Ravenswing's investigations, mister Yellowbeak discovered narrow,
• 2:08:08
  Speaker 6: upright and very much elongated brick boxes, no thicker than
• 2:08:12
  Speaker 6: the stems of our large trees, and in many cases
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 6: strongly resembling them in formation, only destitute altogether of branches
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 6: and leaves, and out of the tops of these, mister
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 6: Yellowbeak noticed to issue those same columns of black smoke,
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 6: as he was told it was called, which mister raven
• 2:08:29
  Speaker 6: Wing had observed before, and which is evidently one of
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 6: the many contrivances by which man is endeavoring after a
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 6: restoration to the appearance of his lost primeval state. Indeed,
• 2:08:41
  Speaker 6: my esteemed and acute friend satisfied himself that there was
• 2:08:44
  Speaker 6: at the present day going on among men a series
• 2:08:48
  Speaker 6: of systematic and unremitting efforts for a return to the
• 2:08:51
  Speaker 6: lost forests, and the original condition of which efforts these
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 6: stem like buildings furnish. A notable example, let some ingenious
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 6: plan be devised for the construction of branches on each side,
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 6: and there can be no possible reason why men should not,
• 2:09:06
  Speaker 6: in the course of time. But mark me, I do say,
• 2:09:08
  Speaker 6: in the course of time roost in these brick trees
• 2:09:12
  Speaker 6: as they did of yore in the natural ones. In fact,
• 2:09:16
  Speaker 6: that this will eventually take place, and that men will
• 2:09:18
  Speaker 6: make their homes in the branched chimneys of cities. I
• 2:09:21
  Speaker 6: see no difficulty in supposing, nor that this will be
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 6: one more powerful step towards return to the common interests
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 6: and hopes between ourselves and them. Mister Grayleg's information was
• 2:09:33
  Speaker 6: of a miscellaneous character. He was out early one morning
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 6: near a large village, and having fixed his attention on
• 2:09:39
  Speaker 6: one of those smaller boxes usually placed on the others
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 6: to raise the height of the building. He all at
• 2:09:44
  Speaker 6: once observed emerging from its mouth, a living creature. My friends.
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 6: It is a solemn and important fact that this creature
• 2:09:53
  Speaker 6: was black all over, black as a black feather coat
• 2:09:57
  Speaker 6: could have made him. Black in his skin, black in
• 2:09:59
  Speaker 6: his clothes, black in the arm, which lifted itself up
• 2:10:02
  Speaker 6: and waved round and round triumphantly, something also black, and
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 6: more like a bird's feather than anything else. The gesture
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 6: was triumphant, and the voice scarcely less so.
• 2:10:15
  Speaker 4: Sweep oh, sweep, oh, sweep oh, some feeble attempt, we
• 2:10:21
  Speaker 4: may suppose, at a return to the caw of their
• 2:10:24
  Speaker 4: better days, yet in its monotony, indicating a common origin
• 2:10:28
  Speaker 4: of language. Mister gray Legg's observations were especially valuable, however,
• 2:10:33
  Speaker 4: in his discovery of more than one place near great
• 2:10:36
  Speaker 4: towns in which attempts are frequently made on the part
• 2:10:39
  Speaker 4: of our poor degenerate brothers towards bringing to perfection a
• 2:10:43
  Speaker 4: substitute for the lost.
• 2:10:44
  Speaker 6: Power of soaring in the air. Clumsy as the machine
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 6: or balloon used for this purpose is, the mere fact
• 2:10:52
  Speaker 6: of its invention, forms one of the most invaluable links
• 2:10:55
  Speaker 6: in the chain of evidence of man's determination to return
• 2:10:58
  Speaker 6: as soon as possible to the habits and manners of
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 6: his forefathers. Weary of his degradation. He is, no doubt
• 2:11:05
  Speaker 6: at the very moment we are avoiding and fearing him,
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 6: longing to make known to us his sense of his misery,
• 2:11:11
  Speaker 6: and to obtain assistance and hope for the future. But
• 2:11:14
  Speaker 6: among other things, the total loss of our language consequent
• 2:11:18
  Speaker 6: upon a long cessation of intercourse, remains as an almost
• 2:11:21
  Speaker 6: insupperable difficulty between us. The sounds he emits now from
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 6: his billless mouth are in truth an unmeaning jargon to
• 2:11:31
  Speaker 6: which it is absolutely painful to listen. It serves his
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 6: present necessities, we may presume, as orders seem to be
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 6: given and taken between one individual and another. But beyond
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 6: this it is mere jaw and jaw, with as little
• 2:11:46
  Speaker 6: music in it as meaning. There is in fact neither
• 2:11:50
  Speaker 6: sweetness nor sublimity, neither melody nor majesty in the shouting
• 2:11:54
  Speaker 6: and piping and whistling and hissing and barking of closely
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 6: intermixed human voices and laughter.
• 2:12:00
  Speaker 7: Where am I?
• 2:12:02
  Speaker 5: Where am I?
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 6: What am I about? In some mocking echo repeating my
• 2:12:07
  Speaker 6: former words? But hush once more, for the voices speaking again.
• 2:12:13
  Speaker 6: This is but the faintest outline of what will be
• 2:12:15
  Speaker 6: laid before you hereafter, if indeed we ever meet again.
• 2:12:18
  Speaker 6: As now, these points meanwhile are established as facts which
• 2:12:22
  Speaker 6: admit of no dispute. Man's degradation from his original brotherhood
• 2:12:26
  Speaker 6: with ourselves, his yearnings for reassociation, his constant efforts in
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 6: that direction, And for my own part, I am equally
• 2:12:35
  Speaker 6: satisfied of the probability of his success in those efforts.
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 6: I venture confidently to anticipate futurity. And I see him
• 2:12:43
  Speaker 6: mounted in his brick roosting home, growing wings and feathers
• 2:12:46
  Speaker 6: because they have become a necessity. While as the long
• 2:12:50
  Speaker 6: ages pass over and his present vile habits die out
• 2:12:52
  Speaker 6: from want of use, he will gradually lay aside the
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 6: unmeaning jargon which he has fallen into since he ceased
• 2:12:58
  Speaker 6: to be one of us, and return to the original
• 2:13:01
  Speaker 6: call of his happier state. Alas, my friends, that for
• 2:13:06
  Speaker 6: us personally, these bright visions cannot be realized, we shall
• 2:13:10
  Speaker 6: none of us behold that glorious day. I speak it
• 2:13:13
  Speaker 6: with regret. As long as we can hope to last,
• 2:13:17
  Speaker 6: men will probably remain thin skinned clothes wearing creatures. Our
• 2:13:20
  Speaker 6: grandchires remember them still hop lopsided on the ground, and
• 2:13:25
  Speaker 6: only occasionally, and by very clumsy machines, soar into the sky.
• 2:13:30
  Speaker 6: But I find no difficulty in looking forward, through innumerable
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 6: successions of ages, to a time when men will, again,
• 2:13:37
  Speaker 6: through gradual successive developments of down and feathers, become swift
• 2:13:42
  Speaker 6: flying friends of the air, our friends, companions, brothers, rooks,
• 2:13:47
  Speaker 6: in fact, like ourselves. All observations tend to show that
• 2:13:51
  Speaker 6: a change in this direction is already at work. Nay,
• 2:13:55
  Speaker 6: has been so for a considerable length of time, and
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 6: with increasing symptoms of success, as the observations of mister ravenwing,
• 2:14:03
  Speaker 6: mister Yellowbeak, and mister gray Legs must have convinced you.
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 6: All probability therefore is in favor of that success becoming
• 2:14:11
  Speaker 6: one day complete. But in the meantime, knowing the peculiar
• 2:14:15
  Speaker 6: relations between their race and hours, and anticipating the day
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 6: when they shall become one, should it not be our
• 2:14:21
  Speaker 6: endeavor to what silence is this which has cut short
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 6: the sentence which neither their cawn nor the voice of
• 2:14:30
  Speaker 6: the speaker bake again? How is this? Where am I
• 2:14:35
  Speaker 6: do I? Wake or dream. I peep through the hedge
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 6: once more, but see nothing but a bare, deserted field,
• 2:14:42
  Speaker 6: gone gone, all gone. The green pasture lies void and
• 2:14:47
  Speaker 6: empty under the setting sun. A deathlike silence is around,
• 2:14:51
  Speaker 6: Or so it seems to me. Only the constant honeysuckle
• 2:14:55
  Speaker 6: wearies not of breathing out its sweetness round my head? Companion,
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 6: where are you alas no hands clasped in mine alone?
• 2:15:06
  Speaker 6: Then have I been dreaming some foolish dream? Or is
• 2:15:09
  Speaker 6: someone in secret sympathizing with me? Still? Ah, memory reawakens
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 6: by degrees. I recall the book that was lying upon
• 2:15:19
  Speaker 6: my desk when I issued forth into these fields, And
• 2:15:23
  Speaker 6: the thought of the first temptation of man flashes from
• 2:15:25
  Speaker 6: another book upon my soul. Woe upon us. The world
• 2:15:31
  Speaker 6: grows old, and life is repeated from age to age,
• 2:15:35
  Speaker 6: and the same sins are sinned. Still we desire to
• 2:15:39
  Speaker 6: be as God and knowledge. Still the hand writes in
• 2:15:42
  Speaker 6: fire upon our walls. Except ye become as little children,
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 6: ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven. End
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 6: of Chapter twenty one.
• 2:15:54
  Speaker 2: Chapter twenty two, the general thaw Ah, When shall all
• 2:16:00
  Speaker 2: men's good be each man's rule and universal peace lie
• 2:16:04
  Speaker 2: like a shaft of light across the land. Tennyson, ice,
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 2: snow and water. Only think of such near neighbors, blood relations,
• 2:16:15
  Speaker 2: so to speak, from the creation, squabbling about their rights
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 2: and dignities, and which was best of the three, instead
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 2: of living pleasantly together, giving and taking in turn, as
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 2: the case might be. But so it was, and the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 2: facts were these. It was a very very hard winter
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 2: that year, and the ice on the mill dam grew
• 2:16:36
  Speaker 2: so thick and strong, and was besides so remarkably smooth
• 2:16:41
  Speaker 2: and fine, that it forgot its origin and fancied itself
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 2: a crystal floor. Only think what nonsense, But there is
• 2:16:50
  Speaker 2: no nonsense. People will not be ready to believe when
• 2:16:54
  Speaker 2: they once began to meditate upon their own perfections. And so,
• 2:16:58
  Speaker 2: fancying himself off a crystal floor, the ice got to
• 2:17:02
  Speaker 2: look down upon the water which flowed beneath him as
• 2:17:06
  Speaker 2: an impertinent intruder, and considered it a piece of great
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 2: familiarity on the part of the snow to come dropping
• 2:17:13
  Speaker 2: upon him from the sky. In fact, his head was
• 2:17:17
  Speaker 2: so full of his own importance in the world that
• 2:17:20
  Speaker 2: it seemed to him everybody else ought to be full
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 2: of it too, and keep at a respectful distance and
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 2: admire him. And he made some very unpleasant remarks to
• 2:17:30
  Speaker 2: that effect. For instance, I should be much obliged to you,
• 2:17:35
  Speaker 2: observed he one day, to the water which ran into
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 2: the dam from the stream. If you would have the
• 2:17:41
  Speaker 2: goodness to run yourself in some other direction when you
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 2: find yourself coming near me, over the fields, to the right,
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 2: or to the left, or into the ditches, if you please, anywhere,
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 2: in fact, but just under me. You fidget me to
• 2:17:56
  Speaker 2: death with your everlasting trickling and movement. Pray use yourself
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 2: in some other way than by disturbing people in such
• 2:18:03
  Speaker 2: a position as mine. I dare say you have no
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 2: notion of how disagreeable you make yourself to others. You
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 2: are so used to your own ways yourself. But the
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 2: truth is I can bear it no longer, and you
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 2: must carry your restlessness somewhere else. It distracts my attention
• 2:18:22
  Speaker 2: from my friends. Now. The friends he spoke of were
• 2:18:26
  Speaker 2: the skaters and sliders who did nothing but praise his
• 2:18:29
  Speaker 2: beauty as they darted along on his surface, making beautiful
• 2:18:33
  Speaker 2: figures as they went. But I wish answered the water
• 2:18:37
  Speaker 2: as it kept running in that you would not talk nonsense,
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 2: and leave me a little more elbow room instead of
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 2: pressing so close upon me that I get thinner and
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 2: thinner every day. If you don't, I shall certainly break
• 2:18:51
  Speaker 2: out if I can, and be at the top of myself.
• 2:18:54
  Speaker 2: I've no notion of being kept down by my neighbors,
• 2:18:57
  Speaker 2: however grand and polished. They may just take care of
• 2:19:01
  Speaker 2: yourself and look out. If the springs on the moors
• 2:19:04
  Speaker 2: should get loose and the streams fill and come in
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 2: here with a rush, I should lift you up like nothing,
• 2:19:11
  Speaker 2: and silly enough you would look turn in another direction,
• 2:19:15
  Speaker 2: indeed into the ditches, if I please, many thanks for
• 2:19:20
  Speaker 2: the pleasant suggestion, and all to accommodate you. Why I
• 2:19:25
  Speaker 2: should as soon think of sinking into the ground, And
• 2:19:28
  Speaker 2: I hope I know my own level better than that. Meantime,
• 2:19:32
  Speaker 2: I give you notice. If you won't be obliging yourself,
• 2:19:36
  Speaker 2: you must expect no favors from me, and it will
• 2:19:39
  Speaker 2: be good bye to your beauty and grandeur. If I
• 2:19:42
  Speaker 2: can only squeeze through. If shouted the ice in a
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 2: mocking tone, if well, if echoed the water in a rage,
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 2: stiff and strong as you are, it only wants a
• 2:19:56
  Speaker 2: thaw in the hills to send a torrent your way,
• 2:19:58
  Speaker 2: and the whole thing's done. But what do you know
• 2:20:01
  Speaker 2: about thaws and hills and torrents and the force of
• 2:20:05
  Speaker 2: pent up water fixed in one place? As you are
• 2:20:08
  Speaker 2: never getting any information? Now, if you were to ask
• 2:20:12
  Speaker 2: my advice, who knows so much more than you do,
• 2:20:17
  Speaker 2: and could give you a hint or two upon yielding
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 2: gracefully to necessity, it would be greatly to your advantage.
• 2:20:28
  Speaker 2: But but the butt died away and was lost. For
• 2:20:33
  Speaker 2: even while the water was talking, some of it was freezing,
• 2:20:37
  Speaker 2: and as it froze, its voice got thinner and thinner,
• 2:20:40
  Speaker 2: till at last it could not be heard at all. Meantime,
• 2:20:45
  Speaker 2: the ice got thicker and more conceited every minute, and
• 2:20:49
  Speaker 2: said he, it cannot be worth my while to trouble
• 2:20:53
  Speaker 2: myself with what is happening underneath me. There the water is,
• 2:20:57
  Speaker 2: and there he must remain. Let him brag and chatter
• 2:21:01
  Speaker 2: as he will, he at the bottom, and I at
• 2:21:05
  Speaker 2: the top. As to making out what he means by
• 2:21:08
  Speaker 2: his long talk, that's hopeless. He stuck fast in the
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 2: middle of the story himself. I wish he would get
• 2:21:14
  Speaker 2: out of the way. But as he won't well there
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 2: he must stay. I suppose he at the bottom and
• 2:21:21
  Speaker 2: I at the top. He's all in a muddle with
• 2:21:24
  Speaker 2: his ifs and his threats. But one cannot expect firmness
• 2:21:28
  Speaker 2: of mind from anything so restless as he is. It
• 2:21:32
  Speaker 2: needs some solidity of character to maintain one's position in life.
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 2: Rolling stones gather no moss. I sit firm, and here
• 2:21:42
  Speaker 2: come my friends to do me honor, I declare, And
• 2:21:46
  Speaker 2: come they did, and in such quantities that the mill
• 2:21:49
  Speaker 2: damn ice had never felt half so grand before. It
• 2:21:53
  Speaker 2: was really the prettiest sight in the world. Here were
• 2:21:57
  Speaker 2: beautiful ladies in chairs, pushed along from behind by gay
• 2:22:00
  Speaker 2: young men. There other young men were skating or sliding,
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 2: sometimes shooting by like stars, sometimes stooping to hit balls
• 2:22:09
  Speaker 2: which flew half across the large expanse of ice by
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 2: the effort of one blow, sometimes cutting figures which the
• 2:22:16
  Speaker 2: eye could scarcely follow. So rapid and brilliant were the movements,
• 2:22:21
  Speaker 2: while in a separate corner children were sliding and shouting,
• 2:22:24
  Speaker 2: tumbling down, laughing and getting up again, as happy as
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 2: any of the others. Really, the ice on whom this
• 2:22:31
  Speaker 2: pretty scene took place must be excused for feeling a
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 2: little vain. It seemed to him as if all was
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 2: done in compliment to himself. For you see, he had
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 2: never been at school to learn any better and find
• 2:22:44
  Speaker 2: out how insignificant everybody is to his neighbor. That I
• 2:22:48
  Speaker 2: should be treated with such honor and distinction, that I
• 2:22:52
  Speaker 2: should be the supporter of such a brilliant assembly, that
• 2:22:55
  Speaker 2: I should be necessary to the happiness of such crowds.
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 2: Such were the ICE's reflections from time to time, as
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 2: his friends continued their sports talk, he could not, for
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 2: he was lost in a rapture of delight, and he
• 2:23:09
  Speaker 2: felt that, as life could have nothing more to give,
• 2:23:12
  Speaker 2: he wished it might last on in this way forever.
• 2:23:17
  Speaker 2: Poor Ice, he thought only of himself as to the
• 2:23:20
  Speaker 2: trickling of the water underneath him. It fidgeted him no longer.
• 2:23:25
  Speaker 2: What can I or my friends care for such trifles,
• 2:23:29
  Speaker 2: was his consolatory reflection. So it trickled away unattended to,
• 2:23:34
  Speaker 2: and presently the day closed in and the company went home.
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 2: And then as night drew on, the wind veered to
• 2:23:41
  Speaker 2: the south, and a drizzle of snow began to fall.
• 2:23:45
  Speaker 2: It was very light at first, mere snow dust in fact,
• 2:23:49
  Speaker 2: and in the darkness, the ice knew nothing of what
• 2:23:51
  Speaker 2: was happening, for feel it could not. But by degrees
• 2:23:55
  Speaker 2: the drizzle turned into flakes, which dropped with graceful delay
• 2:23:58
  Speaker 2: through the air. And said to themselves as they did so,
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 2: how we shall be admired by the world when it awakes.
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 2: It isn't every day in the year, it's so beautifully dressed.
• 2:24:10
  Speaker 2: It's only now and then it has visitors from the skies.
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 2: Do let us cover it well over so that it
• 2:24:17
  Speaker 2: may find itself white all together for once, which they did,
• 2:24:21
  Speaker 2: And when the morning came, not a bit of the
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 2: mill dam ice was to be seen. Indeed, he might
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 2: have gone on all day fancying it was night, for
• 2:24:30
  Speaker 2: everything was dark to him as he lay underneath the
• 2:24:33
  Speaker 2: shade of the snowfall. But that one or two luckless
• 2:24:36
  Speaker 2: urchins who wanted to slide came and kicked some of
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 2: it away with their feet, And then he found out
• 2:24:42
  Speaker 2: the truth. There he was covered up with a great
• 2:24:46
  Speaker 2: white sheet, and couldn't see out his beauty, his friends,
• 2:24:51
  Speaker 2: his glories. Where were they now? He thought of yesterday,
• 2:24:55
  Speaker 2: and his heart almost broke. Oh, who had dared to
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 2: send those miserables snowflakes to disfigure him. Thus never was
• 2:25:03
  Speaker 2: insolence like this. The trickling of the water below is
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 2: a trifle, a mere nothing by comparison, the snowflakes were amazed.
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 2: We come of ourselves. Nobody sent us, murmured they, as
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 2: they still kept falling gently from the sky and dropping
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 2: like eider down on the ice. And we have the
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 2: right to come where we please. Who can hinder us?
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 2: I wonder the clouds are too heavy to carry us all,
• 2:25:29
  Speaker 2: So some of us come down. My sisters and I
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 2: were nearest, so here we are. We don't understand your rudeness.
• 2:25:37
  Speaker 2: You ought to be flattered that we choose to come,
• 2:25:40
  Speaker 2: we who are used to be carried about by the
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 2: breezes and live in the clouds. But such a reception
• 2:25:46
  Speaker 2: as this, why it hurts the feelings, of course, the
• 2:25:50
  Speaker 2: feelings shouted the ice, half ready to crack with vexation.
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 2: You talk of feelings, who have flung yourselves uninvited on
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 2: my face, beggarly wanderers, as you are without house or home,
• 2:26:04
  Speaker 2: and have spoilt my beauty and happiness. At once, he
• 2:26:08
  Speaker 2: couldn't go on, the words stuck fast as he tried.
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 2: Beggarly wanderers echoed the snowflakes, almost losing their temper as
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 2: they repeated the words. Now, see what comes of being
• 2:26:21
  Speaker 2: low born and envious and vile? See what it is
• 2:26:25
  Speaker 2: to live in the dirty whole of an earthly world.
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 2: You don't know the good when it comes to you,
• 2:26:31
  Speaker 2: you dreary, motionless lump of ignorant matter, beggarly wanderers. Indeed
• 2:26:39
  Speaker 2: this to us, who are carried about by the breezes
• 2:26:42
  Speaker 2: and live in the clouds of the sky. Dear us
• 2:26:46
  Speaker 2: who would lower themselves to your level by choice and beauty.
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 2: You talk of beauty, as if we could find any here.
• 2:26:53
  Speaker 2: But what we bring ourselves fancy the beauty of dingy,
• 2:26:57
  Speaker 2: dirty stuff like this earth of yours. But of course
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 2: you know no better, And what is worse you won't
• 2:27:04
  Speaker 2: learn when you might. Oh dear what it is to
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 2: be low born and envious and vile, Oh dear what
• 2:27:12
  Speaker 2: it is to belong to the winds and the skies,
• 2:27:15
  Speaker 2: and to find oneselves in an alien land. If the
• 2:27:19
  Speaker 2: winds and skies are so fond of you, let them
• 2:27:22
  Speaker 2: come and take you away, cried the ice. I ask
• 2:27:26
  Speaker 2: only one thing begone, begone, with your mincing conceit and
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 2: your beauty. You are not worthy that I should hold
• 2:27:32
  Speaker 2: you up, you braggart. We would like to hide you
• 2:27:37
  Speaker 2: and cover you over forever, muttered the snowflakes. And we
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 2: don't intend to go for your pleasure and whim. Here
• 2:27:45
  Speaker 2: we are, and here we shall stay. Let you squall
• 2:27:48
  Speaker 2: and ball as you will. We at the top and
• 2:27:51
  Speaker 2: you at the bottom, and there you may remain. And
• 2:27:55
  Speaker 2: such seemed likely to be the case. But by and by,
• 2:27:57
  Speaker 2: when all the clouds had passed over, and know more
• 2:28:00
  Speaker 2: snow was falling, and the sun had begun to shine,
• 2:28:03
  Speaker 2: a party of skaters and sliders came and stood on
• 2:28:06
  Speaker 2: the bank of the dam, and said they one to another, First,
• 2:28:10
  Speaker 2: what a pity. And then but the snow is not
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 2: very thick. And then it surely might be shoveled away
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 2: if we had but two or three men with shovels
• 2:28:19
  Speaker 2: and brooms. So they sent for two or three men
• 2:28:22
  Speaker 2: with shovels and brooms, and these swept and shoveled, and
• 2:28:25
  Speaker 2: shoveled and swept till a great space of the ice
• 2:28:28
  Speaker 2: was left clear, and the snow was laid in heaps
• 2:28:31
  Speaker 2: on the sides. It was a very hard case for
• 2:28:34
  Speaker 2: the snow, such a poor, soft, delicate thing, to be
• 2:28:37
  Speaker 2: so ill used. It was really cruel work, pushed and
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 2: flung and dirtied and shoveled about till she was ready
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 2: to melt with self pity. But there is no helping
• 2:28:48
  Speaker 2: one's fate. So she lay along the sides of the
• 2:28:51
  Speaker 2: mill dam, grumbling and groaning, the only satisfaction she could get.
• 2:28:56
  Speaker 2: So inhospitable to visitors anyhow, she cried, and so stupid
• 2:29:01
  Speaker 2: to visitors like us. But this comes of leaving one
• 2:29:04
  Speaker 2: station to mix with things below, and to soil my
• 2:29:07
  Speaker 2: lovely color with their hateful beasms and brooms, and to
• 2:29:12
  Speaker 2: squeeze me and throw me about with their odious shovels,
• 2:29:15
  Speaker 2: as if I was dirt. Ah, we who belonged to
• 2:29:18
  Speaker 2: the sky should never come near the earth. That's very clear.
• 2:29:22
  Speaker 2: People here don't know what it is to be delicate
• 2:29:25
  Speaker 2: and refined. Oh mercy, what comes next, she might well exclaim.
• 2:29:31
  Speaker 2: The party of sliding boys had quarreled, a sort of
• 2:29:34
  Speaker 2: thun quarrel among themselves, so there was just now a
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 2: rush to the side of the dam, a seizing and
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 2: pommeling and squeezing of snow into lumps by a dozen
• 2:29:44
  Speaker 2: active little hands. And then the balls were let fly
• 2:29:47
  Speaker 2: in every direction, and some hit necks and others faces,
• 2:29:51
  Speaker 2: and others jackets and others caps, and all got messed
• 2:29:55
  Speaker 2: and broken and thrown about. There is no knowing when
• 2:29:59
  Speaker 2: the fight would have ended if the skaters had not interfered.
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 2: The scattered, begrimmed morsels could not utter a single word,
• 2:30:06
  Speaker 2: but the ice talked fast enough. Now you have got
• 2:30:09
  Speaker 2: your desserts, he cried gaily. Now you see what it
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 2: is to come and boast over your betters. Oh you're
• 2:30:16
  Speaker 2: too delicate and refined for earth, are you?
• 2:30:19
  Speaker 3: Well?
• 2:30:20
  Speaker 2: Then keep in the sky. Nobody wants you here. I
• 2:30:23
  Speaker 2: told you that before. See now you have to sit
• 2:30:26
  Speaker 2: in a corner and watch how the world admires me.
• 2:30:29
  Speaker 2: You wanted to hide me forever, did you, you poor soft,
• 2:30:33
  Speaker 2: foolish thing. But my friends knew better than that. And
• 2:30:36
  Speaker 2: now you've got your desserts. I shall have you all
• 2:30:40
  Speaker 2: in order one of these days. You and the water
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 2: below with its fidgety spite. What a droll idea it
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 2: is why you both want to be on top. If
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 2: poor DearS you only could, and you can't see, poor
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 2: blind things, that I'm the only one fit to stand alone.
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 2: We will soon see to that growled the water from below,
• 2:31:02
  Speaker 2: and surely rather louder than usual. I feel what I feel,
• 2:31:07
  Speaker 2: and you'll feel at presently too. If I can't stand alone,
• 2:31:11
  Speaker 2: I can bide my time. We both want to be
• 2:31:14
  Speaker 2: at top? Do you say? And who are both? If
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 2: you please? Are you classing me with my strength and
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 2: that flimsy snow together? What a judge you must be,
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 2: as if strength was the only merit, murmured what still
• 2:31:29
  Speaker 2: remained a flaky snow on the ice. What a coarse,
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 2: earthly notion. But it's just what one might expect. They're
• 2:31:37
  Speaker 2: all alike down here, water and ice, and all no
• 2:31:42
  Speaker 2: fit companions for us. But we've found that out too late.
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 2: We lowered ourselves to come down. The more's the pity.
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 2: I'm sure. Were there ever three creatures so silly as water,
• 2:31:55
  Speaker 2: the snow and the ice, I dare not answer no. Well,
• 2:32:00
  Speaker 2: before the day was over, the skaters had asked each other,
• 2:32:03
  Speaker 2: as they passed and repassed? Was there not a softness
• 2:32:06
  Speaker 2: on the ice? Was not the snow less crisp but
• 2:32:10
  Speaker 2: all was perfectly safe, so people did not stop to talk. Then,
• 2:32:14
  Speaker 2: only as they went home they agreed that a thaw
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 2: was coming, which remark the ice, not hearing, knew nothing about.
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 2: So he never suspected why the water underneath was more
• 2:32:25
  Speaker 2: fussy than ever, but thought it was all out of
• 2:32:28
  Speaker 2: spite to himself. So he raved and scolded away, boasting
• 2:32:32
  Speaker 2: that his friends should one day help him get rid
• 2:32:34
  Speaker 2: of it, as they had done just now of the snow.
• 2:32:37
  Speaker 2: It's a great thing to have powerful friends, cried he triumphantly.
• 2:32:43
  Speaker 2: But the water gurgled and giggled and made no answer.
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 2: The truth was that one or two springs in the
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 2: hills had got loose from a few hours thaw, and
• 2:32:54
  Speaker 2: a strong stream, though not a torrent, was pouring into
• 2:32:58
  Speaker 2: the dam. And presently there was a cry for room,
• 2:33:01
  Speaker 2: more room, more room, Make much more room, you stiff
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 2: necked ice, do you hear? And now the contests began.
• 2:33:10
  Speaker 2: I shall not give way an inch, you noisy vagabond water.
• 2:33:15
  Speaker 2: If you don't, I shall wash you away. You shall
• 2:33:19
  Speaker 2: wash the world away. First I shall maintain my position.
• 2:33:23
  Speaker 2: We shall see about that in a minute. And so
• 2:33:26
  Speaker 2: they went on, while the snow heaps whimpered at the sides.
• 2:33:30
  Speaker 2: What a coarse minded couple they are. What it is
• 2:33:33
  Speaker 2: to be low born and vile? We are quite unfit
• 2:33:36
  Speaker 2: to be here. Meantime, the water poured in and kept
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 2: swelling more and more, till at last there was a
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 2: heaving upward in spite of all he could do of
• 2:33:46
  Speaker 2: the crystal floor, and by and by a sharp crack
• 2:33:50
  Speaker 2: rang along its surface from one end to the other.
• 2:33:53
  Speaker 2: He could not maintain his position after all. And now
• 2:33:57
  Speaker 2: came another and another, And these were along the sides
• 2:34:01
  Speaker 2: as the lift up came, and at one corner it
• 2:34:04
  Speaker 2: oozed the water itself. It had no chance of bragging, however,
• 2:34:08
  Speaker 2: for as fast as it touched the surface, it froze
• 2:34:11
  Speaker 2: and was turned to ice. So this was all the
• 2:34:14
  Speaker 2: water could do then, for the thaw and the hills
• 2:34:17
  Speaker 2: had stopped. But the ice never rallied again because of
• 2:34:21
  Speaker 2: those horrible cracks. He was laughed at on every side,
• 2:34:25
  Speaker 2: he who had boasted so much, for the water below
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 2: and the snow above, who were ready enough to tease
• 2:34:31
  Speaker 2: each other at other times, were willing to join together
• 2:34:34
  Speaker 2: now in spiting a common foe. Such is the way
• 2:34:38
  Speaker 2: of the world. And when a real general thaw came
• 2:34:41
  Speaker 2: in the air and all over the country as soon
• 2:34:44
  Speaker 2: as it did, and the sliders and skaters withdrew. Oh dear,
• 2:34:47
  Speaker 2: those were dismal days for the poor deserted ice. My
• 2:34:51
  Speaker 2: friends forsake me, cried he and my foes rejoice. Those
• 2:34:56
  Speaker 2: cracks have broken my heart. I believe it is melting away.
• 2:35:02
  Speaker 2: And it was. But the snowflakes were the first to disappear.
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 2: And then the ice became wet outside, and said he,
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 2: the water is squeezed through. I declare this comes of
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 2: keeping bad company. But anyhow, the snowflakes are gone, and
• 2:35:17
  Speaker 2: that's civil. At least they did what they were asked,
• 2:35:21
  Speaker 2: and that's something. Now, the water had not squeezed through,
• 2:35:25
  Speaker 2: and the snowflakes had not been civil. But the cleverest
• 2:35:28
  Speaker 2: people make mistakes sometimes, And presently the water below found
• 2:35:32
  Speaker 2: the pressure upon him not quite so great. There was
• 2:35:35
  Speaker 2: a little more room to move in, so he said,
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 2: dear me, this is good, my friend. The ice is
• 2:35:41
  Speaker 2: giving way better late than never. We'll say he's coming
• 2:35:45
  Speaker 2: to reason at last. But the ice was not coming
• 2:35:49
  Speaker 2: to reason. He was only melting away. And as he
• 2:35:52
  Speaker 2: got thinner and thinner, he struggled less and less with
• 2:35:54
  Speaker 2: the water, and said he we shall all live to
• 2:35:58
  Speaker 2: be friends and neighbors at last, I believe. But they
• 2:36:02
  Speaker 2: lived be far more than that. For one day they
• 2:36:04
  Speaker 2: found themselves brothers. For when the ice got so thin
• 2:36:07
  Speaker 2: that the water poured over the sides, it broke into
• 2:36:10
  Speaker 2: a thousand fragments and went rolling and tumbling about, dissolving
• 2:36:14
  Speaker 2: away every minute. And the snow heaps which had stuck
• 2:36:17
  Speaker 2: on the sides fell in two. And they all rolled
• 2:36:21
  Speaker 2: about together, ice and snow and water in one. And
• 2:36:25
  Speaker 2: they wept and rolled and tumbled and tumbled and rolled
• 2:36:29
  Speaker 2: and wept and cried they what have we been doing?
• 2:36:33
  Speaker 2: What folly we have been talking, scolding and thwarting and boasting.
• 2:36:38
  Speaker 2: When my friends, my dear dear friends, we are all
• 2:36:42
  Speaker 2: of us brothers together. It was a long and happy embrace,
• 2:36:47
  Speaker 2: and is still going on. But oh what a pity
• 2:36:51
  Speaker 2: they did not find the truth out sooner. Let those
• 2:36:54
  Speaker 2: who are brothers by nature think of this, and not
• 2:36:58
  Speaker 2: wait for the general thought are death. End of chapter
• 2:37:04
  Speaker 2: twenty two.
• 2:37:05
  Speaker 8: Chapter twenty three The light of life except the Lord
• 2:37:10
  Speaker 8: build the house their labor is, but lost that build
• 2:37:13
  Speaker 8: it Psalms chapter one hundred twenty seven, Verse one, What
• 2:37:20
  Speaker 8: more could have been done for it than I have done?
• 2:37:22
  Speaker 8: The cry came from an afflicted heart. It was uttered
• 2:37:25
  Speaker 8: by Hans Jansen, the Hamburg printer's only son, as he
• 2:37:29
  Speaker 8: sat moaning over a dying rose tree in the corner
• 2:37:31
  Speaker 8: of a little back yard behind his father's house. Hans
• 2:37:35
  Speaker 8: Jansen was what is commonly called not all there. That is,
• 2:37:40
  Speaker 8: he could not see and comprehend the things of this
• 2:37:42
  Speaker 8: life as his neighbors did. More than half of what
• 2:37:45
  Speaker 8: passed around him was hidden from his eyes. He was,
• 2:37:48
  Speaker 8: in part, though not altogether, an idiot. It was a
• 2:37:53
  Speaker 8: great distress to his parents that this should be the case.
• 2:37:55
  Speaker 8: It had been so once, however, but being good Christians,
• 2:37:59
  Speaker 8: they had reckoned, piled themselves to it, and learned by
• 2:38:01
  Speaker 8: degrees to seek comfort through the cloud. If Hans was
• 2:38:05
  Speaker 8: below the rest of the world in some ways, he
• 2:38:07
  Speaker 8: was above them in others. The fear of God and
• 2:38:10
  Speaker 8: the love of his neighbor had come to him almost
• 2:38:12
  Speaker 8: as an instinct. At any rate, without the struggles some
• 2:38:15
  Speaker 8: people have to go through before their hearts are touched
• 2:38:17
  Speaker 8: by either one or the other, he wouldn't have missed
• 2:38:21
  Speaker 8: saying his prayers night and morning, or grace at meals
• 2:38:24
  Speaker 8: to please an emperor, and an unkind word about any
• 2:38:27
  Speaker 8: one could never be got out of him. Truly, their
• 2:38:30
  Speaker 8: Hans was ripening for a better state of existence. Whether
• 2:38:33
  Speaker 8: he had any book learning or not, he had nothing
• 2:38:36
  Speaker 8: to fear but everything to hope for from death, and
• 2:38:39
  Speaker 8: he had one passion, one special cause of enjoyment and delight.
• 2:38:43
  Speaker 8: He doted on flowers, and was seldom seen without one
• 2:38:46
  Speaker 8: in his button hole all the summer through. But this
• 2:38:49
  Speaker 8: was because his good nature had made him many friends,
• 2:38:51
  Speaker 8: who took a pleasure in seeing him pleased, and gave
• 2:38:54
  Speaker 8: him a nosegay when they could. It was very well
• 2:38:56
  Speaker 8: known that he had no garden of his own. Mister
• 2:39:00
  Speaker 8: Jansen's house was a red brick one in a row,
• 2:39:03
  Speaker 8: with a square enclosure in front covered with pebbles, and
• 2:39:06
  Speaker 8: a square yard at the back, which had a pump
• 2:39:08
  Speaker 8: in the middle and a dog kennel on one side.
• 2:39:11
  Speaker 8: It is true this yard was covered with soil, and
• 2:39:13
  Speaker 8: there were scrubby patches of grass upon it here and there,
• 2:39:16
  Speaker 8: but it was used for a drying ground and had
• 2:39:18
  Speaker 8: never once been brightened by flowers since the day it
• 2:39:21
  Speaker 8: was first parceled out, and the walls were built around it,
• 2:39:24
  Speaker 8: across which were now stretched the lines on which the
• 2:39:27
  Speaker 8: linen was hung to dry. The fact was mister Jansen
• 2:39:31
  Speaker 8: had not wished for a garden. He was busy from
• 2:39:34
  Speaker 8: morning to night at his printing business in the town.
• 2:39:37
  Speaker 8: His wife had quite enough on her hands in household cares,
• 2:39:40
  Speaker 8: and no effectual work could be expected from an idiot child.
• 2:39:45
  Speaker 8: How Hans came to be so fond of flowers was
• 2:39:47
  Speaker 8: a mystery, but there are many mysteries of this sort
• 2:39:50
  Speaker 8: in the world. It had been so from his baby days,
• 2:39:53
  Speaker 8: and many were the hours he had spent, unnoticed in
• 2:39:55
  Speaker 8: a corner of that back yard, grubbing in the old
• 2:39:58
  Speaker 8: black soil, making believe to have a garden with beds
• 2:40:01
  Speaker 8: and walks like those he had seen elsewhere. Nay, once
• 2:40:04
  Speaker 8: or twice he had tried to grow mustard and cress,
• 2:40:07
  Speaker 8: and even sweet peas, a few seeds of which were
• 2:40:09
  Speaker 8: given him by a neighbor's child. But somehow or other,
• 2:40:12
  Speaker 8: nothing ever came of these real attempts, and he had
• 2:40:15
  Speaker 8: to make himself happy with the make believe garden at
• 2:40:17
  Speaker 8: the end. But it was no make believe plant he
• 2:40:21
  Speaker 8: was wailing over now, but a real Jean de Bataille
• 2:40:24
  Speaker 8: rose tree, which had been given him many weeks before.
• 2:40:28
  Speaker 8: It was thus a good natured nursery gardener who knew
• 2:40:32
  Speaker 8: his father, had let him walk through his grounds one
• 2:40:34
  Speaker 8: flower show day before the company came, and, having by
• 2:40:37
  Speaker 8: chance noticed poor Hans sobbing from excitement at sight of
• 2:40:41
  Speaker 8: the glories round him, his own heart melted, for he
• 2:40:44
  Speaker 8: had an only and clever son himself, and he felt
• 2:40:46
  Speaker 8: sorry for the darkness over his friend's child. So when
• 2:40:50
  Speaker 8: Hans was going away, he gave him not only a
• 2:40:52
  Speaker 8: nosegay of the tulips and hyacinths, but a fine young
• 2:40:55
  Speaker 8: rose tree in a pot, as fine a Jean de
• 2:40:58
  Speaker 8: Bataille as had ever been raised, said he to Hans
• 2:41:01
  Speaker 8: as he offered it, adding that it would flower in
• 2:41:04
  Speaker 8: six or eight weeks and brighten all the place up
• 2:41:07
  Speaker 8: by its rich blaze of color. Hans trembled as he
• 2:41:10
  Speaker 8: received it, and he stood with his mouth half open,
• 2:41:13
  Speaker 8: irresolute and abashed, wanting to speak, yet not daring. What
• 2:41:18
  Speaker 8: is it, boy, asked the nursery gardener, speak out, How
• 2:41:23
  Speaker 8: do you make your flowers so beautiful? Gasped Hans, half
• 2:41:26
  Speaker 8: afraid of what he had said. Well, well, returned the
• 2:41:29
  Speaker 8: nursery gardener with a smile, some in one way and
• 2:41:32
  Speaker 8: some in another. But we don't tell our secrets to everybody. Nevertheless,
• 2:41:37
  Speaker 8: I'll tell you how to make your rose beautiful, for
• 2:41:39
  Speaker 8: you'll make no bad use of anything. I'll be bound.
• 2:41:42
  Speaker 8: You've a yard or a court, or some place with
• 2:41:44
  Speaker 8: soil in it, Eh, yes, yes, then I'll tell you
• 2:41:48
  Speaker 8: what you must do. Pursued the nursery gardener. Dig a
• 2:41:51
  Speaker 8: hole in a sheltered place, pretty deep, you know, and
• 2:41:54
  Speaker 8: put in a bone or two and some hair. My
• 2:41:56
  Speaker 8: son shall give you a handful at the bottom. Then
• 2:42:00
  Speaker 8: turn the plant out of the pot, not disturbing the
• 2:42:02
  Speaker 8: ball of earth for the world, remember, and set it
• 2:42:05
  Speaker 8: right down upon the hair. Then fill up the whole
• 2:42:09
  Speaker 8: neatly with soil, and say nothing about what you've done
• 2:42:12
  Speaker 8: to anybody. And there's an end. Keep it sheltered, mind,
• 2:42:15
  Speaker 8: and water it at first, or if you see it,
• 2:42:18
  Speaker 8: get very dry, and with soap SuDS whenever you can
• 2:42:21
  Speaker 8: get them. Soap SuDS and bones and hair are the
• 2:42:24
  Speaker 8: main things. There's nothing like them for bringing roses to perfection.
• 2:42:28
  Speaker 8: You'll have flowers as big as a hat, and as
• 2:42:30
  Speaker 8: bright as cherries before the summer's over. If you do
• 2:42:33
  Speaker 8: as I say, and look well after the plant, there,
• 2:42:36
  Speaker 8: good luck to you, and it good bye. And this
• 2:42:41
  Speaker 8: was the plant, this poor wizened thing over which Hans
• 2:42:44
  Speaker 8: was moaning. But how had it come to this? That
• 2:42:47
  Speaker 8: was the difficulty. The gardener's sun had given Hans the hare,
• 2:42:51
  Speaker 8: and he had found the bones, there were plenty by
• 2:42:53
  Speaker 8: the dog kennel, and he had dug the hole and
• 2:42:55
  Speaker 8: put them at the bottom. And he had turned the
• 2:42:57
  Speaker 8: plant out of the pot and not broken the ball
• 2:42:59
  Speaker 8: of earth. And he had placed it upon the hair,
• 2:43:01
  Speaker 8: and filled up the hole and watered it at first,
• 2:43:03
  Speaker 8: and whenever he saw it get very dry and with
• 2:43:06
  Speaker 8: soap SuDS on a wash day. For he had only
• 2:43:08
  Speaker 8: to ask and have, without question or trouble. He had
• 2:43:12
  Speaker 8: done everything, in short, surely everything, For he had put
• 2:43:16
  Speaker 8: it in the most sheltered spot he could find, in
• 2:43:18
  Speaker 8: the self same corner where he had played at make
• 2:43:20
  Speaker 8: believe gardens as a child. And it seemed as if
• 2:43:23
  Speaker 8: an old dream were suddenly come true. And as to
• 2:43:26
  Speaker 8: looking well after it, could a miser have watched his
• 2:43:29
  Speaker 8: gold with more jealous care, and no one had interfered,
• 2:43:32
  Speaker 8: for he had told nobody, partly from some indefinite idea
• 2:43:36
  Speaker 8: that the nursery gardener had ordered him, not partly because
• 2:43:39
  Speaker 8: he thought it would be so nice to surprise his
• 2:43:41
  Speaker 8: mother some day before the summer was over by the
• 2:43:43
  Speaker 8: rich blaze of color that was to brighten all the place.
• 2:43:48
  Speaker 8: The very maid who hung out the clothes in the
• 2:43:50
  Speaker 8: yard didn't know of it, for to keep it secret
• 2:43:52
  Speaker 8: and make the shelter of the tree more complete, he
• 2:43:54
  Speaker 8: had set up boards across the corner where it was planted,
• 2:43:57
  Speaker 8: from wall to wall, and no one could see what
• 2:43:59
  Speaker 8: was there. They looked upon the boards as some idle
• 2:44:02
  Speaker 8: freak of the idiot mind. It was the buds that
• 2:44:06
  Speaker 8: failed first, those buds, which ought to have swollen and
• 2:44:09
  Speaker 8: grown larger day by day. Even his eye, sharpened now
• 2:44:12
  Speaker 8: by anxious care, could detect that they rather dwindled than
• 2:44:16
  Speaker 8: increased in size. And observing this more and more as
• 2:44:19
  Speaker 8: time went on, he one day summoned courage to walk
• 2:44:22
  Speaker 8: to the nursery gardens and tell his fears to the
• 2:44:24
  Speaker 8: giver of the plant. But he when he found that
• 2:44:27
  Speaker 8: all he had ordered had been done, only smiled. I
• 2:44:30
  Speaker 8: tell you what, said he and from long experience, there's
• 2:44:33
  Speaker 8: nothing like bones and hair for bringing roses to perfection.
• 2:44:36
  Speaker 8: You can't go wrong with them. Give it a little
• 2:44:38
  Speaker 8: more water or soap SuDS. You've perhaps a light soil
• 2:44:41
  Speaker 8: in your place. Give it more water. The buds will
• 2:44:44
  Speaker 8: swell fast enough. I'll be bound. Indeed, I fancy you're
• 2:44:48
  Speaker 8: watching it so closely you can't see true. It's easy
• 2:44:50
  Speaker 8: enough to do that. I can tell you the buds
• 2:44:53
  Speaker 8: are grown. I suspect, though you don't think so. Leave
• 2:44:56
  Speaker 8: it to itself. Don't fancy anything wrong. It's sure to
• 2:44:59
  Speaker 8: be right. With the bone and hair and soap SuDS,
• 2:45:01
  Speaker 8: they're the finest rose manure in the world. Hans listened
• 2:45:06
  Speaker 8: with his mouth open, nodded his head with a thank
• 2:45:08
  Speaker 8: you at the end, and went away, hoping he had
• 2:45:10
  Speaker 8: not seen true. And he did not take the boards
• 2:45:13
  Speaker 8: down nearly so often afterwards, lest his watchings too closely
• 2:45:17
  Speaker 8: should do harm. But every time he did take them down,
• 2:45:20
  Speaker 8: he grew more and more unhappy. The healthy green of
• 2:45:23
  Speaker 8: the leaves was no longer to be seen. As for
• 2:45:25
  Speaker 8: the buds, they shriveled gradually, more and more growth anywhere
• 2:45:30
  Speaker 8: there was none. Inch by inch the plant was dying,
• 2:45:34
  Speaker 8: or Hans thought so, and he rubbed his eyes for
• 2:45:36
  Speaker 8: further light in vain. And one day, when the last
• 2:45:40
  Speaker 8: leaves which remained had crinkled up and turned brown, he
• 2:45:43
  Speaker 8: sat down on the ground and wail, as I have said,
• 2:45:46
  Speaker 8: what more could I have done for it than I
• 2:45:48
  Speaker 8: have done? The dream of a dream come true at
• 2:45:51
  Speaker 8: last was over. The make believe garden was still the
• 2:45:55
  Speaker 8: only one he had ever enjoyed. He must go back
• 2:45:57
  Speaker 8: to it again. He placed the boards, for he shrank
• 2:46:01
  Speaker 8: from the very sight of the dying plant and sat
• 2:46:03
  Speaker 8: down on the ground again, though he scarcely knew why.
• 2:46:07
  Speaker 8: But presently there was a barking of the dog, and
• 2:46:09
  Speaker 8: an opening of the door, and a shouting of Hans
• 2:46:12
  Speaker 8: by his mother. The nursery gardener was passing that way
• 2:46:16
  Speaker 8: and had called to admire the roses he expected to see.
• 2:46:20
  Speaker 8: Hans could not speak, but led the way to the
• 2:46:22
  Speaker 8: corner of the yard, and when they were there, he
• 2:46:24
  Speaker 8: pointed to the boards before he took them down, and exclaimed,
• 2:46:27
  Speaker 8: trying to smile through his tears, I couldn't have sheltered
• 2:46:31
  Speaker 8: it more, could I. It's never been scorched or chilled
• 2:46:34
  Speaker 8: or blown upon. Even it's had bones and hair and
• 2:46:36
  Speaker 8: water and all you ordered. And I've looked well after it,
• 2:46:39
  Speaker 8: and yet it's dead.
• 2:46:40
  Speaker 5: I know.
• 2:46:42
  Speaker 8: As he spoke, Hans lifted down the boards and exposed
• 2:46:46
  Speaker 8: the withered tree. The nursery gardener stared at it, and
• 2:46:49
  Speaker 8: then at Hans in genuine amazement. You don't mean to
• 2:46:53
  Speaker 8: say you kept it so all the time, cried he.
• 2:46:56
  Speaker 8: Why what have you been thinking about? Man? How could
• 2:46:58
  Speaker 8: you expect it to live? Why it's had no light?
• 2:47:02
  Speaker 8: You said nothing about that, replied Hans, his face distorted
• 2:47:06
  Speaker 8: with bewilderment and grief. You said you made roses beautiful
• 2:47:09
  Speaker 8: with bones and hair and soap SuDS, and that I
• 2:47:11
  Speaker 8: should make mine beautiful with them too. But not without sunshine,
• 2:47:15
  Speaker 8: shouted the nursery gardener, quite excited at the idea of
• 2:47:18
  Speaker 8: such a mistake. Hans made no answer. He could not
• 2:47:22
  Speaker 8: utter another word. He sat down on the ground again
• 2:47:24
  Speaker 8: and hid his face in his hands. I must have
• 2:47:28
  Speaker 8: spoken like a fool, exclaimed the nursery gardener, half to himself.
• 2:47:31
  Speaker 8: But who would have thought of anybody fancying a plant
• 2:47:33
  Speaker 8: could get on without light? Well, perhaps I ought to
• 2:47:36
  Speaker 8: have thought, though, added he, as his eye fell on
• 2:47:39
  Speaker 8: poor Hans's double up figure, then laying his hand on
• 2:47:43
  Speaker 8: the lad's shoulder, it came into his heart to try
• 2:47:45
  Speaker 8: and explain matters. Look up, Hans said he. It's not
• 2:47:49
  Speaker 8: your fault at all, it's mine. There was something I
• 2:47:52
  Speaker 8: forgot to tell you. I spoke like a fool when
• 2:47:55
  Speaker 8: I talked of making roses beautiful with manure and things
• 2:47:57
  Speaker 8: like that, as if they could do it themselves. I
• 2:48:00
  Speaker 8: didn't mean that. It is God who makes the roses,
• 2:48:03
  Speaker 8: you know, and he makes them so that they can't
• 2:48:05
  Speaker 8: do without the light He chooses them to live in.
• 2:48:08
  Speaker 8: And that's the light from heaven. Do you see here?
• 2:48:11
  Speaker 8: The nursery gardener paused to consider how he must go on,
• 2:48:14
  Speaker 8: and Hans shuffled a bit and then looked up at
• 2:48:16
  Speaker 8: his friend, and his friends saw the light from heaven
• 2:48:19
  Speaker 8: streaming on that sad, half intelligent face with the red
• 2:48:23
  Speaker 8: eyes straining upwards for comprehension, and he proceeded, So they
• 2:48:27
  Speaker 8: can't do without God's light. Let you give them what
• 2:48:30
  Speaker 8: manure you will. There only helps Hans such things as
• 2:48:33
  Speaker 8: those a man may help or hinder what God intends
• 2:48:37
  Speaker 8: by good or bad management. It's true, but that's all,
• 2:48:40
  Speaker 8: And that's all I meant. Bones and hair and soap
• 2:48:42
  Speaker 8: SuDS are the finest rose manure in the world. That's
• 2:48:45
  Speaker 8: true too, and it's a great secret. But they're all nothing, nothing, lad,
• 2:48:49
  Speaker 8: without God's secret, the light from heaven. Do you see
• 2:48:51
  Speaker 8: what I mean, Hans, I'm trying, said Hans. Hans, continued
• 2:48:57
  Speaker 8: the nursery gardener. It's been my fault, not your. And
• 2:49:00
  Speaker 8: you shall have another rose tree, or we'll save this
• 2:49:02
  Speaker 8: one yet, for if there's a bit of life left
• 2:49:04
  Speaker 8: in it, God's light may bring it round. But tell
• 2:49:07
  Speaker 8: me you are a very good lad, you know at times?
• 2:49:10
  Speaker 8: Indeed I fancy always, but no matter, we'll call it
• 2:49:14
  Speaker 8: at times? What makes you ever good? Hans's catechism had
• 2:49:19
  Speaker 8: been short but sound, and he answered at once God's grace.
• 2:49:23
  Speaker 8: Now that's just it, shouted the nursery gardener in delight.
• 2:49:26
  Speaker 8: That's just what I meant. And all the schooling and
• 2:49:28
  Speaker 8: teaching and trying in the world won't do without God's grace,
• 2:49:32
  Speaker 8: will they. Hans Hans nodded his negative assent. No, they're
• 2:49:37
  Speaker 8: only manures, and helps pursued the nursery gardener, and very
• 2:49:41
  Speaker 8: good things, no doubt, the same as bones and hair
• 2:49:43
  Speaker 8: and soap SuDS for roses, and there's nobody can dispute
• 2:49:46
  Speaker 8: about them. But all the helps in the world can
• 2:49:49
  Speaker 8: do nothing without the main thing God chooses them to
• 2:49:52
  Speaker 8: thrive by. And that's God's grace for a man, and
• 2:49:55
  Speaker 8: God's light for a plant. And what one is for one,
• 2:49:58
  Speaker 8: that the other is for the other. And it's my opinion,
• 2:50:01
  Speaker 8: it's the light of Heaven for both. If Hans did
• 2:50:05
  Speaker 8: not quite follow the threat of the nursery gardener's argument,
• 2:50:07
  Speaker 8: he must be excused. The nursery gardener understood what he
• 2:50:10
  Speaker 8: meant himself, and that was something. And Hans added to
• 2:50:13
  Speaker 8: his small stock of observations the useful truth he had
• 2:50:16
  Speaker 8: bought so dearly Vida sell it that plants cannot live
• 2:50:20
  Speaker 8: without light. Those who are interested further in his fate
• 2:50:24
  Speaker 8: will be glad to hear that. The nursery gardener soon
• 2:50:27
  Speaker 8: after turned one side of the old printer's back yard
• 2:50:29
  Speaker 8: into a garden at his own expense, and gave Hans
• 2:50:32
  Speaker 8: such plants and help that both mother and son had
• 2:50:34
  Speaker 8: a few bright flowers of their own the next year
• 2:50:37
  Speaker 8: to delight their eyes. But more than this, the poor
• 2:50:40
  Speaker 8: lad proved so watchful and attentive, so obedient too to
• 2:50:44
  Speaker 8: advice in his own small matters. And the rational occupation
• 2:50:47
  Speaker 8: to an end seemed so evidently to clear something from
• 2:50:50
  Speaker 8: the confusion of his mind that it struck the nursery
• 2:50:53
  Speaker 8: gardener one day to trust him with some little employment
• 2:50:55
  Speaker 8: on his more important premises. And the experiment was not unsuccessful.
• 2:51:00
  Speaker 8: On the one subject of flowers, Hans had become not
• 2:51:03
  Speaker 8: only trustworthy but intelligent. And so it came to pass
• 2:51:07
  Speaker 8: that it was in the nursery garden, among the flowers
• 2:51:10
  Speaker 8: his only idea of an earthly paradise, that the poor
• 2:51:13
  Speaker 8: idiot ended his days there, guileless as the beautiful creatures
• 2:51:18
  Speaker 8: which surrounded him, and trustful as the highest wisdom could
• 2:51:20
  Speaker 8: have made him.
• 2:51:21
  Speaker 6: He lived.
• 2:51:22
  Speaker 8: And thence did the spirit, so long pent in an
• 2:51:25
  Speaker 8: imperfect earthly tabernacle, returned to the great Lord of life
• 2:51:28
  Speaker 8: and light and intelligence, without whom nothing is strong, nothing
• 2:51:33
  Speaker 8: is holy. End of Chapter twenty three.
• 2:51:38
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty four.
• 2:51:41
  Speaker 3: Gifts.
• 2:51:42
  Speaker 1: Now there are diversities of gifts. First Corinthians twelve four, one, two, three, four,
• 2:51:53
  Speaker 1: five five neatly rated kitchen garden beds, four of them
• 2:51:58
  Speaker 1: side by side, with a path way between the fifth,
• 2:52:02
  Speaker 1: a narrow strip heading the others, and close to the
• 2:52:05
  Speaker 1: gravel walk, as it was for succession crops of mustard
• 2:52:09
  Speaker 1: and crest, which are often wanted in a hurry for
• 2:52:12
  Speaker 1: breakfast or tea. Most people have stood by such beds
• 2:52:17
  Speaker 1: in their own kitchen gardens on soft spring mornings and evenings,
• 2:52:21
  Speaker 1: and looked for the coming up of the seeds, which
• 2:52:23
  Speaker 1: either they or the gardener had sun radishes in one,
• 2:52:27
  Speaker 1: for instance, and of all three sorts white turnip, red turnip,
• 2:52:31
  Speaker 1: and long tailed carrots in another. And this bed had
• 2:52:35
  Speaker 1: been dug very deep, indeed sub soil digging, as it
• 2:52:39
  Speaker 1: were two spadesteps, that the roots might strike freely down
• 2:52:44
  Speaker 1: onions in another beat in the fourth, both the golden
• 2:52:48
  Speaker 1: and red varieties, while the narrow slip was half mustard
• 2:52:52
  Speaker 1: and half cress. Such was the plan here, however, and
• 2:52:57
  Speaker 1: here for a time all the seas lay sleeping, as
• 2:53:01
  Speaker 1: it seemed, for as the long, smooth raked beds stretched out,
• 2:53:05
  Speaker 1: darkened bare under the stars, they betrayed no symptom of
• 2:53:09
  Speaker 1: anything going on within. Nevertheless, there was no sleeping in
• 2:53:14
  Speaker 1: the case the little seed grains were fulfilling the law
• 2:53:18
  Speaker 1: of their being, each after its kind, the grains all
• 2:53:22
  Speaker 1: but their inner germs decaying, the germs swelling and growing,
• 2:53:27
  Speaker 1: till they rose out of their cradles and made their
• 2:53:29
  Speaker 1: way through their earthen coverlet to the light of day.
• 2:53:34
  Speaker 1: They did not all come up quite together, of course,
• 2:53:37
  Speaker 1: nor all quite alike. But as to the time, the
• 2:53:40
  Speaker 1: gardener had made all his arrangements so cleverly that none
• 2:53:44
  Speaker 1: was very far behind his neighbor. And as to the
• 2:53:48
  Speaker 1: difference of shape in the first young leaves, what could
• 2:53:51
  Speaker 1: it signify? It is true the young mustards were round
• 2:53:55
  Speaker 1: and thick, the cresses oval and pointed, the carrots mere
• 2:53:59
  Speaker 1: green threads, the onion's sharp little blades, while the beat
• 2:54:04
  Speaker 1: had an odd, stainy look. But they all woke up
• 2:54:07
  Speaker 1: to the same life and enjoyment, and were all greeted
• 2:54:11
  Speaker 1: with friendly welcome as they appeared by the dew and
• 2:54:15
  Speaker 1: light and sunshine and breezes so necessary to them, all
• 2:54:19
  Speaker 1: children of one mother, dependent on the same influences to
• 2:54:23
  Speaker 1: bring them to perfection. What could put comparisons and envyings
• 2:54:30
  Speaker 1: and heart burnings into their heads, so filling them either
• 2:54:34
  Speaker 1: with conceit or melancholy misgivings, as if there was but
• 2:54:38
  Speaker 1: one way of being right or doing right, as if
• 2:54:41
  Speaker 1: every creature was not good after its kind, but must
• 2:54:45
  Speaker 1: needs be good after somebody else's kind, or not be
• 2:54:49
  Speaker 1: good at all. It must have been some strolling, half
• 2:54:54
  Speaker 1: informed grub, one would think, who had not yet come
• 2:54:57
  Speaker 1: to his full senses, who started such foo ideas. It
• 2:55:02
  Speaker 1: began with an inquiry at first, for no actual unkindness
• 2:55:06
  Speaker 1: was meant. I find I get deeper and deeper into
• 2:55:10
  Speaker 1: the soil every day, remarked the carrot. I shall be.
• 2:55:15
  Speaker 1: I don't know how long. At last. I have been
• 2:55:18
  Speaker 1: going down regularly, quite straight, for weeks. Then I am
• 2:55:23
  Speaker 1: tapering off to a long point at the end, in
• 2:55:26
  Speaker 1: the most beautiful proportions possible. A traveler told me the
• 2:55:31
  Speaker 1: other day this was perfection, and I believe he was right,
• 2:55:36
  Speaker 1: that mischievous vagabond grub. You see, I know what it
• 2:55:41
  Speaker 1: was to live near the surface in my young days.
• 2:55:44
  Speaker 1: The carrot went on but never felt solid enjoyment till
• 2:55:48
  Speaker 1: I struck deeply down where all is so rich and warm.
• 2:55:53
  Speaker 1: This is really being firmly established and satisfactory to one's self.
• 2:55:57
  Speaker 1: Though still progressing, for I don't see why there should
• 2:56:02
  Speaker 1: be a limit. Pray tell me, neighbors, added he good
• 2:56:05
  Speaker 1: naturedly enough, how it fares with all the rest of you.
• 2:56:09
  Speaker 1: I should like to know that your roots are as
• 2:56:12
  Speaker 1: long and slim and orange colored as mine, doing as
• 2:56:16
  Speaker 1: well in fact, and sinking as far down. I wish
• 2:56:19
  Speaker 1: us to be all perfect alike. Perfection is the great
• 2:56:23
  Speaker 1: thing to try for when you are sure you are
• 2:56:27
  Speaker 1: trying in the right way, sneered a voice from the
• 2:56:29
  Speaker 1: neighboring Radish bed. The red and white turnip variety were
• 2:56:33
  Speaker 1: always satirical. But if the long, slim, orange roots striking
• 2:56:38
  Speaker 1: deep into the earth are your idea of perfection, I
• 2:56:42
  Speaker 1: advise you to begin life over again. Dear me, I
• 2:56:46
  Speaker 1: wish you had consulted us before. Why we stopped going
• 2:56:50
  Speaker 1: down long ago and have been spreading out sideways and
• 2:56:53
  Speaker 1: always into stout, round solid balls ever since. Close white
• 2:56:58
  Speaker 1: flesh throughout in and not orange, but red without white,
• 2:57:04
  Speaker 1: he means, shouted another red, I call it, repeated the first.
• 2:57:09
  Speaker 1: But no matter, certainly not orange and certainly not orange,
• 2:57:14
  Speaker 1: cried they all, so, continued the first speaker. We are
• 2:57:19
  Speaker 1: quite concerned to hear you ramble on about growing longer
• 2:57:22
  Speaker 1: and longer, and strongly advise you to keep your own
• 2:57:25
  Speaker 1: counsel and not mention it to any one else. We
• 2:57:29
  Speaker 1: are friends, you know, and can be trusted. But you
• 2:57:32
  Speaker 1: really must leave off wasting your powers and energy in
• 2:57:35
  Speaker 1: the dark, inside of the ground, out of everybody's sight
• 2:57:38
  Speaker 1: and knowledge. Come to the surface and make the most
• 2:57:42
  Speaker 1: of it as we do, and then you'll be a
• 2:57:44
  Speaker 1: credit to your friends. Never mind what travelers say. They've
• 2:57:48
  Speaker 1: nothing else to do but to walk about and talk,
• 2:57:51
  Speaker 1: and they tell us we are perfection too. Don't trust them,
• 2:57:55
  Speaker 1: but to what we tell you now, and alter your
• 2:57:58
  Speaker 1: course at once. Roll yourself up into a firm round
• 2:58:02
  Speaker 1: ball as fast as you can. You won't find it
• 2:58:05
  Speaker 1: hard if you once begin. You have only to let
• 2:58:10
  Speaker 1: me put in a word first, interrupted one of the
• 2:58:12
  Speaker 1: long tailed radishes in the same bed, For it is
• 2:58:16
  Speaker 1: of no use to go out of one extreme into another,
• 2:58:19
  Speaker 1: which you are on the high road to do. If
• 2:58:21
  Speaker 1: you are disposed to take mister Roundhead's advice, who, by
• 2:58:24
  Speaker 1: the way, ought to be ashamed of forcing his very
• 2:58:28
  Speaker 1: peculiar views upon his neighbors.
• 2:58:31
  Speaker 3: Just look at us.
• 2:58:33
  Speaker 1: We always strike moderately down, so we know it's the
• 2:58:36
  Speaker 1: right thing to do, and that solid round balls are
• 2:58:39
  Speaker 1: the most unnatural and useless things in the world. But
• 2:58:43
  Speaker 1: on the other hand, my dear friend, we have learned
• 2:58:46
  Speaker 1: where to stop, and a great secret it is, but
• 2:58:49
  Speaker 1: one I fear you know nothing about at present. So
• 2:58:52
  Speaker 1: the sooner you make yourself acquainted with it, the better.
• 2:58:56
  Speaker 1: There's a limit to everything but folly, even to striking
• 2:58:59
  Speaker 1: deep into the soil. And as to the soil being better,
• 2:59:03
  Speaker 1: so very far down. Nobody can believe it, for why
• 2:59:06
  Speaker 1: should it be. The great art is to make the
• 2:59:09
  Speaker 1: most of what is at hand, as we do, time
• 2:59:13
  Speaker 1: enough to go into the depths when you have used
• 2:59:15
  Speaker 1: up what is so much easier. God at the man
• 2:59:18
  Speaker 1: who gathered some of us yesterday called out, these are
• 2:59:21
  Speaker 1: just right. So I leave you to judge whether some
• 2:59:24
  Speaker 1: other people we know of must not be wrong. You
• 2:59:28
  Speaker 1: rather overwhelm me, I own mused the carrot. Though it's
• 2:59:31
  Speaker 1: remarkable you counselors should not agree among yourselves. Is it possible, however,
• 2:59:37
  Speaker 1: that I have been making a great mistake all my life?
• 2:59:41
  Speaker 1: What lost time to look back upon?
• 2:59:44
  Speaker 3: Yet a ball? No, no, not a ball.
• 2:59:46
  Speaker 1: I don't think I could grow into a solid round
• 2:59:49
  Speaker 1: ball were I to try forever not having tried, how
• 2:59:53
  Speaker 1: can you tell, whispered the turnip radish persuasively. But you
• 2:59:57
  Speaker 1: never will if you listen to our old fashioned friend
• 3:00:00
  Speaker 1: next door, who has been halting between two opinions all
• 3:00:03
  Speaker 1: his life, will neither make an honest, fat lump of
• 3:00:06
  Speaker 1: it as I do, nor plunge down in taper with you.
• 3:00:11
  Speaker 1: But nothing can be done without an effort. Certainly, no change,
• 3:00:15
  Speaker 1: that is true, murmured the carrot rather sadly. But I
• 3:00:20
  Speaker 1: am too old for further efforts myself, mistake or no mistake.
• 3:00:25
  Speaker 1: My fate is fixed. I am too far down to
• 3:00:29
  Speaker 1: get up again, that's certain. But some of the young
• 3:00:32
  Speaker 1: ones may try, do you hear, DearS. Some of you
• 3:00:36
  Speaker 1: stop short if you can, and grow out sideways and
• 3:00:39
  Speaker 1: always into stout, round solid balls. Oh nonsense about round balls,
• 3:00:47
  Speaker 1: cried the long tailed radish in disgust. What will the
• 3:00:50
  Speaker 1: world come to if this folly goes on? Listen to me, youngsters,
• 3:00:55
  Speaker 1: I beg go to a moderate depth and be content,
• 3:00:58
  Speaker 1: And if you want something to do, throw out a
• 3:01:00
  Speaker 1: few fibers for amusement. You're firm enough without them, I know,
• 3:01:04
  Speaker 1: but the employment will pass away time. There are strange
• 3:01:10
  Speaker 1: delusions abroad. Just now, remarked the onions to each other.
• 3:01:13
  Speaker 1: Do you hear all this talk about shape and way
• 3:01:16
  Speaker 1: of growth? And everybody in the dark on the subject,
• 3:01:20
  Speaker 1: though they seem to be quite unconscious of the fact
• 3:01:22
  Speaker 1: themselves that fellow chattered about solid balls, as if there
• 3:01:27
  Speaker 1: was no such thing as bulbs growing layer upon layer
• 3:01:31
  Speaker 1: and coat overcoat at all. Of course, the very large
• 3:01:36
  Speaker 1: orange gentleman with his tapering root is the most wrong
• 3:01:39
  Speaker 1: of the whole party. But I doubt if mister roundhead
• 3:01:42
  Speaker 1: is much wiser when he speaks of close white flesh
• 3:01:45
  Speaker 1: inside and red of all ridiculous nonsense. Without where are
• 3:01:51
  Speaker 1: their flaky skins? I should like to know who is
• 3:01:54
  Speaker 1: ever to peel them? I wonder poor things. I can't
• 3:01:58
  Speaker 1: think how they got into such a way, how tough
• 3:02:01
  Speaker 1: and obstinate they must be. I wish we lived nearer,
• 3:02:06
  Speaker 1: we would teach them a little better than that, and
• 3:02:08
  Speaker 1: show them what to do. I have lived near you
• 3:02:12
  Speaker 1: long enough, grumbled a deep red beat in the next bed,
• 3:02:16
  Speaker 1: and you have never taught me. Neither shall you?
• 3:02:18
  Speaker 3: If I can help it?
• 3:02:20
  Speaker 1: A pretty instructor you would be who think it ridiculous
• 3:02:23
  Speaker 1: to be red. I suppose you can't grow red yourself,
• 3:02:27
  Speaker 1: and so abuse the color out of spite. Now I
• 3:02:32
  Speaker 1: flatter myself that I am red inside as well as out.
• 3:02:36
  Speaker 1: So I suppose I am more ridiculous than your friend,
• 3:02:39
  Speaker 1: who contrives to keep himself white within according to his
• 3:02:43
  Speaker 1: own account. But I doubt the fact there there it
• 3:02:47
  Speaker 1: is a folly to be angry. So I say no
• 3:02:50
  Speaker 1: more except this, get red as fast as you can.
• 3:02:55
  Speaker 1: You live in the same soil that I do, and
• 3:02:57
  Speaker 1: ought to be able. Oh don't call it red, exclaimed
• 3:03:02
  Speaker 1: the golden beat, who was of a gentle turn of mine.
• 3:03:05
  Speaker 1: It is but a pale tint, after all, and surely
• 3:03:08
  Speaker 1: rather amber than red. And perhaps that was what the
• 3:03:11
  Speaker 1: long tailed orange gentleman meant. Perhaps it was, for perhaps
• 3:03:17
  Speaker 1: he calls red orange as you call it amber, answered
• 3:03:20
  Speaker 1: the redder beat. Anyhow, he has rather more sense than
• 3:03:24
  Speaker 1: our neighbor here, with his layer upon layer, and coat
• 3:03:28
  Speaker 1: over coat, and flaky skin overall, think of wasting time
• 3:03:33
  Speaker 1: in such fiddle fattle proceedings. Grow a good, honest, fleshy substance,
• 3:03:38
  Speaker 1: and have done with it and let people see you
• 3:03:41
  Speaker 1: know what life is capable of. I always look at results.
• 3:03:45
  Speaker 1: It is something to get such a body as I
• 3:03:47
  Speaker 1: do out of the surrounding soil. That is, living to
• 3:03:50
  Speaker 1: some purpose. I consider nobody makes more of their opportunities
• 3:03:55
  Speaker 1: than I do. I flatter myself, or has more to
• 3:03:58
  Speaker 1: show for their pains. And a great future must be
• 3:04:01
  Speaker 1: in store. Do you hear them?
• 3:04:03
  Speaker 3: Oh? Do you hear them?
• 3:04:05
  Speaker 1: Whispered the crest to her neighbor, the mustard. There had
• 3:04:09
  Speaker 1: been several crops, and this was one of the last.
• 3:04:12
  Speaker 1: Do you hear how they all talked together of their
• 3:04:15
  Speaker 1: growth and their roots, and their bulbs, and size and
• 3:04:18
  Speaker 1: color and shape. It makes me quite unhappy, for I
• 3:04:23
  Speaker 1: am doing nothing like it myself, nothing, nothing, though I
• 3:04:27
  Speaker 1: live in the same soil. What is to be done?
• 3:04:31
  Speaker 1: What do you do? Do you grow great white solid balls,
• 3:04:35
  Speaker 1: or long orange tapering roots, or thick red flesh, or
• 3:04:39
  Speaker 1: bulbs with layer upon layer and coat overcoat. Some of
• 3:04:44
  Speaker 1: them talked of just throwing out a few fibers as
• 3:04:47
  Speaker 1: a mere amusement.
• 3:04:48
  Speaker 3: To pass away time.
• 3:04:49
  Speaker 1: And this is all I ever do for business. There
• 3:04:53
  Speaker 1: will never be a great future in store for me.
• 3:04:56
  Speaker 1: Do speak to me, but whisper what you say, for
• 3:05:00
  Speaker 1: I shame to be heard or thought of. I grow
• 3:05:04
  Speaker 1: only fibers, too grown the mustard in reply, But I
• 3:05:08
  Speaker 1: was spread every way, and always if I could, downwards
• 3:05:11
  Speaker 1: and upwards, and sideways, and always like the rest, I
• 3:05:15
  Speaker 1: wish I had never been sown, better, never sown and
• 3:05:19
  Speaker 1: groaned than sown and grown to such trifling purpose. We
• 3:05:24
  Speaker 1: are wretched, indeed, but there must be injustice somewhere. The
• 3:05:29
  Speaker 1: soil must give them what it refuses to us, or
• 3:05:33
  Speaker 1: we are weak and helpless and cannot take in what
• 3:05:36
  Speaker 1: it offers. Suggested the cress alas that we should have
• 3:05:40
  Speaker 1: been sown only to be useless and unhappy, And they
• 3:05:44
  Speaker 1: wept the evening through. But they alone were not unhappy.
• 3:05:50
  Speaker 1: The carrot had become uneasy and could follow his natural tastes,
• 3:05:53
  Speaker 1: no longer in comfort, for thinking that he ought to
• 3:05:56
  Speaker 1: be a solid, round ball, white inside and read without.
• 3:06:01
  Speaker 1: The onion had sore misgivings that the beet might be
• 3:06:04
  Speaker 1: right after all, and a good honest mast of bread
• 3:06:07
  Speaker 1: flesh be more worth laboring for than the pale coat
• 3:06:11
  Speaker 1: within coat growth in which he had indulged. It did
• 3:06:16
  Speaker 1: seem a waste of trouble, a fiddle fattle plan of life,
• 3:06:19
  Speaker 1: he feared, perhaps he had not gone down far enough
• 3:06:23
  Speaker 1: in the soil. Some one talked of growing fibers for amusement.
• 3:06:28
  Speaker 1: He had certainly not come to that they were necessary
• 3:06:31
  Speaker 1: to his support. He couldn't hold fast without them. Other
• 3:06:35
  Speaker 1: people were more independent than he was, then, perhaps wiser alas,
• 3:06:43
  Speaker 1: And yet the beat himself was not quite easy for
• 3:06:46
  Speaker 1: talk as he would. What he had called fiddle faddle
• 3:06:49
  Speaker 1: seemed ingenious when he thought it over, And he would
• 3:06:53
  Speaker 1: like to have persuaded himself that he grew layer upon
• 3:06:56
  Speaker 1: layer two, But it wouldn't do. Perhaps in fact, the
• 3:07:01
  Speaker 1: bold little turnip radishes, alone from their solid, substantial growth,
• 3:07:06
  Speaker 1: were the only ones free from misgivings, and believed that
• 3:07:09
  Speaker 1: everybody ought to do as they did themselves. What a
• 3:07:14
  Speaker 1: disturbance there was, to be sure, And it got worse
• 3:07:18
  Speaker 1: and worse. And they called on the winds, the fleeting clouds,
• 3:07:21
  Speaker 1: the sun, the moon and stars above their heads to
• 3:07:25
  Speaker 1: stay their course for a while and declare who is
• 3:07:28
  Speaker 1: right and who was wrong? Who was using who abusing
• 3:07:32
  Speaker 1: his gifts and powers? Who was making most who least
• 3:07:36
  Speaker 1: of the life and opportunities they all enjoyed. Whose system
• 3:07:40
  Speaker 1: was the one? The rest must all strive to follow
• 3:07:43
  Speaker 1: the one only right. But they called and asked in
• 3:07:48
  Speaker 1: vain till one evening the clouds, which had been gathering
• 3:07:52
  Speaker 1: over the garden for days, began to come down in
• 3:07:55
  Speaker 1: rain and sank swiftly into the ground where it had
• 3:07:59
  Speaker 1: been needed for life. Whereupon there was a general cry,
• 3:08:04
  Speaker 1: here comes a messenger, now we shall hear, as if
• 3:08:08
  Speaker 1: they thought no one could have any business in the
• 3:08:10
  Speaker 1: world but to settle their disputes. So out come all
• 3:08:15
  Speaker 1: the old inquiries again, who is right, who is wrong?
• 3:08:18
  Speaker 1: Who had got hold of the true secret? But the
• 3:08:21
  Speaker 1: cress made no inquiry at all, only shook with fright
• 3:08:25
  Speaker 1: under the rain. For thought she the hour of my
• 3:08:29
  Speaker 1: shame and degradation is come, poor useless creature, that I am.
• 3:08:33
  Speaker 1: I shall never more hold up my head. As to
• 3:08:38
  Speaker 1: the carrot, into whose well dug bed the rain found
• 3:08:41
  Speaker 1: easiest entrance and sank deepest, he held forth in most
• 3:08:46
  Speaker 1: eloquent style, upon the whole affair, how it was started,
• 3:08:50
  Speaker 1: and what he had said, how much he had once hoped,
• 3:08:53
  Speaker 1: how much he now feared. Now the rain drops did
• 3:08:58
  Speaker 1: not care to answer in her. But as they came,
• 3:09:01
  Speaker 1: dropping gently down, they murmured peace, peace, peace all over
• 3:09:07
  Speaker 1: the beds, And truly they seemed to bring peace with
• 3:09:11
  Speaker 1: them as they fell, so that a calm sank all around.
• 3:09:15
  Speaker 1: And then the murmur proceeded, Poor little adams in a
• 3:09:19
  Speaker 1: boundless kingdom, each one of you bearing a part toward
• 3:09:23
  Speaker 1: its fullness of perfection, each one of you endowed with
• 3:09:27
  Speaker 1: gifts and powers, especially your own, each one of you
• 3:09:31
  Speaker 1: good after its kind. How came these cruel misgivings and
• 3:09:35
  Speaker 1: heart burnings among you? Are the tops of the mountains
• 3:09:39
  Speaker 1: wrong because they cannot grow cornlike valleys? Are the valleys
• 3:09:43
  Speaker 1: wrong because they cannot soar into the skies? Does the
• 3:09:47
  Speaker 1: brook flow in vain because it cannot spread out like
• 3:09:51
  Speaker 1: the sea? Is the sea only right because its waters
• 3:09:55
  Speaker 1: only are salt, Each good after its kind, each bearing
• 3:10:00
  Speaker 1: a part in the full perfection of the kingdom which
• 3:10:03
  Speaker 1: is boundless, the plan which is harmony, peace, peace, peace
• 3:10:09
  Speaker 1: upon all, And peace seemed to fall more soothingly than
• 3:10:14
  Speaker 1: ever upon the ground as the shower continued to descend.
• 3:10:20
  Speaker 1: How much more then resumed the murmur among you, to
• 3:10:24
  Speaker 1: whose inner natures gifts and powers are given, each different
• 3:10:28
  Speaker 1: from each, each good in its kind, each if rightly
• 3:10:33
  Speaker 1: carried out doing service in that kingdom which needs for
• 3:10:37
  Speaker 1: its full perfection, that there shall be mountains to rise
• 3:10:40
  Speaker 1: into the skies, valleys to lie low at their feet,
• 3:10:45
  Speaker 1: some natures to go deep into the soil, others to
• 3:10:48
  Speaker 1: rejoice on its surface, Some to lie lightly upon the earth,
• 3:10:53
  Speaker 1: as if scarcely claiming a home, others to grasp it
• 3:10:57
  Speaker 1: by its wide spread roots, and stretch out branches to
• 3:11:01
  Speaker 1: the rivers, All good in their kind, all bearing apart
• 3:11:05
  Speaker 1: in the glory of that universe, whose children are countless,
• 3:11:09
  Speaker 1: as their natures are various, none useless, none in vain
• 3:11:15
  Speaker 1: upon one, then upon all, each wanted, each useful, each
• 3:11:21
  Speaker 1: good after its kind, peace, peace, peace, peace, peace. The
• 3:11:30
  Speaker 1: murmur subsided to a whisper, the whisper into silence, and
• 3:11:35
  Speaker 1: by the time the moon shadows lay upon the garden
• 3:11:39
  Speaker 1: there was peace everywhere. Nor was it broken again. For
• 3:11:44
  Speaker 1: henceforth even the cress held up her head, she also
• 3:11:48
  Speaker 1: good after her kind. Only once or twice that year,
• 3:11:53
  Speaker 1: when the carrots were gathered, there came up the strangest growths,
• 3:11:57
  Speaker 1: thick distorted lumps that had no ever struck properly down.
• 3:12:02
  Speaker 1: The gardener wondered, and was vexed, for he prided himself
• 3:12:06
  Speaker 1: in the digging of the carrot bed. Anything that had
• 3:12:09
  Speaker 1: had any sense might have gone down into it. He
• 3:12:12
  Speaker 1: was sure, he said, that he was not far from wrong.
• 3:12:16
  Speaker 1: But you see, the carrot had had no sense when
• 3:12:19
  Speaker 1: he began to speculate and tried to be something he
• 3:12:22
  Speaker 1: was not intended to be. Yet, the poor clumsy thing
• 3:12:26
  Speaker 1: was not quite useless after all, For just as the
• 3:12:30
  Speaker 1: gardener was about to fling it angrily away, he recollected
• 3:12:34
  Speaker 1: that the cook might use it for soup, though it
• 3:12:36
  Speaker 1: could not be served up at table, such a shape
• 3:12:38
  Speaker 1: it was, And this was exactly what she did. End
• 3:12:46
  Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty four. Chapter twenty five. Night and Day
• 3:12:54
  Speaker 1: the city had no need of the sun, neither of
• 3:12:57
  Speaker 1: the moon to shine in it, for the glory of
• 3:12:59
  Speaker 1: God did lighten it. And the lamb is the light
• 3:13:02
  Speaker 1: thereof Revelations twenty one, Verse twenty three. In old times,
• 3:13:09
  Speaker 1: long long ago, when Night and Day were young and foolish,
• 3:13:12
  Speaker 1: and had not discovered how necessary they were to each
• 3:13:15
  Speaker 1: other's happiness and well being, they chased each other round
• 3:13:18
  Speaker 1: the world in a state of angry disdain, each thinking
• 3:13:22
  Speaker 1: that he alone was doing good, and that therefore the other,
• 3:13:26
  Speaker 1: so totally unlike himself in all respects, must be doing harm,
• 3:13:30
  Speaker 1: and ought to be got rid of altogether, if possible.
• 3:13:35
  Speaker 1: Old northern tales say they rode each of them in
• 3:13:39
  Speaker 1: a car with a horse to it. But the horse
• 3:13:41
  Speaker 1: of night had a frosty mean, while that of day
• 3:13:44
  Speaker 1: had a shiny one. Moreover, foam fell from frosty means
• 3:13:48
  Speaker 1: bit as he went along, which dropped on the earth
• 3:13:51
  Speaker 1: as due, and shiny means mien was so radiant that
• 3:13:56
  Speaker 1: it scattered light through the air at every step. And
• 3:13:59
  Speaker 1: thus they drove on, bringing darkness and light over the
• 3:14:02
  Speaker 1: earth in turn, each pursuing and pursued, but knowing so
• 3:14:06
  Speaker 1: little of this simple fact, that one of their chief
• 3:14:09
  Speaker 1: causes of dispute was which was going first. For of course,
• 3:14:15
  Speaker 1: if they had been able to settle that, it would
• 3:14:17
  Speaker 1: have been known which was the more important of the two.
• 3:14:21
  Speaker 1: But as they drove in a circle, the point could
• 3:14:23
  Speaker 1: not be decided, since what was first on one side
• 3:14:27
  Speaker 1: was sure to be last on the other. As anybody
• 3:14:30
  Speaker 1: may see who tries to draw their journey, they never
• 3:14:34
  Speaker 1: gave this a thought, however, and there was no schoolmasters
• 3:14:38
  Speaker 1: about just then to teach them. So round and round
• 3:14:42
  Speaker 1: the world they went, without even knowing that it was round,
• 3:14:46
  Speaker 1: still less that there is no such thing as first
• 3:14:49
  Speaker 1: and last in a circle. And they never succeeded in
• 3:14:52
  Speaker 1: overtaking so as to pass each other, though they sometimes
• 3:14:57
  Speaker 1: came up very close. And then there was twilight. Of
• 3:15:03
  Speaker 1: the two, one grumbled and the other scolded the most.
• 3:15:07
  Speaker 1: And it is easy to guess which did which. Night
• 3:15:10
  Speaker 1: was gloomy by nature, especially when clouds hid the moon
• 3:15:14
  Speaker 1: and stars, so her complaints took a serious, melancholy tone.
• 3:15:19
  Speaker 1: She was really broken hearted at the exhaustion produced all
• 3:15:23
  Speaker 1: over the world by the labors and pleasures which were
• 3:15:26
  Speaker 1: carried on under the light of day and used to
• 3:15:29
  Speaker 1: receive the earth back as if it was a sick child,
• 3:15:32
  Speaker 1: and she and nurse who had a right to be
• 3:15:34
  Speaker 1: angry with what.
• 3:15:35
  Speaker 3: Had been done to it.
• 3:15:38
  Speaker 1: Day, on the contrary, was amazingly cheerful, particularly when the
• 3:15:42
  Speaker 1: sun Shone never troubled his head about what was to
• 3:15:45
  Speaker 1: happen when his fun was over. On the contrary, thought
• 3:15:49
  Speaker 1: his fun ought to last forever because it was pleasant,
• 3:15:53
  Speaker 1: was quite vexed when it was put a stop to,
• 3:15:56
  Speaker 1: and had no scruple in railing at his rival, whose
• 3:15:59
  Speaker 1: only object, as it seemed to him, was to overshadow
• 3:16:02
  Speaker 1: and put an end to all the happiness that was
• 3:16:04
  Speaker 1: to be found cruel Night, He exclaimed, What a life
• 3:16:09
  Speaker 1: you lead me, How you thwart me at every turn,
• 3:16:12
  Speaker 1: What trouble I have to take to keep your mischief
• 3:16:15
  Speaker 1: in check? Look at the mists and shadows. I must
• 3:16:18
  Speaker 1: drive on one side before I can make the world
• 3:16:20
  Speaker 1: bright with my beautiful light. And no sooner have I
• 3:16:24
  Speaker 1: done so than I feel your cold, unwholesome breath trying
• 3:16:27
  Speaker 1: to come up to me behind. But you shall never
• 3:16:31
  Speaker 1: overtake me if I can help it, though I know
• 3:16:34
  Speaker 1: that is what you want. You want to throw your hateful,
• 3:16:37
  Speaker 1: black shadow over my bright and pleasant world. I doing
• 3:16:42
  Speaker 1: mischief which you have to keep in check, groaned Knight,
• 3:16:45
  Speaker 1: quite confused by the accusation, I, whose whole time is
• 3:16:49
  Speaker 1: spent in trying to repair the mischief other people do
• 3:16:52
  Speaker 1: your mischief.
• 3:16:53
  Speaker 3: In fact, you.
• 3:16:54
  Speaker 1: Wasteful consumer of life and power. Every twelve hours I
• 3:16:58
  Speaker 1: get back from you a half worn hour world, and
• 3:17:01
  Speaker 1: this I am expected to restore and make as good
• 3:17:04
  Speaker 1: as new again. But how is that possible? Something I
• 3:17:07
  Speaker 1: can do, I know somewhere and tear. I can renew
• 3:17:10
  Speaker 1: and refresh, but some alas I cannot, and thus creep
• 3:17:15
  Speaker 1: in destruction and death. Here here cried Day, in contempt,
• 3:17:20
  Speaker 1: taunting me with the damage I do and the death
• 3:17:22
  Speaker 1: and destruction I cause. I the life giver, at whose
• 3:17:27
  Speaker 1: touch the whole world awakes, which else might lie asleep forever?
• 3:17:31
  Speaker 1: She the grim likeness of death she talks about, and
• 3:17:34
  Speaker 1: bringing Death's twin sister in her bosom. You are Day
• 3:17:39
  Speaker 1: the destroyer, I Knight, the restorer, persisted, Knight, evading the argument.
• 3:17:45
  Speaker 3: I am Day, the life giver. You Knight, the desolator,
• 3:17:48
  Speaker 3: replied the Day bitterly. I am Knight, the restorer.
• 3:17:52
  Speaker 1: You Day the destroyer, repeated, Knight, you are to me
• 3:17:56
  Speaker 1: what death is to life, shouted Day. Then death is
• 3:18:00
  Speaker 1: a restorer, as I am, exclaimed the Knight. And so
• 3:18:04
  Speaker 1: they went on like all other ignorant and obstinate arguers,
• 3:18:08
  Speaker 1: each full of his own one idea and taking no
• 3:18:12
  Speaker 1: heed of what the other might say. How could the
• 3:18:15
  Speaker 1: truth be got by such means? Of course it could not,
• 3:18:18
  Speaker 1: And of course therefore they persisted in their rudeness, and
• 3:18:22
  Speaker 1: there were certain seasons, particularly when they became more impertinent
• 3:18:26
  Speaker 1: to each other than ever. For instance, whenever it was
• 3:18:30
  Speaker 1: summer day's horse shiny Man got so strong and frisky
• 3:18:34
  Speaker 1: that night had much ado to keep her place at all.
• 3:18:37
  Speaker 1: So closely was she pressed in the chase. Indeed, sometimes
• 3:18:42
  Speaker 1: there was so little of her to be seen that
• 3:18:43
  Speaker 1: people might have doubted whether she had passed by at all,
• 3:18:46
  Speaker 1: had it not been for the dew, frosty means scattered,
• 3:18:50
  Speaker 1: and which those saw who got up early enough in
• 3:18:52
  Speaker 1: the morning. Oh, the boasting of day at these times.
• 3:18:57
  Speaker 1: And really he believed what he said. He really thought
• 3:19:00
  Speaker 1: it would be the greatest possible blessing if he were
• 3:19:03
  Speaker 1: to go on forever and there were to be no night.
• 3:19:07
  Speaker 1: Perhaps he had the excuse of having heard a whisper
• 3:19:10
  Speaker 1: of some old tradition to that effect. But the principal
• 3:19:13
  Speaker 1: cause of the mistake was that he thought too much
• 3:19:16
  Speaker 1: about himself and too little about his neighbor. Fortunate world
• 3:19:21
  Speaker 1: cut he It must be clear to every one now
• 3:19:24
  Speaker 1: who it is that brings blessing and does good to
• 3:19:27
  Speaker 1: you and your inhabitants, Good old Earth, You become more
• 3:19:31
  Speaker 1: and more lovely and fruitful. The more and more I
• 3:19:34
  Speaker 1: shorten the hours of night and lengthen my own. We
• 3:19:37
  Speaker 1: can do tolerably well without her restoring power. It would
• 3:19:40
  Speaker 1: seem if we could be rid of her altogether there,
• 3:19:43
  Speaker 1: for what a paradise there would be. Then the foliage,
• 3:19:47
  Speaker 1: the flowers, the fruit, the precious crops of this my
• 3:19:51
  Speaker 1: special season would last forever. Would that it could remain uninterrupted.
• 3:19:58
  Speaker 1: He is praying for a curse, where it granted, no
• 3:20:01
  Speaker 1: life could exist. Murmured the night, and Frosty Man's dew
• 3:20:04
  Speaker 1: fell in tears as she spoke. No one heard her, however,
• 3:20:08
  Speaker 1: but the dew was very acceptable, for the weather was
• 3:20:11
  Speaker 1: very hot, and she had her revenge, for when it
• 3:20:16
  Speaker 1: was summer on one side of the globe, it was
• 3:20:18
  Speaker 1: winter on the other. And then it was her turn
• 3:20:21
  Speaker 1: to boast. As it was in winter that Frosty Man
• 3:20:24
  Speaker 1: came out in all his glory every now and then,
• 3:20:27
  Speaker 1: running his car so nearly side by side with that
• 3:20:30
  Speaker 1: of day that he squeezed him up into the smallest
• 3:20:33
  Speaker 1: possible compass, besides putting out half his light, on which
• 3:20:38
  Speaker 1: night kept up a sort of murmuring triumph good, good,
• 3:20:42
  Speaker 1: very good. This is something like rest at last. Now
• 3:20:47
  Speaker 1: worn out nature is recruiting herself to some purpose. Now
• 3:20:51
  Speaker 1: weary muscles may gather strength instead of giving it out.
• 3:20:55
  Speaker 1: Now strained eyes may recover brightness, and worn brains energy.
• 3:21:00
  Speaker 3: Now all the.
• 3:21:01
  Speaker 1: Secret forces of nature are at work, and exhaustion is
• 3:21:04
  Speaker 1: being repaired on every side. Now trees and plants may
• 3:21:09
  Speaker 1: keep their gases for themselves, and earth hold her own.
• 3:21:13
  Speaker 1: Now waste and consumption cease, for the wear and tear
• 3:21:17
  Speaker 1: of life have stopped.
• 3:21:19
  Speaker 3: Ah.
• 3:21:20
  Speaker 1: If it could but cease forever, then the world would
• 3:21:23
  Speaker 1: be renewed. Indeed, and giant races of man and beast
• 3:21:27
  Speaker 1: and plant arise, but never glow with the light of
• 3:21:32
  Speaker 1: active life, or be seen but in the pale, unmeaning
• 3:21:35
  Speaker 1: moonlight sneered the mortified day. But he struggled in vain
• 3:21:39
  Speaker 1: to make himself heard. The truth is he was in
• 3:21:43
  Speaker 1: the background just then, and nobody cared to listen. Yet
• 3:21:47
  Speaker 1: he made his presence known from time to time at
• 3:21:49
  Speaker 1: midday by the light of shiny man's hair. Nothing could
• 3:21:54
  Speaker 1: quite put that out, even in winter when the weather
• 3:21:57
  Speaker 1: was fine, and sometimes it shone over the ice and
• 3:22:00
  Speaker 1: snow so brightly that they glittered like diamonds, or might
• 3:22:04
  Speaker 1: almost have been taken for fireworks. And so things went
• 3:22:09
  Speaker 1: on till a check came, and it came in a
• 3:22:12
  Speaker 1: very odd way. It is not always very easy to
• 3:22:16
  Speaker 1: tell the exact causes of change, even in one's own mind,
• 3:22:20
  Speaker 1: much less in other people's, so I do not pretend
• 3:22:23
  Speaker 1: to trace the whole process out in this case. But
• 3:22:27
  Speaker 1: night and day did grow wiser as time went on,
• 3:22:30
  Speaker 1: For as everyone knows, there is no squabbling or boasting
• 3:22:34
  Speaker 1: going on between them now. On the contrary, they glide
• 3:22:38
  Speaker 1: after each other as gently and sweetly as possible, without
• 3:22:42
  Speaker 1: any kicking of horses or rumbling of chariot wheels. And
• 3:22:46
  Speaker 1: one may conclude that after the first flush of feeling
• 3:22:49
  Speaker 1: cooled down, they were better able to look round them
• 3:22:52
  Speaker 1: and judge dispassionately of each other. And lo and behold,
• 3:22:56
  Speaker 1: they discovered at last that there were just two portions
• 3:22:59
  Speaker 1: of the globe where each had in turned his own
• 3:23:02
  Speaker 1: way as nearly as possible for six whole months at
• 3:23:05
  Speaker 1: a time, for example, at the poles, And that yet, nevertheless,
• 3:23:11
  Speaker 1: the brilliant consequences which they had insisted would occur under
• 3:23:14
  Speaker 1: these circumstances never took place. On the contrary, those were
• 3:23:20
  Speaker 1: the dreariest and most desolate portions of the whole globe,
• 3:23:25
  Speaker 1: barren wastes of ice and rock, where both animal and
• 3:23:28
  Speaker 1: vegetable life were at the lowest possible ebb. Nothing could
• 3:23:33
  Speaker 1: be more mortifying, it must be owned in vain did
• 3:23:37
  Speaker 1: shiny man drive round and round that frozen horizon with
• 3:23:40
  Speaker 1: a light that was never interrupted? Where was the promised
• 3:23:44
  Speaker 1: paradise which was to follow, the foliage, the flowers, the fruit,
• 3:23:49
  Speaker 1: the precious crops which should have adorned this unchecked rain
• 3:23:52
  Speaker 1: of day? Where were they? The dove would have sought
• 3:23:57
  Speaker 1: in vain here for even a shrub on which to
• 3:24:00
  Speaker 1: rest her foot. Scarcely a wandering seagull ever disturbed the
• 3:24:04
  Speaker 1: deathlike stillness of the air. Day the life giver looked
• 3:24:08
  Speaker 1: down upon a kingdom without life. What wonder if he
• 3:24:12
  Speaker 1: began at last to distrust himself? What wonder if he
• 3:24:17
  Speaker 1: went on to suspect that there might be some truth
• 3:24:20
  Speaker 1: in what Knight had said, after all, that she might,
• 3:24:23
  Speaker 1: in some way or other be Night the Restorer, In
• 3:24:26
  Speaker 1: some way, however mysterious and unaccountable, be necessary to his
• 3:24:31
  Speaker 1: own prosperity. And it was the same with Night when
• 3:24:35
  Speaker 1: her turn came round in vain? Did Frosty mean distill
• 3:24:39
  Speaker 1: his dues? They were useful at least, Night thought so
• 3:24:44
  Speaker 1: everywhere else, But here what did they avail? Here was
• 3:24:49
  Speaker 1: the unbroken rest, which was to recruit and refresh all nature.
• 3:24:53
  Speaker 1: Now her secret powers might work as they pleased. There
• 3:24:56
  Speaker 1: was no waste of power now, either from labor or
• 3:24:59
  Speaker 1: hea or any other destructive cause. But where were the
• 3:25:03
  Speaker 1: giant races of man and beast and plant that were
• 3:25:06
  Speaker 1: to arise in consequence? The wear and terror of life
• 3:25:10
  Speaker 1: had stopped? But what was the earth advantaged? Night the
• 3:25:15
  Speaker 1: restorer ruled but over a kingdom where there was nothing
• 3:25:19
  Speaker 1: to restore. Well, might tears mingle with her dews?
• 3:25:24
  Speaker 3: Well might she call to the.
• 3:25:25
  Speaker 1: Morning stars to bring back that Day, whom once she
• 3:25:29
  Speaker 1: had dreaded as a rival, but now longed for as
• 3:25:32
  Speaker 1: a friend. Day the life giver he had called himself,
• 3:25:36
  Speaker 1: And Day the life giver perhaps he was certainly without him,
• 3:25:40
  Speaker 1: she could do nothing at any rate. Here where he
• 3:25:43
  Speaker 1: was not, the whole world was a blank. They had
• 3:25:47
  Speaker 1: made a terrible mistake, that was clear. And if they
• 3:25:51
  Speaker 1: did not at first see that there must be other
• 3:25:54
  Speaker 1: and more important powers at work besides theirs, or the
• 3:25:58
  Speaker 1: good old Earth would not be what it is in
• 3:26:00
  Speaker 1: most places. They must be excused. People cannot grow quite
• 3:26:05
  Speaker 1: wise all at once, And they had made a very
• 3:26:08
  Speaker 1: good beginning by learning to distrust themselves, that being always
• 3:26:13
  Speaker 1: the first step toward doing justice to a neighbor. I
• 3:26:17
  Speaker 1: called you, Day, the destroyer, bright and beautiful friend, murmured Knight,
• 3:26:21
  Speaker 1: in her softest tones, you who bring light over my
• 3:26:24
  Speaker 1: shadows and make my good deeds known to all men, Day,
• 3:26:28
  Speaker 1: the life Giver, forgive me and return at the seasons appointed.
• 3:26:33
  Speaker 1: Touch the earth with your glory from time to time,
• 3:26:36
  Speaker 1: lest all things perish from its face, and it and
• 3:26:39
  Speaker 1: I are forgotten together. But I mistook your friendly shadow
• 3:26:45
  Speaker 1: for that of death, answered Day with his sweetest smile,
• 3:26:49
  Speaker 1: though tears trembled in his eyes as he thought of
• 3:26:52
  Speaker 1: the injustice causing the brightest of rainbows to span the
• 3:26:55
  Speaker 1: landscape below. And that was a thousand times worse. You,
• 3:27:01
  Speaker 1: in whose silence and rest the very fountains of life
• 3:27:03
  Speaker 1: are renewed. Ah, while earth remains what it is an
• 3:27:08
  Speaker 1: everlasting day, A day without night would be destruction. Dear friend,
• 3:27:13
  Speaker 1: forgive me ever and ever return. There is nothing to forgive,
• 3:27:18
  Speaker 1: whispered Night, as she came round once more. And death
• 3:27:22
  Speaker 1: also may restore as I do, added she tenderly, for
• 3:27:25
  Speaker 1: the harvest moon was shining upon long fields of golden corn,
• 3:27:29
  Speaker 1: some waving still, some gathered into sheaves, and she felt
• 3:27:33
  Speaker 1: particularly hopeful about everything. Anyhow, We are friends, loving, helpful friends,
• 3:27:40
  Speaker 1: sang day, Friends, comforting and abiding friends, echoed Night in return,
• 3:27:46
  Speaker 1: as the weary world sank on her bosom, eyes closing,
• 3:27:50
  Speaker 1: limbs relaxing, and flowers folding, as if the Angel of
• 3:27:54
  Speaker 1: rest had come down from heaven. And friends they were
• 3:27:59
  Speaker 1: and rem though long ages have passed away since the
• 3:28:03
  Speaker 1: time the old Northern tales tell of, And though now
• 3:28:06
  Speaker 1: the wise men will not allow that night and day
• 3:28:09
  Speaker 1: drive round the world in cars with horses to them, well,
• 3:28:13
  Speaker 1: perhaps they don't. Perhaps it is really true that the
• 3:28:16
  Speaker 1: earth is a dark ball hanging in the open space,
• 3:28:19
  Speaker 1: which we call the firmament of Heaven, moving slowly round
• 3:28:23
  Speaker 1: the shining sun, but spinning like a top all the
• 3:28:26
  Speaker 1: time itself, so that first one side and then the
• 3:28:30
  Speaker 1: other faces the brightness, and thus there is a constant
• 3:28:33
  Speaker 1: change from light to darkness, and darkness to light, going
• 3:28:37
  Speaker 1: on all over the world. And this makes day and night.
• 3:28:41
  Speaker 1: But no matter which way the changes come, night and
• 3:28:44
  Speaker 1: day are the work of the Lord. And like all
• 3:28:47
  Speaker 1: the other works of the Lord, which the three children
• 3:28:50
  Speaker 1: in the fiery furnace called upon to praise him, have
• 3:28:53
  Speaker 1: a voice and say many things worth listening to, especially
• 3:28:58
  Speaker 1: now that they are no longer young and foolish. And
• 3:29:01
  Speaker 1: from time to time, according as we keep our ears
• 3:29:05
  Speaker 1: open or shut, little streams of melody to float round
• 3:29:09
  Speaker 1: us from the natural world, as musical sounds break out
• 3:29:12
  Speaker 1: from the strings of an old fashioned Olian harp when
• 3:29:16
  Speaker 1: the wind blows over it, or sweep along the wires
• 3:29:19
  Speaker 1: of the electric telegraph on breezy days. Listen only, and
• 3:29:25
  Speaker 1: you will hear, And which speaks you can surely guess,
• 3:29:28
  Speaker 1: for they praise each other now and not themselves. One sings,
• 3:29:34
  Speaker 1: dear Knight, whom once I dreaded as the dark end
• 3:29:37
  Speaker 1: of life and enjoyment, Dear Knight, whom now I know
• 3:29:40
  Speaker 1: as the forerunner of life, renewed, Welcome, blessed Restorer. Take
• 3:29:45
  Speaker 1: our worn out child to your bosom, Drop over her,
• 3:29:49
  Speaker 1: striving and straining your mantle of repose. All her day
• 3:29:53
  Speaker 1: laborers grow weary, for a portion of life goes from
• 3:29:56
  Speaker 1: them in the toil of lemon muscle, in the world
• 3:30:00
  Speaker 1: looking of iron brain, in all the changes that circle
• 3:30:03
  Speaker 1: round an ever changing world. Restore what thou canst and mast.
• 3:30:08
  Speaker 1: Let the rest remain in hope for the mercy thou
• 3:30:11
  Speaker 1: bringest now foreshadows are greater in store, oh, type of
• 3:30:17
  Speaker 1: the mighty change which must one day pass upon, all
• 3:30:21
  Speaker 1: of the deep, mysterious rest, in which all things shall
• 3:30:24
  Speaker 1: be renewed, of the needful, hopeful death, which quickens unto life.
• 3:30:30
  Speaker 1: Dear Knight, my sister and friend. The twilight shades approach,
• 3:30:34
  Speaker 1: and I see in thankful peace your darker shadows beyond,
• 3:30:39
  Speaker 1: and the other answers in turn, dark and secret my mission.
• 3:30:43
  Speaker 1: Men call me Night, the gloomy, But hold in my
• 3:30:46
  Speaker 1: bosom the germs of a glory full of hope, hiddenly
• 3:30:50
  Speaker 1: working within, till thou, the life giver, returnest to break
• 3:30:54
  Speaker 1: through the mists and shadows and touch my nurslings with light.
• 3:30:59
  Speaker 1: So at the first fis creation, At the touch of
• 3:31:01
  Speaker 1: the first young dawn, lo gleams of life universal were
• 3:31:06
  Speaker 1: lit all over the world and nature amazed, awoke in
• 3:31:10
  Speaker 1: songs of thanksgiving and joy. So come then day, the
• 3:31:15
  Speaker 1: life giver, ever and ever, reviving the slumbering germs. I
• 3:31:19
  Speaker 1: nourish the hidden life. I feel welcome for this, but
• 3:31:24
  Speaker 1: thrice welcome as type of a day spring eternal, that
• 3:31:27
  Speaker 1: shall dawn at last on the night of sin and
• 3:31:30
  Speaker 1: sorrow and death, when on our secret missions accomplished, our
• 3:31:35
  Speaker 1: secret workings completed. Thou and I, oh life giving day,
• 3:31:40
  Speaker 1: shall merge our blessings in one, when the light that
• 3:31:43
  Speaker 1: never wastes and the life that never wearies shall be
• 3:31:47
  Speaker 1: one with the rest eternal that remaineth evermore. End of
• 3:31:53
  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty five.
• 3:31:55
  Speaker 9: Chapter twenty six. Kicking rebellion is as the sin of
• 3:32:03
  Speaker 9: witchcraft first Samuel fifteen twenty three, three years of complete liberty,
• 3:32:10
  Speaker 9: and then to have to learn in three short weeks
• 3:32:12
  Speaker 9: to submit entirely to the will of other people. This
• 3:32:16
  Speaker 9: sounds a hard plan of education, and perhaps is not
• 3:32:19
  Speaker 9: the very best one possible. Still, thousands of young cults
• 3:32:23
  Speaker 9: have turned into good horses upon it, and if there
• 3:32:26
  Speaker 9: is to be a reform, it must come from above,
• 3:32:29
  Speaker 9: not from below. Reforms from below. Savor of rebellion and
• 3:32:33
  Speaker 9: that is sure to lead to a reaction and the
• 3:32:35
  Speaker 9: wrong way again. Yet people ought not to blind themselves
• 3:32:40
  Speaker 9: those above I mean any more than those below. Every
• 3:32:44
  Speaker 9: Man therefore, ought to sit from time to time in
• 3:32:46
  Speaker 9: his neighbour's chair, and look with his neighbour's eyes, from
• 3:32:50
  Speaker 9: his neighbour's position, at what he himself is about. It
• 3:32:53
  Speaker 9: is wonderful how much wiser, as well as kinder, people
• 3:32:57
  Speaker 9: grow if they do this. And among man's neighbors, he
• 3:33:01
  Speaker 9: should not be ashamed to reckon the creatures he collects
• 3:33:03
  Speaker 9: around him for his own convenience and amusement, and calls
• 3:33:07
  Speaker 9: his domestic animals. Why domestic, but that he has taken
• 3:33:12
  Speaker 9: them from their own natural homes and brought them to his.
• 3:33:15
  Speaker 9: And if so, surely it is not too much to
• 3:33:17
  Speaker 9: ask that he should give them, each, in his degree,
• 3:33:20
  Speaker 9: the comforts of a home citizenship in return for the
• 3:33:24
  Speaker 9: duties he exacts. If he does this honestly, a few
• 3:33:28
  Speaker 9: errors of judgment on his part will not matter more
• 3:33:31
  Speaker 9: than a few errors of conduct on theirs. For imperfection
• 3:33:35
  Speaker 9: has not only to be struggled against, but born in
• 3:33:38
  Speaker 9: this world. Sitting in neighbor, Firefly, the spirited young chestnut
• 3:33:43
  Speaker 9: colt's chair. Then it is but fair to own that
• 3:33:45
  Speaker 9: he may well have felt it queer after three years
• 3:33:48
  Speaker 9: luxury of doing as he liked in large, grassy pastures,
• 3:33:51
  Speaker 9: to find himself suddenly cooped up in a small, square,
• 3:33:54
  Speaker 9: stuffy place, sealed in instead of open to the air,
• 3:33:58
  Speaker 9: and surrounded by walls to one for particular part of
• 3:34:00
  Speaker 9: which he was fastened by a horrible contrivance that went
• 3:34:04
  Speaker 9: round his head and neck and gave him a most
• 3:34:06
  Speaker 9: unpleasant pull whenever he tried to get away. But yesterday
• 3:34:10
  Speaker 9: he was as free as the wind, so far as
• 3:34:12
  Speaker 9: the hedges extended, could gallop from one to the other,
• 3:34:15
  Speaker 9: while his breath lasted, might snort at the passenger in
• 3:34:19
  Speaker 9: the road which skirted the field as much as he pleased,
• 3:34:22
  Speaker 9: throw out his legs at everything and everybody, kick, plunge, bound,
• 3:34:27
  Speaker 9: jumped till he was tired, winnie at his companions, whether
• 3:34:30
  Speaker 9: he had anything worth saying or not, And all this
• 3:34:33
  Speaker 9: at will well now. But the contrast is too painful
• 3:34:37
  Speaker 9: to dwell upon, For firefly was now in a horse
• 3:34:41
  Speaker 9: breaker's stable with a halter round his neck. He had
• 3:34:45
  Speaker 9: one consolation, however, and it is not a small one
• 3:34:48
  Speaker 9: to most people. Indeed, it ought always to be a
• 3:34:51
  Speaker 9: matter of thankfulness to all. He was extremely well fed.
• 3:34:56
  Speaker 9: It is true, the very delicious grain he had now
• 3:34:58
  Speaker 9: been champing at three separate meals to his heart, content
• 3:35:02
  Speaker 9: with his nose bent over the manger, had been very
• 3:35:04
  Speaker 9: dearly purchased by the loss of his freedom. The morning
• 3:35:07
  Speaker 9: before the wild driving he had undergone from the field
• 3:35:11
  Speaker 9: to the stable yard, with the treacherous capture at the
• 3:35:14
  Speaker 9: end still rankled in his mind, and the cruel outrage
• 3:35:18
  Speaker 9: to his young heart's nervous shyness when hands of violent
• 3:35:21
  Speaker 9: men overcame him and the fatal noose was slipped over
• 3:35:24
  Speaker 9: his head was not to be forgotten. Still taste his taste.
• 3:35:29
  Speaker 9: The food remained delicious all the same, and he was
• 3:35:32
  Speaker 9: so young he could enjoy the present irrespective of the
• 3:35:35
  Speaker 9: past or future. But all feeds of corn come to
• 3:35:39
  Speaker 9: an end at last. And at the end of the
• 3:35:41
  Speaker 9: first he began to fidget. After the second he grew
• 3:35:44
  Speaker 9: angrily impatient, And when he had swallowed the third, he
• 3:35:48
  Speaker 9: became what is called archaically rampageous, For in point of fact,
• 3:35:52
  Speaker 9: the good corn had begun to warm his blood. He
• 3:35:55
  Speaker 9: was very high living compared to the cold grass he'd
• 3:35:58
  Speaker 9: been used to now as was natural. One of the
• 3:36:02
  Speaker 9: first things he did was to call out for his
• 3:36:04
  Speaker 9: old companions of the field, and this he did in
• 3:36:07
  Speaker 9: colts fashion, of course. But what Colts fashion really is
• 3:36:10
  Speaker 9: will not be known till men become good linguists and
• 3:36:13
  Speaker 9: have learnt other languages besides those of their own race.
• 3:36:17
  Speaker 9: At present, they are miserably backward in that branch of learning,
• 3:36:21
  Speaker 9: and have no idea even of what flies talk about,
• 3:36:24
  Speaker 9: though they hear them murmuring away in the air as
• 3:36:26
  Speaker 9: soon as they themselves awake every summer morning, and for
• 3:36:29
  Speaker 9: nearly all day after well, in Colts fashion, fireflies shouted
• 3:36:34
  Speaker 9: for his companions, and after two or three attempts, each
• 3:36:37
  Speaker 9: of them louder than the one before, must have made
• 3:36:40
  Speaker 9: himself heard, for at last he was answered, though from
• 3:36:43
  Speaker 9: what seemed a great distance, so smothered were the sounds.
• 3:36:47
  Speaker 9: But this was only because they came through stone walls.
• 3:36:50
  Speaker 9: In point of fact, his young friends, Whitefoot and silver
• 3:36:54
  Speaker 9: Star by name, were very near, namely in the very
• 3:36:57
  Speaker 9: next adjoining stable, both of them captives like himself, both
• 3:37:01
  Speaker 9: of them with halters around their necks, one in one
• 3:37:04
  Speaker 9: stall one in another conversation was difficult under such circumstances
• 3:37:09
  Speaker 9: and could not be carried on for long. What they
• 3:37:12
  Speaker 9: did say when they discovered they were near each other
• 3:37:15
  Speaker 9: amounted to about this, So you are somewhat hereabouts two
• 3:37:19
  Speaker 9: Whitefoot and silver Star. Why don't you come where I am?
• 3:37:22
  Speaker 9: Where are you? We don't know where we are? Where
• 3:37:26
  Speaker 9: are you?
• 3:37:27
  Speaker 3: Why don't you.
• 3:37:27
  Speaker 9: Come to us? Because something twitches my head if I
• 3:37:31
  Speaker 9: try to move away, so I can't. That's just what
• 3:37:35
  Speaker 9: happens to us, So we can't. It's abominable. It's very distressing.
• 3:37:40
  Speaker 9: I wonder what it means. I am very angry. We
• 3:37:43
  Speaker 9: wonder too, but it can't be helped. Here the dialogue ended,
• 3:37:47
  Speaker 9: for the cults were not the only inhabitants of the
• 3:37:50
  Speaker 9: two stables in the one with Whitefoot and Silver Star
• 3:37:53
  Speaker 9: was a good tempered, middle aged Welsh pony known all
• 3:37:57
  Speaker 9: over the countryside as good old Taffy, and the other
• 3:38:00
  Speaker 9: with Firefly, was an old, half bred white Arabian mare
• 3:38:03
  Speaker 9: whose mother had been brought from the East. Old people
• 3:38:08
  Speaker 9: who talk to young ones should think of the young
• 3:38:10
  Speaker 9: ones more than themselves if they want to gossip and
• 3:38:13
  Speaker 9: grumble and let off vexed feelings, let them do it
• 3:38:15
  Speaker 9: to each other. Life is very trying sometimes as age
• 3:38:19
  Speaker 9: comes on, and those of the same age can understand
• 3:38:22
  Speaker 9: the feelings of the age and make allowance for the
• 3:38:25
  Speaker 9: groanings of the natural man. But young creatures may easily
• 3:38:29
  Speaker 9: be led away by a few sad or passionate words
• 3:38:32
  Speaker 9: into believing all sorts of nonsense. I say, then, let
• 3:38:35
  Speaker 9: old people unburden their personal feelings to each other, but
• 3:38:38
  Speaker 9: never talk anything but useful sense or pleasant nonsense to
• 3:38:42
  Speaker 9: a child. Had the old White Mare and the stables
• 3:38:46
  Speaker 9: thought of this, it would have been better for Firefly.
• 3:38:48
  Speaker 9: Perhaps at least he would not have had the same
• 3:38:50
  Speaker 9: encouragement to turn out unmanageable which she now gave him.
• 3:38:54
  Speaker 9: For no sooner had he uttered the words I wonder
• 3:38:57
  Speaker 9: what it means, I am very angry to his next door.
• 3:39:01
  Speaker 9: Then she shook her own halter till the rattle roused
• 3:39:03
  Speaker 9: his attention, and then observed, in a tone of melancholy,
• 3:39:07
  Speaker 9: which was of itself quite impressive, I can tell you
• 3:39:11
  Speaker 9: what it means, but I am afraid when you know,
• 3:39:14
  Speaker 9: you will not be less angry than now, but rather more.
• 3:39:20
  Speaker 9: Firefly's quick blood ran quicker at the startling announcement. Oh dear,
• 3:39:24
  Speaker 9: what makes you say so? Who can you be? Cried
• 3:39:27
  Speaker 9: he in excitement, one who ought to know something, if
• 3:39:31
  Speaker 9: age and experience can instruct, answered the sorrowful old mare,
• 3:39:35
  Speaker 9: adding in a lower tone, Still or of unusual opportunities
• 3:39:39
  Speaker 9: in early life have not been lost upon her. I
• 3:39:44
  Speaker 9: am almost afraid of hearing. Yet suspense is intolerable, cried firefly.
• 3:39:48
  Speaker 9: Where am I? What is going to happen? You are
• 3:39:53
  Speaker 9: a prisoner at the mercy of those who shut you up,
• 3:39:56
  Speaker 9: answered the old mare, to whose monotonous existence the power
• 3:39:59
  Speaker 9: of lashing a young called up to indignation was rather
• 3:40:02
  Speaker 9: an amusing novelty. It is the first time this has
• 3:40:05
  Speaker 9: happened to you. I suppose it is the first time
• 3:40:08
  Speaker 9: I was ever made fast in this way, grown firefly.
• 3:40:11
  Speaker 9: If I was ever in an enclosure before it was
• 3:40:13
  Speaker 9: loose by my mother's side, My memory is confused. So
• 3:40:17
  Speaker 9: far back, I too at a mother, once murmured the
• 3:40:21
  Speaker 9: old mare Egeria, and her grief in thinking how long
• 3:40:24
  Speaker 9: ago made her pause? Tell me about her, exclaimed Firefly,
• 3:40:28
  Speaker 9: What became of her? I want to know what a
• 3:40:32
  Speaker 9: tone you speak in, answered Egeria, you want to know
• 3:40:36
  Speaker 9: you forget. You are a prisoner and must learn to
• 3:40:39
  Speaker 9: want nothing but what is given to you. I shall
• 3:40:42
  Speaker 9: never learn that, cried he And why am I a prisoner?
• 3:40:45
  Speaker 9: Tell me that because the people you belong to want
• 3:40:49
  Speaker 9: to make you useful, useful to them, that is. And
• 3:40:53
  Speaker 9: why must I be useful to them? Why may I
• 3:40:55
  Speaker 9: not please myself as I have done before? What are
• 3:40:58
  Speaker 9: they to me? Ask them, said Egeria coldly. They will
• 3:41:04
  Speaker 9: tell you, masters, superiors, you provoke me, cried Firefly, stamping
• 3:41:10
  Speaker 9: into the straw at his feet. Tell me why I
• 3:41:12
  Speaker 9: am here as you promised. My former history is short enough,
• 3:41:15
  Speaker 9: as you shall hear. I spare yourself the trouble, interrupted, Agerria.
• 3:41:20
  Speaker 9: Our histories in this country are all alike. We are
• 3:41:23
  Speaker 9: left to ourselves for nearly three years and are taught nothing.
• 3:41:27
  Speaker 9: Then our superiors get hold of us by frightened force,
• 3:41:31
  Speaker 9: and in three weeks make us learn everything they want.
• 3:41:34
  Speaker 9: And then, gasped Firefly. And then it depends upon the
• 3:41:38
  Speaker 9: people into whose hands one falls, whether one is well
• 3:41:43
  Speaker 9: or ill used. And you have borne all this in patience,
• 3:41:47
  Speaker 9: asked Firefly. I had no heart to act otherwise, sighed Egeria,
• 3:41:52
  Speaker 9: I felt no spirit to resist, But I feel plenty
• 3:41:56
  Speaker 9: of spirit and shall resist, cried the young chestnut, straining
• 3:41:59
  Speaker 9: against the as hard as he could bear, and dashing
• 3:42:01
  Speaker 9: his legs against the side of the stall, first on
• 3:42:04
  Speaker 9: one side, then on the other. But what can you do,
• 3:42:08
  Speaker 9: whined I Geria, A little startled by his violence, do,
• 3:42:12
  Speaker 9: shouted Firefly, Why I shall kick kick kick any time?
• 3:42:16
  Speaker 9: He uttered the words, he struck out against the wooden
• 3:42:18
  Speaker 9: partition between the stalls. Garya began to be alarmed. I
• 3:42:23
  Speaker 9: do not advise it, she said, I assure you it
• 3:42:26
  Speaker 9: will do no good. You'd better bear it all as
• 3:42:29
  Speaker 9: well as you can. Oh, that is all very well
• 3:42:31
  Speaker 9: for those who can receive it, old lady, exclaimed Firefly.
• 3:42:34
  Speaker 9: I can't. I can't stand injustice, and what's more, I won't.
• 3:42:38
  Speaker 9: Why my blood is boiling already, only to think of
• 3:42:41
  Speaker 9: the way they drove us along before they got us here.
• 3:42:43
  Speaker 9: Of course, if I had known, I should never have
• 3:42:45
  Speaker 9: left the field. And the still worst fright thoseed men
• 3:42:47
  Speaker 9: gave me when they all laid hold of me and
• 3:42:48
  Speaker 9: threw this horrible thing over my head. It's all treachery
• 3:42:51
  Speaker 9: and injustice from beginning to end ah, if we were
• 3:42:55
  Speaker 9: but in my mother's country side of Garia. Why what, then,
• 3:43:00
  Speaker 9: inquired firefly. Oh, my poor young friend, I'm afraid it
• 3:43:04
  Speaker 9: will do more harm than good to tell you, said Eegaria.
• 3:43:08
  Speaker 9: Yet if you wish it so very much, I hardly
• 3:43:10
  Speaker 9: know how to refuse the old goose to consent to
• 3:43:13
  Speaker 9: tell what she felt might do harm. But she was
• 3:43:16
  Speaker 9: vain of knowing more than other people on the subject,
• 3:43:19
  Speaker 9: which she really did, besides which she wanted to stop
• 3:43:22
  Speaker 9: fireflies kicking and plunging by holding his attention, so said she.
• 3:43:28
  Speaker 9: The people there in the east, I mean, treat young
• 3:43:31
  Speaker 9: colts quite differently from the people here. As soon as
• 3:43:35
  Speaker 9: ever they can leave their mothers, they are brought among
• 3:43:37
  Speaker 9: the tents where the men, women and children live, and
• 3:43:41
  Speaker 9: the women take care of them and feed them and
• 3:43:43
  Speaker 9: pet them. So they get used to their masters from
• 3:43:46
  Speaker 9: the first, and there is not the fright and horror
• 3:43:48
  Speaker 9: and startling change to go through which we suffer so
• 3:43:51
  Speaker 9: much from at the end of our first three years.
• 3:43:55
  Speaker 9: And so the halter and the teaching and all that
• 3:43:57
  Speaker 9: sort of thing come much easier. Though, of course, restraint
• 3:44:01
  Speaker 9: is restraint everywhere, But for pity's sake, don't begin to
• 3:44:05
  Speaker 9: kick again, concluded Ageria, interrupting herself with the sound of
• 3:44:09
  Speaker 9: renewed struggles on Fireflies, Part, I've been telling you my
• 3:44:13
  Speaker 9: mother's story to keep you quiet. Quiet, shouted the miserable cult.
• 3:44:18
  Speaker 9: I won't be quiet to please anybody. How can I
• 3:44:20
  Speaker 9: be quiet when I want to get away from the
• 3:44:22
  Speaker 9: savage country and go to that other one that east
• 3:44:25
  Speaker 9: you talk of, where cults are properly managed. But my
• 3:44:28
  Speaker 9: dear young friend, consider it's too late, expostulated Agaria. You
• 3:44:33
  Speaker 9: can begin life over again. You really mustn't let your
• 3:44:36
  Speaker 9: feelings run away with you in this foolish way. People
• 3:44:40
  Speaker 9: here don't mean badly altogether. They are tolerably kind on
• 3:44:44
  Speaker 9: the whole, at least some of them are. They feed
• 3:44:47
  Speaker 9: you well, as you see, and after you've learned what
• 3:44:50
  Speaker 9: they teach, you'll be glad, though you won't like it.
• 3:44:52
  Speaker 9: Well it's going on, then it shan't go on, shouted Firefly.
• 3:44:56
  Speaker 9: They shan't teach me. I won't learn. I won't have
• 3:44:58
  Speaker 9: their food or their If they have brought me up properly,
• 3:45:01
  Speaker 9: I could have submitted as well as anybody, but they
• 3:45:04
  Speaker 9: have been unjust, and now I won't. I'll do something.
• 3:45:06
  Speaker 9: I'll go to the east. And if I can't go
• 3:45:08
  Speaker 9: to the east, I'll kick. Oh, hush, do pray hush,
• 3:45:13
  Speaker 9: said Igeria, who to do her justice, had merely wanted
• 3:45:16
  Speaker 9: to excite a sympathetic grumble, not rouse a storm. You
• 3:45:20
  Speaker 9: go much too far, I assure you. You say that
• 3:45:24
  Speaker 9: because you have no spirit, you poor old creature, exclaimed Firefly.
• 3:45:29
  Speaker 9: You know you haven't. You said so yourself just now.
• 3:45:31
  Speaker 9: But that's no rule for me. If I have not
• 3:45:34
  Speaker 9: much spirit, remarked to Garia, I may have some sense,
• 3:45:38
  Speaker 9: and I want you to have some too. You can't
• 3:45:40
  Speaker 9: get away to begin with. So the East is out
• 3:45:43
  Speaker 9: of the question, and you cannot resist these people to
• 3:45:46
  Speaker 9: any purpose. So take my advice, submit and have done
• 3:45:50
  Speaker 9: with it. I can tell you from long experience that
• 3:45:53
  Speaker 9: kicking is never of any use. Then I shall go
• 3:45:57
  Speaker 9: on kicking out a spite, because it's of no use,
• 3:46:00
  Speaker 9: cried Firefly, And as he announced this grand resolution, he
• 3:46:04
  Speaker 9: broke out all over into a profuse sweat from excitement,
• 3:46:07
  Speaker 9: at which moment the stable door opened and the horse
• 3:46:10
  Speaker 9: breaker stepped in just to have a look at the colt.
• 3:46:12
  Speaker 9: And after doing so and observing his irritable and uneasy condition,
• 3:46:16
  Speaker 9: said he to himself, I shall have a good deal
• 3:46:19
  Speaker 9: of trouble with this one, I'm afraid now. In saying this,
• 3:46:23
  Speaker 9: he was making a sort of comparison between Firefly and
• 3:46:26
  Speaker 9: the other two, for he had just been in the
• 3:46:28
  Speaker 9: next stable and seen Whitefoot and silver Star unusually placid
• 3:46:32
  Speaker 9: and quiet for a fresh caught colts. That is to say,
• 3:46:35
  Speaker 9: nobody expects from a kitten the gravity of a cat.
• 3:46:38
  Speaker 9: But what wonder, because they were grays and therefore easier
• 3:46:42
  Speaker 9: tempered by nature than was to be expected from a chestnut.
• 3:46:46
  Speaker 9: For in horses, color and disposition are apt to go together.
• 3:46:49
  Speaker 9: They had been hearing nothing but good advice ever since
• 3:46:51
  Speaker 9: they were shut up, and what is more, they had
• 3:46:54
  Speaker 9: actually been attending to it. But then good old Taffy
• 3:46:58
  Speaker 9: gave his good advice. It's a very pleasant way, my
• 3:47:02
  Speaker 9: dear friends, cried he when he had heard them plunging
• 3:47:04
  Speaker 9: about in their stalls. At first, I do feel so
• 3:47:07
  Speaker 9: sorry for you, so very very sorry, because I know
• 3:47:10
  Speaker 9: so well what you suffer. Just the same was done
• 3:47:12
  Speaker 9: to me when I was your age. Oh well, how
• 3:47:15
  Speaker 9: did you bear it? Asked the colts. Well, well, I
• 3:47:18
  Speaker 9: was very impatient just at the beginning, answered Taffy, For
• 3:47:21
  Speaker 9: my Welsh blood made me chafe at the confinement, and
• 3:47:24
  Speaker 9: I was alone and had nobody to explain the meaning
• 3:47:26
  Speaker 9: of it all to me. So it was hard work.
• 3:47:29
  Speaker 9: And this makes me particularly glad to be here just
• 3:47:32
  Speaker 9: now to help you. I can tell you a great
• 3:47:34
  Speaker 9: deal that will comfort you, and plenty more that will
• 3:47:36
  Speaker 9: surprise and amuse you very much. There are two sights
• 3:47:39
  Speaker 9: to everything, even to things that vex one, I assure you.
• 3:47:43
  Speaker 9: But quiet, quiet, dear friends, I do beg continued he
• 3:47:46
  Speaker 9: as he heard more plunging and shaking of halters. Or
• 3:47:49
  Speaker 9: I shall not be able to say another word. We
• 3:47:51
  Speaker 9: will be very quiet, cried the colts, for they liked
• 3:47:54
  Speaker 9: the idea of being surprised and amused, as who does not.
• 3:47:58
  Speaker 9: Then Taffy told them they were not brought here to
• 3:48:00
  Speaker 9: be teased to death, as they had perhaps supposed, but
• 3:48:03
  Speaker 9: to prepare them for being taught a thousand nice things,
• 3:48:06
  Speaker 9: which they would never be able to do if they
• 3:48:08
  Speaker 9: were not taught, and which it was immensely jolly to
• 3:48:12
  Speaker 9: be able to do. When the teaching was once over,
• 3:48:15
  Speaker 9: and he proceeded to hold forth on the pleasures of trotting, cantering,
• 3:48:18
  Speaker 9: and galloping over the country with a good feet of corn,
• 3:48:22
  Speaker 9: a comfortable stable, and of a lay to rub one
• 3:48:24
  Speaker 9: down at the end, as also the delightful excitements of
• 3:48:27
  Speaker 9: racing and hunting, which even he had enjoyed, though only
• 3:48:30
  Speaker 9: as a looker on. But he added that they couldn't
• 3:48:33
  Speaker 9: have a share in all this without first learning to
• 3:48:35
  Speaker 9: obey their masters and love them a little bit too,
• 3:48:39
  Speaker 9: whereupon both cults shuddered all over, for the fright of
• 3:48:42
  Speaker 9: the men who had shut them up was very great,
• 3:48:45
  Speaker 9: and love seemed perfectly impossible. Ah, you can't bear the
• 3:48:48
  Speaker 9: thought of this, I see, cried Taffy. Well, of course,
• 3:48:52
  Speaker 9: if it could be, one would like to have no
• 3:48:53
  Speaker 9: master but one's self, a my friends, for which both
• 3:48:57
  Speaker 9: Whitefoot and Silver Star agreed with a winny of satisfaction.
• 3:49:00
  Speaker 9: But what is the use of fretting oneself by wishing
• 3:49:02
  Speaker 9: for what can't be pursued, Taffy, These men and women are,
• 3:49:06
  Speaker 9: though I don't know how or why our masters and superiors,
• 3:49:10
  Speaker 9: and I know from my own experience that we are
• 3:49:12
  Speaker 9: the happiest when we submit to their wishes with good grace,
• 3:49:15
  Speaker 9: When we struggle and resist. We are miserable. But suppose
• 3:49:19
  Speaker 9: they wish something cruel and unjust, sighed silver Star. But
• 3:49:23
  Speaker 9: who is to decide what is?
• 3:49:24
  Speaker 6: So?
• 3:49:25
  Speaker 9: Asked Taffy. In return, many things seem so that are
• 3:49:28
  Speaker 9: not your being here against your will. For instance, you
• 3:49:31
  Speaker 9: will be so glad about it. By and by when
• 3:49:33
  Speaker 9: the teaching is finished. It is comfortable to hear that
• 3:49:36
  Speaker 9: murmured silver star. Is the teaching itself? Very unpleasant, asked Whitefoot,
• 3:49:42
  Speaker 9: very cried Taffy at once at the mere recollection of it,
• 3:49:44
  Speaker 9: and the cults shuddered again. But here I am, he continued,
• 3:49:48
  Speaker 9: none the worse, and all the better, and as happy
• 3:49:50
  Speaker 9: as possible, with a man or a woman or a
• 3:49:53
  Speaker 9: little child on my back three or four times a week,
• 3:49:55
  Speaker 9: and a pet with all the family. Oh, you have
• 3:49:58
  Speaker 9: no notion, how good natured These men very often are
• 3:50:01
  Speaker 9: bringing one titbits, both in the stable and field, bread
• 3:50:05
  Speaker 9: or apples, or carrots or clover, which one takes out
• 3:50:08
  Speaker 9: of their hands. But for pity's sake, don't begin kicking again,
• 3:50:11
  Speaker 9: cried he as he heard them flinging wildly about at
• 3:50:14
  Speaker 9: the notion of men coming so near. Why you surely
• 3:50:17
  Speaker 9: wouldn't kick a kindness. You must meet it halfway when
• 3:50:20
  Speaker 9: it's offered you, foolish fellows, or you may live to
• 3:50:22
  Speaker 9: want it before you die. But don't alarm yourselves. You
• 3:50:25
  Speaker 9: won't be able to be on these intimate terms with
• 3:50:28
  Speaker 9: masters and superiors till you've learned to be well mannered
• 3:50:31
  Speaker 9: and obedient. But my experience tells me they are kind
• 3:50:34
  Speaker 9: when we are good, and where they seem otherwise, I
• 3:50:37
  Speaker 9: try to believe it's because we don't understand the meaning
• 3:50:40
  Speaker 9: of what they are doing. With superiors. One can't expect
• 3:50:43
  Speaker 9: that one should a word spoken in season, how good
• 3:50:47
  Speaker 9: it is. The colts grew calmer and calmer as Taffy
• 3:50:51
  Speaker 9: went on, and when in conclusion he told them a
• 3:50:54
  Speaker 9: story about a good natured lady who used to bring
• 3:50:56
  Speaker 9: him handfuls of oats and rewards of a pretty tricky
• 3:50:59
  Speaker 9: learn of opening the stable door with his nose. They
• 3:51:02
  Speaker 9: have begun to believe that these men and women were not,
• 3:51:05
  Speaker 9: after all, such dreadful creatures as he supposed. And as
• 3:51:09
  Speaker 9: it was just then that the horse breaker entered the
• 3:51:12
  Speaker 9: stable to look at them, it is not to be
• 3:51:15
  Speaker 9: wandered at that they bore his presence, with only about
• 3:51:18
  Speaker 9: half the horror they would have otherwise have felt, and
• 3:51:21
  Speaker 9: so kept tolerably quiet. And thus a week went on,
• 3:51:25
  Speaker 9: Taffy encouraging them by his own example and experience to
• 3:51:29
  Speaker 9: bear what was coming with patience and in hope. And
• 3:51:33
  Speaker 9: he could but speak from his own experience, Poor Taffy,
• 3:51:37
  Speaker 9: let us trust them that in these days of advance,
• 3:51:40
  Speaker 9: there are fewer and fewer exceptions to the rule that
• 3:51:43
  Speaker 9: a docile horse makes a kind master. Shame on the
• 3:51:47
  Speaker 9: master if it does not. It was at the end
• 3:51:51
  Speaker 9: of the first week that the real trial began for
• 3:51:54
  Speaker 9: all three colts, And a trial, indeed it was. They
• 3:51:58
  Speaker 9: have hard hearts who would deny it? Those heavy iron
• 3:52:00
  Speaker 9: bits forced into the young, tender mouths, so stiff against
• 3:52:04
  Speaker 9: their teeth, so cold against their flesh, how horrible they were,
• 3:52:08
  Speaker 9: And the bridles that pulled at them, forcing the poor
• 3:52:11
  Speaker 9: heads to turn hither and thither for mere whim's sake,
• 3:52:15
  Speaker 9: as it seemed, for whatever reason there was for it,
• 3:52:18
  Speaker 9: they could not find it out. What a cruel contrivance.
• 3:52:21
  Speaker 9: Then the long whips, which kept them at one distance
• 3:52:24
  Speaker 9: all the time, so that as they were forced to
• 3:52:26
  Speaker 9: move on continually, they had no choice but to go
• 3:52:29
  Speaker 9: round and round in a circle forever. How irritating my
• 3:52:34
  Speaker 9: heart bleeds when I think of it, and imagine the
• 3:52:36
  Speaker 9: two long hours of struggle on that first dreadful day.
• 3:52:40
  Speaker 9: How severe the trial must have been to them, must
• 3:52:42
  Speaker 9: ever be to all worse still, however, when in the
• 3:52:46
  Speaker 9: course of a few days the corners of the mouths
• 3:52:49
  Speaker 9: became sore from the pressure of the iron, and there
• 3:52:52
  Speaker 9: was for a time the pain of a raw wound,
• 3:52:55
  Speaker 9: as well as a day by day longer time of
• 3:52:57
  Speaker 9: restraint to endure, masters and superiors, Verily, there is a
• 3:53:02
  Speaker 9: great responsibility in your hands. Nevertheless, it is not for
• 3:53:06
  Speaker 9: the colts to sit in judgment. Now, then, how faired
• 3:53:10
  Speaker 9: the three colts under the terrible but at present in
• 3:53:13
  Speaker 9: some way or other necessary training. For even Egeria could
• 3:53:17
  Speaker 9: not answer fireflies maddening inquiries by saying that in the
• 3:53:21
  Speaker 9: east the bit and the bridle and whip can be
• 3:53:24
  Speaker 9: dispensed with well. Whitefoot and silver stars set out by
• 3:53:28
  Speaker 9: intending to submit if possible, And therefore, though more or
• 3:53:32
  Speaker 9: less cheerfully at some times than others, and with more
• 3:53:35
  Speaker 9: or less pain to themselves, they contrived to manage it
• 3:53:38
  Speaker 9: at last, Firefly, on the contrary, started by a sort
• 3:53:43
  Speaker 9: of resistance on principal plan, wishing to resist. In fact,
• 3:53:47
  Speaker 9: he always found a reason for resisting. If people treated
• 3:53:50
  Speaker 9: him properly, he could submit as well as anyone else,
• 3:53:53
  Speaker 9: he was sure. But if they ill used him, what
• 3:53:56
  Speaker 9: could they expect but that he should kick kick, kick,
• 3:53:59
  Speaker 9: And as to what proper treatment was, he made himself
• 3:54:02
  Speaker 9: the sole judge. Certainly, the training process just described was
• 3:54:06
  Speaker 9: not proper, But on the contrary, cruel and unjust, and accordingly,
• 3:54:11
  Speaker 9: kick kick kick he went whenever it was possible. In vain,
• 3:54:16
  Speaker 9: Igeria begged him to forbear, seeing too late how much
• 3:54:20
  Speaker 9: mischief her folly had done. It is so senseless to
• 3:54:23
  Speaker 9: resist when you can't help yourself, said she. It is
• 3:54:27
  Speaker 9: so mean to yield to an unjust necessity, cried he.
• 3:54:31
  Speaker 9: Will you listen to me once more, asked she. One day,
• 3:54:35
  Speaker 9: if you talk sense, yes, replied Firefly. Not otherwise, Old
• 3:54:39
  Speaker 9: Lady Egeria sighed. For his part, Folly was but a
• 3:54:44
  Speaker 9: stretched out shadow of her own. Imperfect judgments, judgments formed
• 3:54:49
  Speaker 9: on half known grounds, Judgments formed by the lesser intelligence
• 3:54:53
  Speaker 9: concerning a greater which it cannot comprehend. What rebellion and
• 3:54:57
  Speaker 9: ruin have they not caused? It is sense if you
• 3:55:01
  Speaker 9: have sense to find it out, cried Agaria. Sharply, it
• 3:55:04
  Speaker 9: is downright wisdom. What I'm going to say is truth
• 3:55:08
  Speaker 9: and fact. I hear you go on, said Firefly, impatiently. Well,
• 3:55:14
  Speaker 9: if you go on kicking in this manner every time
• 3:55:17
  Speaker 9: you think you have I beg your pardon every time
• 3:55:20
  Speaker 9: you have a reason for kicking. You know you will
• 3:55:23
  Speaker 9: get into such a habit of kicking that you will
• 3:55:25
  Speaker 9: do it whether you have a reason or not, shall
• 3:55:28
  Speaker 9: I shouted firefly with contempt, Yes you will, though persisted Ageria,
• 3:55:34
  Speaker 9: vexed alike by his obstinacy and ridicule. If you kick
• 3:55:38
  Speaker 9: every time you can find or make an excuse, you
• 3:55:40
  Speaker 9: will be very apt to kick on when you have none.
• 3:55:44
  Speaker 9: I have never kicked without a reason, old lady, and
• 3:55:46
  Speaker 9: I don't intend to do so, answered Firefly. I know,
• 3:55:50
  Speaker 9: I know, replied Ageria. So far you have always proved
• 3:55:54
  Speaker 9: yourself right to yourself. What the horsebreaker thinks is another matter.
• 3:55:59
  Speaker 9: But your friend, try and believe me. Habits are such
• 3:56:03
  Speaker 9: tremendous things. If you don't get into a habit of
• 3:56:06
  Speaker 9: giving way, you may not be able to give way
• 3:56:09
  Speaker 9: when you want. And that's what I am afraid of.
• 3:56:13
  Speaker 9: Those who indulge themselves in kicking at all, will sometimes
• 3:56:16
  Speaker 9: kick when they would give worlds to forbear. How can
• 3:56:20
  Speaker 9: that happen to me when I never kick without a reason?
• 3:56:23
  Speaker 9: Cried Firefly, at which moment he was fetched from the
• 3:56:26
  Speaker 9: stable for a morning's lesson, and Egeria was left to
• 3:56:30
  Speaker 9: fret alone. For fret she did, not being a bad
• 3:56:33
  Speaker 9: creature on the whole, but such an inconsiderate old simpleton,
• 3:56:37
  Speaker 9: both in her way of viewing life and talking about
• 3:56:39
  Speaker 9: it to others, and alas, there was but too much
• 3:56:43
  Speaker 9: cause for fretting, when at the end of five weeks
• 3:56:46
  Speaker 9: Firefly remained still untamed, still in the horse Breaker's hands.
• 3:56:51
  Speaker 9: A fortnight ago, both Whitefoot and silver Star had taken
• 3:56:54
  Speaker 9: leave of the place, had finished their education with respectability,
• 3:56:58
  Speaker 9: and gone out into the world on their own account.
• 3:57:02
  Speaker 9: There are plenty of good masters to be found for docile,
• 3:57:05
  Speaker 9: well taught creatures, and they had been picked up at
• 3:57:08
  Speaker 9: once by two neighboring families, and often met in their
• 3:57:11
  Speaker 9: rides and talked over old times. Egeria heard this from Taffy, who,
• 3:57:17
  Speaker 9: from being constantly out learnt all the news of the countryside,
• 3:57:21
  Speaker 9: and had once or twice met his friends himself, and
• 3:57:24
  Speaker 9: it must be owned. She regretted Firefly's conduct, all the
• 3:57:28
  Speaker 9: more that she feared she had had some share in
• 3:57:31
  Speaker 9: it herself. When Firefly was let out of the stable
• 3:57:36
  Speaker 9: after Egeria had spoken, he had for a few minutes
• 3:57:39
  Speaker 9: a misgiving that there might be some truth in what
• 3:57:42
  Speaker 9: she had said. But the first crack of the horsebreaker's
• 3:57:45
  Speaker 9: whip made his heart as hard as ever He had
• 3:57:48
  Speaker 9: accustomed himself for so long to look upon it and
• 3:57:52
  Speaker 9: him and the whole affair as a system of barbarous injustice,
• 3:57:55
  Speaker 9: that he could not have rid himself of the notion
• 3:57:58
  Speaker 9: without a strong effort. And there was one great difficulty
• 3:58:01
  Speaker 9: to his making it, namely that he must acknowledge himself
• 3:58:05
  Speaker 9: to have been in the wrong before, and alas he
• 3:58:09
  Speaker 9: did not make it. And so another week went on,
• 3:58:12
  Speaker 9: at the end of which the horse breaker lost patience
• 3:58:15
  Speaker 9: and told Firefly's owner he was a hopeless kicker and
• 3:58:18
  Speaker 9: a very ill conditioned animal as to temper, though otherwise
• 3:58:22
  Speaker 9: with many good points and a valuable beast. It was
• 3:58:26
  Speaker 9: not very pleasant news to the owner, but Firefly was
• 3:58:29
  Speaker 9: so handsome in appearance, and moreover, so strong and able
• 3:58:33
  Speaker 9: to work, that he was undertaken at last by a
• 3:58:36
  Speaker 9: very fearless young squire, who cared for little but pace
• 3:58:40
  Speaker 9: and beauty, had a seat like a rock, put his
• 3:58:43
  Speaker 9: faith in a strong curb, and had no scruple in
• 3:58:46
  Speaker 9: using his spurs. What Firefly underwent in his hands I
• 3:58:50
  Speaker 9: do not wish to describe, though even there, if he
• 3:58:53
  Speaker 9: would but have submitted, his fate would not have been bad.
• 3:58:56
  Speaker 9: For if the master loved his galloping, so did Firefly.
• 3:59:01
  Speaker 9: But again and again he would refuse to obey the
• 3:59:03
  Speaker 9: curb if it checked or turned him suddenly when his
• 3:59:06
  Speaker 9: face was set elsewhere, and then, like an instinct, came
• 3:59:09
  Speaker 9: the impulse to kick, kick, kick, and he followed it
• 3:59:14
  Speaker 9: for an hour. Sometimes the two would battle together, the
• 3:59:17
  Speaker 9: spur and the whip and the curb against that insane
• 3:59:20
  Speaker 9: determination to kick, kick, kick, And as to be conquered
• 3:59:24
  Speaker 9: by main force and exhaustion is not to be reformed,
• 3:59:27
  Speaker 9: Firefly was led away, bleeding and foam covered, to his stable,
• 3:59:31
  Speaker 9: as savage as when he left it, and still repeating
• 3:59:34
  Speaker 9: the old strain, if people treat me properly, I can
• 3:59:37
  Speaker 9: submit as well as anyone else. But if they don't,
• 3:59:40
  Speaker 9: what can they expect but that I shall kick, kick, kick,
• 3:59:45
  Speaker 9: Like the horsebreaker's whim of driving him round in an
• 3:59:48
  Speaker 9: everlasting circle, seemed the young squire's whim of checking him
• 3:59:52
  Speaker 9: and turning him round when he didn't expect it and
• 3:59:55
  Speaker 9: wanted to go straight on. He kicked, therefore strictly unprincipal,
• 4:00:00
  Speaker 9: and all the more when the injustice was enforced by
• 4:00:03
  Speaker 9: the spur and the lash. So the squire got tired
• 4:00:06
  Speaker 9: of his purchase, and Firefly was sold again, but this
• 4:00:11
  Speaker 9: time to a very knowing hand, a country doctor, who,
• 4:00:14
  Speaker 9: after trying different plans in turn low feed and good feed,
• 4:00:19
  Speaker 9: kindness and severity, and finding both unsuccessful, took him back
• 4:00:23
  Speaker 9: to the horse breaker. He seems very hopeless at present,
• 4:00:27
  Speaker 9: remarked he he kicks for nothing, but there is one
• 4:00:31
  Speaker 9: more chance. Break him in for harness. Kicking straps will
• 4:00:36
  Speaker 9: perhaps bring him to his senses. At any rate, try
• 4:00:39
  Speaker 9: he has many good qualities and is a fine fellow.
• 4:00:43
  Speaker 9: I hope he'll do well. The horse breaker shook his
• 4:00:46
  Speaker 9: head and led Firefly back to his old stable. Another
• 4:00:50
  Speaker 9: colt occupied his former stall, but there were still too vacant,
• 4:00:55
  Speaker 9: He was led into the middle one, and before nightfall
• 4:00:58
  Speaker 9: Egeria was brought into the third. Firefly told his story
• 4:01:03
  Speaker 9: at length and was too eager to hear Egeria's shuffles
• 4:01:07
  Speaker 9: of impatience. How unfortunate some people are, observed she when
• 4:01:11
  Speaker 9: he ended, but there was a slight mockery in her tone.
• 4:01:16
  Speaker 9: I have been so all along, said he. I believe
• 4:01:19
  Speaker 9: I am faded to ill usage. People always are who
• 4:01:23
  Speaker 9: will go nobody's way but their own was a Garias answer.
• 4:01:27
  Speaker 9: Why don't you do what is wanted, go the way
• 4:01:29
  Speaker 9: your master pulls you, and give up fighting for your own.
• 4:01:33
  Speaker 9: If people treat me properly, I can submit. Oh do stop,
• 4:01:37
  Speaker 9: cried Egeria. I've heard that much too often. You never
• 4:01:41
  Speaker 9: do submit, because they never, Oh they they they would
• 4:01:46
  Speaker 9: they be masters of you, and that they were to
• 4:01:48
  Speaker 9: lead the way. Oh as to masters, perhaps I have
• 4:01:51
  Speaker 9: my own opinion, cried Firefly. I wonder who has been
• 4:01:54
  Speaker 9: the master of the two I have had, But no
• 4:01:56
  Speaker 9: matter about that. I could have borne leading, but I
• 4:01:58
  Speaker 9: wouldn't be dragged. It was the curb in the spurs
• 4:02:01
  Speaker 9: and the whip of that young squire I kicked against
• 4:02:04
  Speaker 9: and of your last master, the doctor, when he was kind,
• 4:02:07
  Speaker 9: asked Giria. He wasn't always kind, muttered Firefly, But when
• 4:02:12
  Speaker 9: he was insisted, the old mare fool, murmured Firefly between
• 4:02:17
  Speaker 9: his teeth. Was I likely to go his fidgety way
• 4:02:19
  Speaker 9: stopping at one house then at another? No sooner started
• 4:02:22
  Speaker 9: than having to stop twisting down one lane end up another,
• 4:02:25
  Speaker 9: never having a good run all the time, I, who
• 4:02:28
  Speaker 9: had galloped over half a countryside in a morning with
• 4:02:30
  Speaker 9: the squire kick? Why who wouldn't kick at a life
• 4:02:33
  Speaker 9: like that? It is as I feared, exclaimed Geria. Anybody
• 4:02:37
  Speaker 9: who wants to kick can find a reason for it.
• 4:02:40
  Speaker 9: Of course, and she spoke not another word, for she
• 4:02:43
  Speaker 9: did not understand the matter to the bottom as Taffy did,
• 4:02:47
  Speaker 9: and her way of argument was therefore not convincing. The
• 4:02:51
  Speaker 9: first thing in the morning, however, Firefly spoke to her.
• 4:02:54
  Speaker 9: He had a question to ask. Did she know what
• 4:02:57
  Speaker 9: kicking straps were? Perfectly? What made him want to know?
• 4:03:03
  Speaker 9: He repeated what the doctor had said. Capital said, Egeria,
• 4:03:08
  Speaker 9: if you are put into those, you will never be
• 4:03:10
  Speaker 9: able to kick again. We'll see about that, groaned Firefly,
• 4:03:14
  Speaker 9: grinding his teeth as if they were chomping oats, masters, masters,
• 4:03:18
  Speaker 9: master's indeed, in which state of mind? He was taken
• 4:03:22
  Speaker 9: out two hours afterwards, put into kicking straps, and had
• 4:03:26
  Speaker 9: his first lesson of going into harness. The plan answered
• 4:03:30
  Speaker 9: at first, but this was only while the shock of
• 4:03:33
  Speaker 9: surprise and helplessness lasted. Still being rather less wild, the
• 4:03:37
  Speaker 9: horse breaker returned him as fit for harness if driven
• 4:03:40
  Speaker 9: in kicking straps, and Egeria twitted him when he left
• 4:03:43
  Speaker 9: her as being fairly caught. At last, we shall see
• 4:03:47
  Speaker 9: about that muttered Firefly fuming to himself as the doctor
• 4:03:52
  Speaker 9: drove him home. But the kicking straps were amazingly strong,
• 4:03:56
  Speaker 9: and he restrained himself. Nevertheless, the first principle submission had
• 4:04:01
  Speaker 9: not entered his head, and Egeria's folly and ridicule had
• 4:04:04
  Speaker 9: done all that an unwise friend could do to confuse
• 4:04:08
  Speaker 9: the truth. The truth all we can only get at
• 4:04:11
  Speaker 9: that by sitting in our neighbor's chair and looking with
• 4:04:14
  Speaker 9: his eyes. Had Firefly done this, he would have known
• 4:04:18
  Speaker 9: why the kicking straps were added to his harness, and
• 4:04:21
  Speaker 9: have laid the blame on the right shoulders. As it was,
• 4:04:24
  Speaker 9: he laid the blame on the doctor and considered himself
• 4:04:28
  Speaker 9: the victim of injustice. So, one unlucky day, after a
• 4:04:33
  Speaker 9: round of rather tiresome visiting, a very slight correction for
• 4:04:37
  Speaker 9: impatience set his blood working, and without thinking either of
• 4:04:41
  Speaker 9: kicking straps or consequences, he took the bit between his teeth,
• 4:04:45
  Speaker 9: laid his ears down close to his head, muttering masters
• 4:04:48
  Speaker 9: indeed to himself, and pulling madly at the reins, dashed
• 4:04:52
  Speaker 9: at full speed down the narrow country lane. They stopped
• 4:04:57
  Speaker 9: him at last at a turnpike gate, and as the
• 4:04:59
  Speaker 9: kicking straps had given way soon after he started, he
• 4:05:02
  Speaker 9: concluded the day's work by smashing the splashboard to pieces,
• 4:05:06
  Speaker 9: his master escaping with difficulty, so he was sent back
• 4:05:10
  Speaker 9: to the market town, and resold it is impossible to
• 4:05:15
  Speaker 9: pursue him through all his adventures. They were also to
• 4:05:19
  Speaker 9: speak variations upon the same set of notes, The battle
• 4:05:22
  Speaker 9: of authority with one who refused to acknowledge its claims,
• 4:05:26
  Speaker 9: A miserable struggle, whether of man or beast, whether against
• 4:05:31
  Speaker 9: the powers ordained of God or the God of power himself,
• 4:05:35
  Speaker 9: whether breaking out into open contest or indulged in by
• 4:05:38
  Speaker 9: inward repining. At last, poor firefly fell into the hands
• 4:05:44
  Speaker 9: of a regular horse dealer, who forwarded him to a
• 4:05:47
  Speaker 9: neighborhood where his tricks were not known, and after some
• 4:05:50
  Speaker 9: weeks of low diet and constant work, sold him more
• 4:05:53
  Speaker 9: shame for the fact, to a quiet country clergyman for
• 4:05:57
  Speaker 9: a birthday present for his daughter, bursting into the beauty
• 4:06:01
  Speaker 9: of girlhood. Now, by this time, our friend Firefly had
• 4:06:06
  Speaker 9: had experience enough to discover that his habit of opposition
• 4:06:09
  Speaker 9: was constantly bringing him into trouble. And though he was
• 4:06:13
  Speaker 9: not sick of the bad habit, he was decidedly sick
• 4:06:16
  Speaker 9: of the trouble, and every now and then was vexed
• 4:06:19
  Speaker 9: with himself for giving way to it. And now and
• 4:06:22
  Speaker 9: then he recalled Egeria's words, those who indulge themselves in
• 4:06:26
  Speaker 9: kicking at all will sometimes kick when they would give
• 4:06:29
  Speaker 9: worlds to forbear. Still, he could not remember a single
• 4:06:33
  Speaker 9: case in which he had kicked without a very good reason,
• 4:06:36
  Speaker 9: as it seemed to him, so he assured himself, at least,
• 4:06:39
  Speaker 9: and tried to forget that Egeria had also said, anybody
• 4:06:43
  Speaker 9: who wants to kick can find a reason for kicking.
• 4:06:45
  Speaker 9: Of course, Now, at last, however, came fireflyes halcyon days.
• 4:06:52
  Speaker 9: What more could heart of horse desire than to belong
• 4:06:54
  Speaker 9: to a gentle young girl who was ready to love
• 4:06:57
  Speaker 9: him not only as her servant, but companion and friend.
• 4:07:02
  Speaker 9: Egeria's tales of Eastern kindness came back to his mind
• 4:07:05
  Speaker 9: again and again as his new mistress brought him delicate
• 4:07:09
  Speaker 9: morsels which she would fain have had him eat from
• 4:07:11
  Speaker 9: her hand. And then, as was generally the case, he
• 4:07:14
  Speaker 9: could not overcome his repugnance, but started back from her caresses.
• 4:07:19
  Speaker 9: All she said was the poor fellow was nervous and shy.
• 4:07:23
  Speaker 9: Perhaps who knew he had, at some time or other
• 4:07:27
  Speaker 9: been harshly used. This is as it should be, remarked Firefly,
• 4:07:32
  Speaker 9: and he began to think better than ever of himself.
• 4:07:35
  Speaker 9: The few misgivings he had had lately had went to sleep.
• 4:07:39
  Speaker 9: I was right and not, Agiria, thought he as he
• 4:07:41
  Speaker 9: bore his light burden over her favorite haunt, the Downs.
• 4:07:45
  Speaker 9: I was right and Ageria wrong. I told her I
• 4:07:49
  Speaker 9: had never kicked without a reason, and never should. It
• 4:07:52
  Speaker 9: was nonsense about not being able to leave off, And
• 4:07:56
  Speaker 9: so he really believed till alas the renewed good living
• 4:08:00
  Speaker 9: brought back the impatience, as well as the fire into
• 4:08:03
  Speaker 9: his blood. And what had he to restrain them with
• 4:08:06
  Speaker 9: who had not got the law in his heart? There
• 4:08:09
  Speaker 9: followed one other week of self confidence and enjoyment, And
• 4:08:13
  Speaker 9: then she was not in the least to blame, that
• 4:08:16
  Speaker 9: beautiful young girl who had been so kind to him.
• 4:08:20
  Speaker 9: He admitted this even to himself. When he saw her
• 4:08:22
  Speaker 9: stretched at his feet, the eyes that had looked so
• 4:08:25
  Speaker 9: kindly at him closed, the rich black hair surrounding the
• 4:08:29
  Speaker 9: white cheeks and forehead like a pall. The groom so
• 4:08:32
  Speaker 9: horror struck when he came up that he never thought
• 4:08:35
  Speaker 9: of even laying hold on Firefly's bridle. They had been
• 4:08:40
  Speaker 9: out for a morning ride on the downs, and she
• 4:08:42
  Speaker 9: had wished to canter for a day or two past.
• 4:08:45
  Speaker 9: Some evil spirit, evil spirits are so ingenious, had been
• 4:08:49
  Speaker 9: whispering in his ear that to be patronized was all
• 4:08:53
  Speaker 9: very well, if it were not another form of unjust
• 4:08:56
  Speaker 9: restraint masters, had he not proved himself the master in
• 4:09:00
  Speaker 9: every case? Yet? And so he had done here here,
• 4:09:04
  Speaker 9: where as Egeria had prophesied he would have given worlds
• 4:09:08
  Speaker 9: to forbear, now rose before him the only half valued tenderness,
• 4:09:14
  Speaker 9: the anxiety for his daily comfort, the little personal sacrifices
• 4:09:18
  Speaker 9: in his favor. And this as the conclusion that because
• 4:09:22
  Speaker 9: the canter had been prolonged, and she had wished to rest,
• 4:09:26
  Speaker 9: and so checked him with the bridle, the old habit
• 4:09:29
  Speaker 9: had proved too strong for him and prompted him to kick, kick, kick,
• 4:09:35
  Speaker 9: And he had kicked until she was stretched at his feet.
• 4:09:39
  Speaker 9: More than an hour passed, and Firefly stood by her,
• 4:09:42
  Speaker 9: still stood in the same spot, seeing the same sight,
• 4:09:47
  Speaker 9: without care to go his own way, now that he
• 4:09:49
  Speaker 9: might have done it at will. And then came the
• 4:09:52
  Speaker 9: trampling of feet, horses and other men, and among them
• 4:09:55
  Speaker 9: all a father. In the first agony of despair. No
• 4:10:00
  Speaker 9: one noticed Firefly. He was nothing to his master's then,
• 4:10:04
  Speaker 9: And so he stood on there like a horse of marble,
• 4:10:07
  Speaker 9: in the same old place, looking at what he had done.
• 4:10:11
  Speaker 9: But presently someone who had been touching her wrist and
• 4:10:14
  Speaker 9: had sprinkled her with water, whispered, she is coming to herself.
• 4:10:19
  Speaker 9: And it was true. Firefly's mistress had been stunned, and
• 4:10:23
  Speaker 9: one arm was hurt, but she awoke again to life.
• 4:10:26
  Speaker 9: And when the poor father had wept out his joy
• 4:10:29
  Speaker 9: on her neck and she had looked up. She smiled
• 4:10:32
  Speaker 9: to see so near them the creature who had caused
• 4:10:35
  Speaker 9: this evil. Yes, there he stood, and his eye watched
• 4:10:39
  Speaker 9: hers as it first glanced at him, and then fixed
• 4:10:42
  Speaker 9: on her father's face anxiously, while she murmured, promise me
• 4:10:46
  Speaker 9: one thing, dear father. Let poor Firefly go to Rriri
• 4:10:49
  Speaker 9: to be cured masters. They may well be masters in
• 4:10:56
  Speaker 9: superiors in whom the abiding spirit of forgiveness and love
• 4:10:59
  Speaker 9: is triumphant. So Firefly was taken to Rarri. But what
• 4:11:04
  Speaker 9: then happens to horses must be looked for in other books.
• 4:11:08
  Speaker 9: This does not contain an argument on the merits of
• 4:11:11
  Speaker 9: the different methods of horse breaking. Only thus much as
• 4:11:15
  Speaker 9: regards Rarey's process is the turning point of the tail,
• 4:11:20
  Speaker 9: the object aimed at is the subjection of the will,
• 4:11:24
  Speaker 9: not merely the control of the body, the full and
• 4:11:27
  Speaker 9: complete recognition of the mastership and superiority of man. This,
• 4:11:33
  Speaker 9: and this only is what is wanted when the legs
• 4:11:36
  Speaker 9: are tied up and struggles rendered powerless by force, so
• 4:11:40
  Speaker 9: that the indignant animal is brought, through exhaustion of body
• 4:11:44
  Speaker 9: to submission of feeling. He has plunged, he has kicked
• 4:11:49
  Speaker 9: he has reared for hours together, if he will have
• 4:11:52
  Speaker 9: it so. But the man stands by him, unscathed, unruffled,
• 4:11:56
  Speaker 9: and still kind, is master and superior. The terrible discipline
• 4:12:01
  Speaker 9: proves it, but still kind, and the kindness proves it too.
• 4:12:08
  Speaker 9: All this Firefly went through, and when the rary breaker
• 4:12:12
  Speaker 9: gentled him all over his miserable frame as he lay
• 4:12:15
  Speaker 9: panting and overpowered on the sawdust, conquered and convinced, at last,
• 4:12:20
  Speaker 9: all his mistakes and misconceptions of other people came before
• 4:12:24
  Speaker 9: him as plainly as if Taffy himself had spoken them,
• 4:12:28
  Speaker 9: so plainly that he wandered at himself, but remembering his
• 4:12:33
  Speaker 9: old and all too firmly adhered to resolution to kick,
• 4:12:36
  Speaker 9: kick kick whenever he was vexed. A fresh outbreak of
• 4:12:39
  Speaker 9: perspiration astonished the breaker so much that he gentled and
• 4:12:44
  Speaker 9: soothed the troubled spirit more and more tenderly, till Firefly
• 4:12:48
  Speaker 9: could think of nothing like it but the father and
• 4:12:50
  Speaker 9: daughter comforting each other on the downs the terrible day
• 4:12:54
  Speaker 9: of his guilt. And thus at last he learned that
• 4:12:58
  Speaker 9: it was possible for submiss and love and happiness to
• 4:13:02
  Speaker 9: go hand in hand together. Firefly was cured and then
• 4:13:08
  Speaker 9: he was taken back to a home which he helped
• 4:13:10
  Speaker 9: in his degree, however, humble to make what a home
• 4:13:14
  Speaker 9: should be, a circle in which animals, superior and inferior,
• 4:13:19
  Speaker 9: should all work together, each after its measure and kind,
• 4:13:22
  Speaker 9: for the comfort and pleasure of all. At last, therefore
• 4:13:27
  Speaker 9: he gave a willing obedience to every touch of his
• 4:13:30
  Speaker 9: dear young lady's reign. And yet he feared her no
• 4:13:33
  Speaker 9: longer as before, and yet he loved her more. Which
• 4:13:37
  Speaker 9: is a great mystery, But the world repeats it in
• 4:13:40
  Speaker 9: a thousand forms. Animals under man, servants under masters, children
• 4:13:46
  Speaker 9: under parents, wives under husbands, men under authorities, nation under rulers,
• 4:13:53
  Speaker 9: all under God. It is the same withal. An obedience
• 4:13:57
  Speaker 9: of will is the only true piece. Happy the cults
• 4:14:02
  Speaker 9: who learned submission without a lifetime of personal struggle. Happy
• 4:14:06
  Speaker 9: the men and women who find in the lesser obediences
• 4:14:10
  Speaker 9: a practice field of the greater. For assuredly the words
• 4:14:14
  Speaker 9: of Egeria are true. Those who indulge themselves in kicking
• 4:14:18
  Speaker 9: at all will sometimes kick when they would give worlds
• 4:14:23
  Speaker 9: to forbear. End of Chapter twenty six, Chapter twenty seven.
• 4:14:31
  Speaker 9: Imperfect instruments and others follies teach us not not much
• 4:14:37
  Speaker 9: their wisdom teaches, and most of sterling Worth is what
• 4:14:42
  Speaker 9: our own experience preaches. Tennyson. Over the old church tower
• 4:14:49
  Speaker 9: passed the rooks on their way from the neighboring trees,
• 4:14:53
  Speaker 9: cawing into the fresh morning air as they went, do
• 4:14:57
  Speaker 9: hung yet upon every stone of the building, on the
• 4:15:00
  Speaker 9: bits of moss and grass which time had suffered to
• 4:15:03
  Speaker 9: creep over or between them. Here and there on the
• 4:15:07
  Speaker 9: edges of the tombs below. There was no one astir
• 4:15:11
  Speaker 9: at this early hour of an autumn day, to speak
• 4:15:14
  Speaker 9: to or interrupt the dark eyed Geronimo as he strode
• 4:15:18
  Speaker 9: hurriedly up the pathway to the porch, the church case
• 4:15:21
  Speaker 9: dangling from his hand and slightly clanking against each other
• 4:15:25
  Speaker 9: as he stepped. Behind him followed a rough haired country lad,
• 4:15:30
  Speaker 9: but at a little distance and silent. He had a
• 4:15:34
  Speaker 9: stick in his hand, however, with which he began to
• 4:15:36
  Speaker 9: whisk off the wet from the grass blades of the
• 4:15:38
  Speaker 9: graves on each side of the path. But at one turn,
• 4:15:42
  Speaker 9: and glanced from Geronimo, he desisted. Soon the key was
• 4:15:47
  Speaker 9: in the lock, the bolt had turned grating back, the
• 4:15:51
  Speaker 9: heavy door was pushed open the shock echoing through the building,
• 4:15:55
  Speaker 9: and Geronimo and little Roger, the mason's son his companion,
• 4:16:00
  Speaker 9: walking up the aisle on one side of which at
• 4:16:03
  Speaker 9: the upper end, in a small transept stood the organ
• 4:16:07
  Speaker 9: and choir seats. Let me recall that lonely village, nestling
• 4:16:12
  Speaker 9: in a narrow valley on the borders of southern Whales,
• 4:16:16
  Speaker 9: traversed by a rapid streamlet which ran through it like
• 4:16:19
  Speaker 9: a silver thread, rich in orchards embosomed in ancient trees
• 4:16:24
  Speaker 9: where rooks had built their nests for generations, where the
• 4:16:28
  Speaker 9: cuckoo's voice reverberated from the surrounding hills. At one extremity
• 4:16:33
  Speaker 9: was the church, at the other the quiet vicarage, so
• 4:16:37
  Speaker 9: that the flock were wont to watch about their doorways
• 4:16:40
  Speaker 9: for the passing by of the pastor to his sacred office,
• 4:16:44
  Speaker 9: that they might follow and enter with him into the
• 4:16:47
  Speaker 9: arc of the visible Church on earth, he leading them
• 4:16:50
  Speaker 9: on their way. It was a pretty custom and a
• 4:16:53
  Speaker 9: pleasant sight. There was a tone of loyal respect and
• 4:16:57
  Speaker 9: trust about it, which social progress has. It is to
• 4:17:01
  Speaker 9: be feared some tendency to disturb. Let me recall the
• 4:17:06
  Speaker 9: old pastor himself in his happy, scholarly simplicity, the serenity
• 4:17:11
  Speaker 9: of submission on his face. For he had undergone a
• 4:17:14
  Speaker 9: life's long grief. Let me recall him in the days
• 4:17:18
  Speaker 9: when the time was drawing near for the silver cord
• 4:17:21
  Speaker 9: to be broken, and when his visions brought him closer
• 4:17:24
  Speaker 9: and closer to the day of reunion with his dearly
• 4:17:27
  Speaker 9: loved Italian wife, who had died when their only child, Geronimo,
• 4:17:32
  Speaker 9: was but five years old, and Geronimo was now his
• 4:17:36
  Speaker 9: father's curate, a youth fresh from the schools, energetic, enthusiastic,
• 4:17:42
  Speaker 9: determined even to self will, a worshiper of system and order,
• 4:17:47
  Speaker 9: one who had taken for his motto the words of
• 4:17:49
  Speaker 9: the poet, because right is right, to follow right were
• 4:17:55
  Speaker 9: wisdom in the scorn of consequence. The father, on the
• 4:17:59
  Speaker 9: other hand, past middle age, was old for his years,
• 4:18:03
  Speaker 9: for the fire of his spirit had died out, but
• 4:18:06
  Speaker 9: the power of his intellect remained unaltered, as is often
• 4:18:09
  Speaker 9: the case in fine natures, and an originally widely educated
• 4:18:14
  Speaker 9: judgment grew wider and gentler as the river of his
• 4:18:17
  Speaker 9: life widened out to the everlasting sea. He doubted about
• 4:18:22
  Speaker 9: his son's motto. Therefore, as a universal rule of life.
• 4:18:26
  Speaker 9: It had to be considered, said he, whether the right
• 4:18:29
  Speaker 9: you followed or the consequence you scorned was of the
• 4:18:33
  Speaker 9: greater vital importance. There was a right and a wrong,
• 4:18:38
  Speaker 9: he once added, as a homely illustration in the way
• 4:18:41
  Speaker 9: of cutting a pencil. But if you have to deal
• 4:18:44
  Speaker 9: with a weak leaded one which would not bear long
• 4:18:46
  Speaker 9: shoulders without breaking, it was better to cut it with
• 4:18:50
  Speaker 9: short shoulders than waste it altogether. If he had to
• 4:18:54
  Speaker 9: choose a motto himself, it must be from the broader
• 4:18:57
  Speaker 9: teaching of Saint Paul. Geronimo listened in impatience. He thought
• 4:19:03
  Speaker 9: his father's argument to letting down of principle the homely
• 4:19:06
  Speaker 9: illustration trivial, and with regard to Saint Paul, everybody knew
• 4:19:11
  Speaker 9: that texts could be found to support most anything. It
• 4:19:15
  Speaker 9: stood thus then that the father admired the son for
• 4:19:18
  Speaker 9: his strength of purpose and purity of intention, yet sometimes
• 4:19:22
  Speaker 9: wondered what his future would be, but that the son
• 4:19:26
  Speaker 9: never properly appreciated the father, except for his amiability to himself.
• 4:19:31
  Speaker 9: He thought him a kind but feeble old man behindhand
• 4:19:35
  Speaker 9: in the lights of day. And it was true that
• 4:19:38
  Speaker 9: while Geronimo had passed from school to college, his father
• 4:19:42
  Speaker 9: had remained in the narrow valley. And while the kaleidoscope
• 4:19:46
  Speaker 9: of public opinion was presenting fresh combinations of thought and
• 4:19:49
  Speaker 9: feeling to the gaze and admiration of the ardent young,
• 4:19:53
  Speaker 9: the old man was out of the circle of their influence,
• 4:19:56
  Speaker 9: and judged of them afar off with the mind of
• 4:19:59
  Speaker 9: a philosoph. It was perhaps a rash arrangement that Geronimo
• 4:20:04
  Speaker 9: should have come to be his father's curate, but he
• 4:20:07
  Speaker 9: had made the offer, and the old man had accepted
• 4:20:09
  Speaker 9: it with tears of joy. There was, in fact between
• 4:20:12
  Speaker 9: them a strong natural affection, overruling all theoretical differences of opinion,
• 4:20:18
  Speaker 9: as well as a strong sense of parental and filile duty.
• 4:20:23
  Speaker 9: There was also perhaps some hope on both sides of
• 4:20:25
  Speaker 9: influencing each other for good, And there was, moreover, the
• 4:20:29
  Speaker 9: unspoken bond of common interest in one grave. The triangular
• 4:20:34
  Speaker 9: white marble slab on the chancel wall of the church
• 4:20:38
  Speaker 9: bore upon it a name which, to both father and
• 4:20:40
  Speaker 9: son was still the dearest name upon earth, Maria Madalina.
• 4:20:46
  Speaker 9: To the old man, naturally so who through so many
• 4:20:49
  Speaker 9: years had lifted up, weary, loving eyes to the golden
• 4:20:53
  Speaker 9: letters in which it was traced, traveling in spirit to
• 4:20:56
  Speaker 9: that heaven of heavens, whither the taper's central angle of
• 4:20:59
  Speaker 9: the chaplet continually pointed. And the son had his own recollections,
• 4:21:05
  Speaker 9: dim ones of old embraces from that mother who had
• 4:21:08
  Speaker 9: so soon passed away, vivid ones of looking upwards to
• 4:21:13
  Speaker 9: that tablet from his seat in the church ever since
• 4:21:15
  Speaker 9: he was a child, of gazing on the shining words
• 4:21:19
  Speaker 9: and the shining emblems above them, the palm branches, the cross,
• 4:21:24
  Speaker 9: and the star, until their glitter first dazzled and then
• 4:21:28
  Speaker 9: brought tears to his eyes. Had he tried by gazing
• 4:21:33
  Speaker 9: to get nearer to the bearer of that golden name,
• 4:21:36
  Speaker 9: the mother whom every motherless child feels to want so much,
• 4:21:41
  Speaker 9: Had he hoped to charm her back, he knew not
• 4:21:44
  Speaker 9: whence to comfort him? He knew not how he could
• 4:21:48
  Speaker 9: not have answered himself. Children do and feel many things
• 4:21:52
  Speaker 9: of which they can give no account, and the why
• 4:21:55
  Speaker 9: matters so little in comparison with the fact, enough that
• 4:22:01
  Speaker 9: the long cherished habit of love to the pure white
• 4:22:04
  Speaker 9: marble slab remained as firm in Geronimo's heart as if
• 4:22:07
  Speaker 9: he had been able to reason about its propriety and
• 4:22:11
  Speaker 9: justify it by argument, judge, then what he must have
• 4:22:15
  Speaker 9: suffered when, on first coming to the place as a curate,
• 4:22:19
  Speaker 9: he felt it his duty to ask permission of his
• 4:22:22
  Speaker 9: father to have that tablet removed to some other part
• 4:22:25
  Speaker 9: of the church. Let us go back to that time,
• 4:22:29
  Speaker 9: some nine months before the opening of my story, for
• 4:22:32
  Speaker 9: it was the beginning of Geronimo's practical troubles. It was
• 4:22:37
  Speaker 9: a painful scene that took place. Geronimo's voice trembled as
• 4:22:42
  Speaker 9: he made the request, and his father's heart wrung. Never
• 4:22:46
  Speaker 9: was followed by a silence, equally distressing to both. Then
• 4:22:50
  Speaker 9: the old man asked for reasons, and the young one
• 4:22:53
  Speaker 9: gave them. The kaleidoscope had brought certain proprieties into full
• 4:22:58
  Speaker 9: observation which had for said some time been unnoticed. There
• 4:23:02
  Speaker 9: was no doubt about that private memorials were inappropriate there.
• 4:23:06
  Speaker 9: Geronimo thought them inappropriate in the church anywhere. The father
• 4:23:10
  Speaker 9: disputed this. It was the ark of the dead as
• 4:23:13
  Speaker 9: well as of the living. But were the matter to
• 4:23:16
  Speaker 9: be done over again, he would place the stone without
• 4:23:19
  Speaker 9: the rails in preference. As it was, there was no
• 4:23:22
  Speaker 9: vital principle involved no sufficient reason therefore for the desecrating
• 4:23:27
  Speaker 9: act of removal. The son returned to the argument his
• 4:23:32
  Speaker 9: father had admitted the objection. Was it not clearly an
• 4:23:36
  Speaker 9: act of duty to sacrifice personal feeling to the example
• 4:23:40
  Speaker 9: of right, whether the right were small or great, measure
• 4:23:45
  Speaker 9: me the measure of right, cried the troubled father, as
• 4:23:48
  Speaker 9: compared with the impressions it will cause. You cannot drive
• 4:23:52
  Speaker 9: straight lines through life without knocking over good feelings as
• 4:23:55
  Speaker 9: well as bad ones. And woe to those who knocked
• 4:23:58
  Speaker 9: down what little there is of good in the world.
• 4:24:02
  Speaker 9: The right way is a narrow way, replied the son,
• 4:24:05
  Speaker 9: to trim to the prejudices of the ignorant to sacrifice
• 4:24:09
  Speaker 9: principle to man pleasing. There is more said in the
• 4:24:12
  Speaker 9: shape of argument than needs to be repeated here. Let
• 4:24:15
  Speaker 9: everyone fight the matter out as he will. On the
• 4:24:18
  Speaker 9: following day, the father had come to a resolution. When
• 4:24:23
  Speaker 9: I am gone, said he to his son. And my
• 4:24:26
  Speaker 9: name is added to hers on the tablet. You may
• 4:24:29
  Speaker 9: remove it to where you will. And even now, if
• 4:24:32
  Speaker 9: on hearing this you remain offended, you may remove it
• 4:24:35
  Speaker 9: at once. I warn you, however, that it is my
• 4:24:39
  Speaker 9: belief you are doing so will cause evil rather than
• 4:24:42
  Speaker 9: good among those whose souls health you are bound to consider.
• 4:24:47
  Speaker 9: You cannot get them to understand your motives, and they
• 4:24:50
  Speaker 9: will abominate the act. What you lose will be far more,
• 4:24:54
  Speaker 9: therefore than what you will gain of my personal feelings.
• 4:24:57
  Speaker 9: I say nothing on that point. I suspect we suffer together. Now,
• 4:25:02
  Speaker 9: then do as you please. If the father had hoped
• 4:25:06
  Speaker 9: by yielding a point so trying to himself to set
• 4:25:09
  Speaker 9: Geronimo an example of giving way, he deceived himself. Geronimo
• 4:25:14
  Speaker 9: did not accept what he said as an example, but
• 4:25:17
  Speaker 9: as an acknowledgment of an error that needed rectifying. About
• 4:25:21
  Speaker 9: any consequences to other people, he refused to think at all.
• 4:25:25
  Speaker 9: Consequences were nothing in matters of duty and principle. So
• 4:25:30
  Speaker 9: he went to Roger, the village mason, explained what he
• 4:25:34
  Speaker 9: wanted and gave his orders, announcing his intention of coming
• 4:25:38
  Speaker 9: himself to assist. But the man stared in astonishment. You've
• 4:25:43
  Speaker 9: bent in earnest, surely, sir, said he. Surely you are
• 4:25:47
  Speaker 9: never going to pull down your own mother's tombstone. Why
• 4:25:50
  Speaker 9: it'll break the old gentleman's heart. And see such a
• 4:25:54
  Speaker 9: woman as she was. My father has given his consent,
• 4:25:58
  Speaker 9: said Geronimo, annoyed, but not betraying the smallest impatience, Roger.
• 4:26:03
  Speaker 9: The mason shook his head and took up a tool
• 4:26:05
  Speaker 9: he had laid down, as if intending to return to
• 4:26:08
  Speaker 9: his work. You'll excuse me, mister Geronimo, you've maybe persuaded
• 4:26:13
  Speaker 9: him to it. Young people will be young people, I know,
• 4:26:16
  Speaker 9: remarked Roger. Though it's a downright miracle to me. Why
• 4:26:20
  Speaker 9: you should want to do it? You the lady's only son,
• 4:26:24
  Speaker 9: and such a lady as she was. It's out of
• 4:26:27
  Speaker 9: no disrespect to my mother, I assure you, expostulated Geronimo.
• 4:26:31
  Speaker 9: I should think not indeed, interrupted the mason, but continued Geronimo,
• 4:26:36
  Speaker 9: we all have to sacrifice personal feelings, you know, in
• 4:26:40
  Speaker 9: matters of right and wrong. Geronimo paused, but the mason
• 4:26:44
  Speaker 9: was silent. He had no idea what was meant or
• 4:26:49
  Speaker 9: where there is a question of propriety in the treatment
• 4:26:51
  Speaker 9: of holy places, continued the youth. But still the mason
• 4:26:55
  Speaker 9: stared at him in silence. You don't understand me, I think,
• 4:26:59
  Speaker 9: said Geronimo. I'm free to own that I don't, answered
• 4:27:02
  Speaker 9: the mason, will you let me come in and explain myself,
• 4:27:06
  Speaker 9: asked the young man. Your father's son has welcome in
• 4:27:09
  Speaker 9: my house at any time, cried Roger, who had at
• 4:27:12
  Speaker 9: last got hold of an idea he could fully understand.
• 4:27:16
  Speaker 9: And leading the way along a narrow passage, he ushered
• 4:27:19
  Speaker 9: his guests into a small parlor, to which he presently
• 4:27:22
  Speaker 9: called his wife down, having asked permission for her to
• 4:27:24
  Speaker 9: share in what mister Geronimo was going to say. But
• 4:27:29
  Speaker 9: let mister Geronimo say what he would. Neither of his
• 4:27:33
  Speaker 9: hearers succeeded in comprehending him, though to do them justice
• 4:27:37
  Speaker 9: they tried. There they sat the mason holding his cap
• 4:27:41
  Speaker 9: in both hands between his knees, slightly stooping, but looking
• 4:27:45
  Speaker 9: up at Geronimo from time to time, his wife bolt upright,
• 4:27:49
  Speaker 9: and never taking her eyes off him for a second.
• 4:27:53
  Speaker 9: And still they didn't understand. They had two or three
• 4:27:56
  Speaker 9: ideas of their own in their heads, it is true,
• 4:27:59
  Speaker 9: which adverse to mister Geronimo's arguments, and perhaps darkened their
• 4:28:04
  Speaker 9: powers of comprehension. The Missus, as they called her, had
• 4:28:08
  Speaker 9: been an angel on earth, if ever there was one,
• 4:28:11
  Speaker 9: and no place could be too good for her stone,
• 4:28:14
  Speaker 9: they were sure, for wasn't she herself in heaven? At least?
• 4:28:18
  Speaker 9: Who would ever get there if she wasn't there? And
• 4:28:21
  Speaker 9: the poor deaf gentleman had stood under it every Sunday
• 4:28:24
  Speaker 9: ever since she was taken, and who'd have the heart
• 4:28:27
  Speaker 9: to deprive him of the comfort of feeling her so near?
• 4:28:30
  Speaker 9: If that stone were to be taken away, they shouldn't
• 4:28:33
  Speaker 9: have him there much longer. Mister Geronimo might depend on that.
• 4:28:38
  Speaker 9: Roger's good woman declared that she wouldn't see the poor
• 4:28:41
  Speaker 9: gentleman standing there alone, as if he'd never had a
• 4:28:44
  Speaker 9: wife for all the world, if she could help it
• 4:28:47
  Speaker 9: take down his own mother's tombstone, as if her name
• 4:28:51
  Speaker 9: wasn't a credit anywhere, and a good example into the bargain.
• 4:28:55
  Speaker 9: Mister Geronimo couldn't be thinking of what he was saying,
• 4:28:59
  Speaker 9: and Roger protested that if he had never had another
• 4:29:02
  Speaker 9: job in all his life, he wouldn't have this. But
• 4:29:05
  Speaker 9: mister Geronimo was young, put in the wife, and hadn't
• 4:29:09
  Speaker 9: come to his feelings. He would think better of it. Presently,
• 4:29:13
  Speaker 9: they wished him a very good morning and hoped he
• 4:29:15
  Speaker 9: would call again. Mister Geronimo bit his lips as he
• 4:29:19
  Speaker 9: left the house, learning authority. What had become of them?
• 4:29:24
  Speaker 9: What had he done with them? What could he have
• 4:29:27
  Speaker 9: done with them? Against such stolid country heads? Entirely spoilt
• 4:29:32
  Speaker 9: into the bargain? Thought he the fruit of taking things easy?
• 4:29:36
  Speaker 9: There was but one hope of cure, to go the
• 4:29:39
  Speaker 9: way you thought right, and leave such people to get
• 4:29:42
  Speaker 9: reconciled to it as they could explanation and reasoning. He
• 4:29:47
  Speaker 9: was ashamed of having tried them. The people had treated
• 4:29:50
  Speaker 9: him like a child. So he crossed the hills next
• 4:29:54
  Speaker 9: morning and rode ten miles to the nearest town, where
• 4:29:58
  Speaker 9: he engaged a marble made to come over and remove
• 4:30:01
  Speaker 9: the tablet, But Sunday intervened, and as it chanced, his
• 4:30:05
  Speaker 9: father was ill, and he had to stand in his
• 4:30:08
  Speaker 9: place under the tablet in the chancel, And all at
• 4:30:11
  Speaker 9: once while there there flashed into his mind one at
• 4:30:15
  Speaker 9: any rate of the words which Roger the Mason had spoken.
• 4:30:19
  Speaker 9: Quite an unreasonable word, be it granted. But reason, even
• 4:30:22
  Speaker 9: in the most reasoning men, is not always a match
• 4:30:26
  Speaker 9: for feeling, and Geronimo was suddenly unnerved. The Gospel for
• 4:30:31
  Speaker 9: the day contained the brief pathetic history of the widow
• 4:30:34
  Speaker 9: of Nane and crossed as all the incidents were, for
• 4:30:38
  Speaker 9: he was the only son of a yet living father,
• 4:30:41
  Speaker 9: and it was the mother who was dead. Every word
• 4:30:44
  Speaker 9: seemed to touch his case, and he had a sensation
• 4:30:47
  Speaker 9: as if the Maria Madelina of his childhood was looking
• 4:30:51
  Speaker 9: down over his head from the tablet he was preparing
• 4:30:54
  Speaker 9: to remove. He actually shuddered, what if his father were
• 4:30:59
  Speaker 9: about to die? Two Yet what really overwhelmed him, little
• 4:31:03
  Speaker 9: as he knew it was the contrast which made itself felt,
• 4:31:06
  Speaker 9: between the hardness of his own attempted system and the
• 4:31:10
  Speaker 9: sympathy which breathed out of the gospel page. The Savior
• 4:31:14
  Speaker 9: had driven the money changers from the temple, it is true,
• 4:31:17
  Speaker 9: with the hand of indignant power, but there was no
• 4:31:21
  Speaker 9: question of the world's vile, desecrating traffic in that still
• 4:31:24
  Speaker 9: marble monument on the wall. Geronimo did not think it
• 4:31:28
  Speaker 9: all out then, nor till long afterward, But in stealing
• 4:31:32
  Speaker 9: himself to set a point, let it be granted ecclesiastical
• 4:31:35
  Speaker 9: propriety above the much weightier matter of human sympathy, and
• 4:31:40
  Speaker 9: a regard for moral results on others. He had followed
• 4:31:44
  Speaker 9: the Pharisees of old rather than him, who imposed none
• 4:31:48
  Speaker 9: but necessary burdens on the tremulous human mind. Nevertheless, his
• 4:31:54
  Speaker 9: resolution had received a shock, and he was up betimes
• 4:31:57
  Speaker 9: next morning to meet the marble mason on his way.
• 4:32:01
  Speaker 9: He had altered his intentions, he told him, with respect
• 4:32:04
  Speaker 9: to the tablet, but there was another little matter of
• 4:32:07
  Speaker 9: restoration in the church which he wished him to undertake.
• 4:32:11
  Speaker 9: And now Geronimo breathed freely again and met his father
• 4:32:15
  Speaker 9: at breakfast with an easy mind. He therefore spoke quite
• 4:32:19
  Speaker 9: cheerfully of the proposed restoration of the night Templar's tomb,
• 4:32:23
  Speaker 9: which had long been in disorder, and alluded to the
• 4:32:26
  Speaker 9: marble mason from the town as being there. A cry
• 4:32:30
  Speaker 9: from his father interrupted him, Geronimo, that marble mason, have
• 4:32:35
  Speaker 9: you really had the heart to here? Breath failed the
• 4:32:38
  Speaker 9: old man, and he turned very pale. No, No, cried
• 4:32:43
  Speaker 9: Geronimo passionately, for he knew what was meant. It is well,
• 4:32:47
  Speaker 9: murmured the father. I gave you leave, I know, But Geronimo,
• 4:32:51
  Speaker 9: I doubt if I could have borne it. One gets
• 4:32:55
  Speaker 9: weaker as one gets older, and with weak people, as
• 4:32:58
  Speaker 9: with ignorant ones, then is sometimes a burden if Geronimo
• 4:33:04
  Speaker 9: could but have recollected this. But he had seen so
• 4:33:07
  Speaker 9: little of life in the world himself, that he could
• 4:33:10
  Speaker 9: scarcely help. Being one sided and narrow minded. And as
• 4:33:14
  Speaker 9: he would not avail himself of his father's wider knowledge,
• 4:33:18
  Speaker 9: what remained but to make mistakes. So, priding himself on
• 4:33:22
  Speaker 9: inflexible firmness in matters of principle, however small, he confounded
• 4:33:27
  Speaker 9: together things indifferent and important, did even wise ones foolishly,
• 4:33:32
  Speaker 9: and attempted others which were neither wise nor worth a
• 4:33:36
  Speaker 9: hundredth part of the offense they created. We are to
• 4:33:40
  Speaker 9: be hated of all men for his name's sake, quoted he,
• 4:33:43
  Speaker 9: in justification of the course he was pursuing his name's sake.
• 4:33:49
  Speaker 9: I dare not record the trivialities he dignified upon that
• 4:33:53
  Speaker 9: sacred ground. But on one or two points the father
• 4:33:56
  Speaker 9: interfered authoritatively, and then domestic discs agreement to rose. Now
• 4:34:02
  Speaker 9: Geronimo had thought scorn of Roger the Mason for not
• 4:34:05
  Speaker 9: yielding to his better knowledge and authoritative position. As a
• 4:34:09
  Speaker 9: matter of course, yet here where to the counselor was
• 4:34:13
  Speaker 9: added father as well as priest, and to the knowledge
• 4:34:16
  Speaker 9: of the schools, the broader experiences of a long and
• 4:34:19
  Speaker 9: varied life. It came quite natural to this mere lad
• 4:34:23
  Speaker 9: by comparison, to think and betray the thought that he
• 4:34:26
  Speaker 9: knew a thousand times the better of the two. Verily,
• 4:34:30
  Speaker 9: if a little of the old heathen respect for the
• 4:34:33
  Speaker 9: wisdom of gray hairs had been added to his theological dogmas,
• 4:34:37
  Speaker 9: Geronimo's Christianity would not have suffered. And a man's foes
• 4:34:42
  Speaker 9: shall be of his own household, murmured the old man
• 4:34:45
  Speaker 9: to himself, in the bitterness of his heart, as he
• 4:34:48
  Speaker 9: wondered whether it would not be soon be his duty
• 4:34:50
  Speaker 9: to send this his only son, from his side, For
• 4:34:54
  Speaker 9: how could he be justified in letting the clouds of
• 4:34:56
  Speaker 9: miserable parties and party feelings gather into a storm. But
• 4:35:01
  Speaker 9: now Geronimo too awoke to the fact that such a
• 4:35:04
  Speaker 9: storm threatened the gossip spread on every side that father
• 4:35:08
  Speaker 9: and son did not always agree, and the flock were
• 4:35:11
  Speaker 9: not likely to be unanimous. The wicked natural man loves contest,
• 4:35:16
  Speaker 9: the weak natural man loves excitement. An expression of partisanship
• 4:35:20
  Speaker 9: to himself, coupled with disrespect for his father, awoke Geronimo
• 4:35:25
  Speaker 9: to a sense of his position if it did not
• 4:35:28
  Speaker 9: explain his mistake, and on looking further round, his tender
• 4:35:32
  Speaker 9: conscience was grieved. The old confidence was broken up, the
• 4:35:37
  Speaker 9: old love was failing. Whether with or without reason was
• 4:35:41
  Speaker 9: not the question. Now what could be the cause? What
• 4:35:44
  Speaker 9: was the remedy. Perhaps he had been too busy with
• 4:35:48
  Speaker 9: his plans and changes to have made himself as much
• 4:35:50
  Speaker 9: a personal friend as was desirable. He redoubled his exertions
• 4:35:55
  Speaker 9: and visits, endeavored to conciliate on all sides. But somehow
• 4:35:59
  Speaker 9: something was wanting. If from long habit a good many
• 4:36:03
  Speaker 9: still came out to follow himself and his father to church,
• 4:36:06
  Speaker 9: they did so at a greater and greater distance. Only
• 4:36:10
  Speaker 9: a few came up now to claim the friendly greeting
• 4:36:12
  Speaker 9: which he remembered as part of the Sunday's intercourse in
• 4:36:15
  Speaker 9: the days of his childhood. Geronimo was puzzled. Yet, if
• 4:36:21
  Speaker 9: the kaleidoscope had but turned round for contemplation, that Cristel
• 4:36:25
  Speaker 9: from the wisdom of Saint Paul destroying at him with
• 4:36:28
  Speaker 9: thy meet for whom Christ died, he would have known
• 4:36:31
  Speaker 9: the cause of estrangement and how to apply a cure.
• 4:36:35
  Speaker 9: As it was an idea at once, bright and kind
• 4:36:38
  Speaker 9: struck him, and he lost no time in carrying it
• 4:36:41
  Speaker 9: out with zeal. Geronimo was musical. He had been so
• 4:36:46
  Speaker 9: from childhood upwards. Had introduced better music as well as
• 4:36:50
  Speaker 9: greater beauty into the venerable old Church, and for both
• 4:36:54
  Speaker 9: these things the people were grateful, as they ought to be.
• 4:36:58
  Speaker 9: He would make use of this happily universal feeling. He
• 4:37:01
  Speaker 9: would give a treat to high and low, would have
• 4:37:04
  Speaker 9: a festival. They should keep holiday with singing and gladness
• 4:37:08
  Speaker 9: and feasting, and the day should be his father's birthday.
• 4:37:12
  Speaker 9: He would dispel the dreadful and mischievous idea that the
• 4:37:15
  Speaker 9: house to which all the parish looked, for example, was
• 4:37:18
  Speaker 9: divided against itself. Never was a happier thought struck out.
• 4:37:24
  Speaker 9: It furnished occupation for hearts and minds and hands, and
• 4:37:28
  Speaker 9: the old folks, who could do nothing but talk, had
• 4:37:30
  Speaker 9: a harmless subject of conversation. Eightier then, mister Geronimo and
• 4:37:35
  Speaker 9: his father were as friendly as ever. It had all
• 4:37:38
  Speaker 9: been a mistake about their not agreeing. Ey, how pleased
• 4:37:41
  Speaker 9: the old gentleman looked to be sure when he called
• 4:37:44
  Speaker 9: here and there to ask them if they were going
• 4:37:46
  Speaker 9: to get ready. Why he was helping everybody to trim
• 4:37:49
  Speaker 9: themselves up in their best for the grand supper there
• 4:37:51
  Speaker 9: was to be at the end, and on the old
• 4:37:54
  Speaker 9: Gentleman's birthday at all, it was something to think of.
• 4:37:57
  Speaker 9: They were glad, and so they were, but so also,
• 4:38:02
  Speaker 9: only more deeply so were father and son, for they
• 4:38:05
  Speaker 9: felt reunited. And now the time drew near, and only
• 4:38:11
  Speaker 9: one small contradiction had arisen. The organ was not so
• 4:38:15
  Speaker 9: perfectly in tune as to police Geronimo's delicate ear. And
• 4:38:19
  Speaker 9: when nearly at the last moment he wrote over for
• 4:38:22
  Speaker 9: the one organ builder of the distant town, he found,
• 4:38:25
  Speaker 9: to his dismay, that the man was absent, and would
• 4:38:28
  Speaker 9: be so till the day after the festival. The evil
• 4:38:32
  Speaker 9: was slight, and the Father entreated Geronimo to be satisfied,
• 4:38:37
  Speaker 9: so few would discover the imperfection. But Geronimo could not rest.
• 4:38:42
  Speaker 9: His passionate love of order was offended. And it must
• 4:38:45
  Speaker 9: be owned that the instinct is a good one. In
• 4:38:48
  Speaker 9: the beginning, the will of God brought an organized world
• 4:38:51
  Speaker 9: out of an elemental confusion. In the end, we hope
• 4:38:55
  Speaker 9: he will bring harmony into the discordant world of spirit.
• 4:38:59
  Speaker 9: In the present life. Men may each one, in his degree,
• 4:39:03
  Speaker 9: labor to the same good end. It is both their
• 4:39:06
  Speaker 9: privilege and their duty to do so. Lawyers, physicians, statesmen,
• 4:39:11
  Speaker 9: men of science, and above all divines undertake to do
• 4:39:15
  Speaker 9: it by their very professions. Entangled claims, diseased bodies, disturbed nations.
• 4:39:22
  Speaker 9: In Geronimo, the instinct was almost a passion, but of
• 4:39:26
  Speaker 9: the judicious application of means to the blessed end. He
• 4:39:29
  Speaker 9: did not know a great deal more than of how
• 4:39:31
  Speaker 9: to bring the organ of the village church into the
• 4:39:34
  Speaker 9: desired perfection of tune. Nevertheless, he knew something of that,
• 4:39:39
  Speaker 9: for he had been present when the organ builder had
• 4:39:42
  Speaker 9: tuned the instrument before, had observed the process of widening
• 4:39:46
  Speaker 9: or narrowing the mouths of the pipes in order to
• 4:39:49
  Speaker 9: change their tone, and had since ventured on correcting a
• 4:39:53
  Speaker 9: defective note or two himself. What was to hinder him
• 4:39:56
  Speaker 9: from tuning the whole of them? Now? If he could
• 4:39:59
  Speaker 9: but ascertain the ee order in which the guiding scale
• 4:40:01
  Speaker 9: of notes was made perfect to bring all the rest
• 4:40:04
  Speaker 9: into unison with that would be no difficulty, for he
• 4:40:08
  Speaker 9: could perfectly trust his ear. The difficulty was to get
• 4:40:12
  Speaker 9: at the first principles of the matter. The youth who
• 4:40:15
  Speaker 9: played the organ when Geronimo's duties precluded his assistance, knew
• 4:40:19
  Speaker 9: nothing of the subject, but Geronimo would not be baffled.
• 4:40:24
  Speaker 9: The day before the festival, he crossed the hills to
• 4:40:27
  Speaker 9: the town and called it a musical instrument maker's shop.
• 4:40:31
  Speaker 9: Could they give him, he asked, the succession of notes
• 4:40:34
  Speaker 9: by which organs were tuned. Mister somebody asked mister somebody else,
• 4:40:39
  Speaker 9: And there was a reference to an authority through a door.
• 4:40:42
  Speaker 9: The shopman who was left behind ey Geronimo ascance. Was
• 4:40:47
  Speaker 9: he in their line of business, he wondered. Presently, the
• 4:40:50
  Speaker 9: other man returned and presented him with a bit of
• 4:40:53
  Speaker 9: music paper on which twenty notes were marked down. There
• 4:40:58
  Speaker 9: are the notes, sir said, he coolly, as if he
• 4:41:01
  Speaker 9: too half suspected arrival. The same is for a pianoforte,
• 4:41:06
  Speaker 9: as of course, you know, he added, with a half
• 4:41:08
  Speaker 9: inquiring look. Geronimo disliked familiarity and gave a half impatient nod.
• 4:41:16
  Speaker 9: Mister desired me to say with his compliments, Sir, continued
• 4:41:19
  Speaker 9: the messenger. He supposed, you are aware it's a difficult
• 4:41:23
  Speaker 9: business organ tuning to anyone that hasn't practiced it, has
• 4:41:28
  Speaker 9: your master practiced it, inquired Geronimo, with a new hope.
• 4:41:31
  Speaker 9: Oh no, sir, replied the man who himself did duty
• 4:41:34
  Speaker 9: as master. On the other side of the door. We're
• 4:41:37
  Speaker 9: pianoforte tuners only, sir. What does the fool mean? Thought
• 4:41:42
  Speaker 9: Geronimo as he walked away. A difficult business, it may
• 4:41:46
  Speaker 9: be to the man without an ear, but easy enough
• 4:41:48
  Speaker 9: otherwise with the clue in his hand. Thank Heaven, there
• 4:41:52
  Speaker 9: is the comfort of certainty in dealing with material things,
• 4:41:56
  Speaker 9: fixed laws, and fixed results, not that everlasting trimming and yielding,
• 4:42:01
  Speaker 9: which leaves every work one undertakes imperfect at last. As
• 4:42:06
  Speaker 9: Geronimo mused thus and read over the clearly defined system
• 4:42:09
  Speaker 9: by which his organ was to be brought into that
• 4:42:11
  Speaker 9: harmonious order which we call being in tune, he almost
• 4:42:15
  Speaker 9: felt that an organ builder's business was more satisfactory than
• 4:42:19
  Speaker 9: a clergyman's. There was still the little brass cone used
• 4:42:23
  Speaker 9: for widening or contracting the pipes to be obtained, but
• 4:42:27
  Speaker 9: this he asked for at the organ builder's establishment, no
• 4:42:31
  Speaker 9: remark passing there on what it was wanted for, and
• 4:42:34
  Speaker 9: then Geronimo hurried home and now it will be understood
• 4:42:38
  Speaker 9: what took the young curate to the church so early
• 4:42:41
  Speaker 9: on the morning of that autumn festival day. He had begun,
• 4:42:45
  Speaker 9: but not nearly completed the tuning of the organ the
• 4:42:47
  Speaker 9: evening before, having gone to it as soon as he
• 4:42:50
  Speaker 9: could make an excuse to leave his father again, for
• 4:42:53
  Speaker 9: the bold feet was to be kept secret till its
• 4:42:56
  Speaker 9: successful accomplishment proved how wisely it had been undertaken. And
• 4:43:00
  Speaker 9: now it must be finished before breakfast, for the decorations
• 4:43:04
  Speaker 9: were to be brought in afterwards, and he himself had
• 4:43:06
  Speaker 9: a thousand other things to do for two hours and upwards.
• 4:43:11
  Speaker 9: Therefore did he persevere in his anxious work, his greatest
• 4:43:14
  Speaker 9: trouble being the special care required in the mechanical part,
• 4:43:18
  Speaker 9: inasmuch as a hasty or too heavy insertion of the
• 4:43:21
  Speaker 9: cone into the mouths of the pipes was liable to
• 4:43:24
  Speaker 9: split the metal and do mischief. But Geronimo kept every
• 4:43:28
  Speaker 9: faculty on the full stretch of attention, and his perfect
• 4:43:31
  Speaker 9: ear made the bringing of the notes into correct harmony
• 4:43:34
  Speaker 9: a matter of no trouble at all. But on the
• 4:43:37
  Speaker 9: contrary of the keenest pleasure, and the instrument was more
• 4:43:41
  Speaker 9: glaringly out of order than he supposed. His father had
• 4:43:44
  Speaker 9: fancied it was only a little out of tune, and
• 4:43:47
  Speaker 9: he himself had not thought the disorder very great. But
• 4:43:51
  Speaker 9: now that he tested it by the scale, almost every
• 4:43:53
  Speaker 9: note was wrong and must be altered. A few of
• 4:43:57
  Speaker 9: the octaves harmonized together, it is true, but all the
• 4:44:00
  Speaker 9: fifths were either too flat or too sharp. That not
• 4:44:03
  Speaker 9: one should have remained perfect by accident, as several of
• 4:44:06
  Speaker 9: the octaves had done, puzzled him not a little. But
• 4:44:10
  Speaker 9: the fact of their all being imperfect more or less
• 4:44:12
  Speaker 9: was undeniable. What a blessing he had it in his
• 4:44:15
  Speaker 9: power to remedy the evil. Yes, for two hours and
• 4:44:20
  Speaker 9: upwards did the work go on, the occasional drone of
• 4:44:23
  Speaker 9: the pipes vibrating drearily through the aisles and causing little
• 4:44:26
  Speaker 9: Roger to fall asleep at his post of the blower.
• 4:44:30
  Speaker 9: At last, however, every octave had been gone through, had
• 4:44:33
  Speaker 9: been brought into perfect unison with the perfected scale of
• 4:44:36
  Speaker 9: the twenty notes, and Geronimo's labors were over. Roger cried,
• 4:44:42
  Speaker 9: he to the child, whose blowing efforts were perceptibly failing. Yes, sir,
• 4:44:47
  Speaker 9: blow steadily and strongly. Now for ten minutes more, and
• 4:44:50
  Speaker 9: you shall go home to breakfast. Fill the bellows, there's
• 4:44:53
  Speaker 9: a good lad. Roger worked his arms vigorously, and the
• 4:44:58
  Speaker 9: bellows were soon full. It's all right now, please, sir,
• 4:45:02
  Speaker 9: said he. Geronimo had his eyes on a piece of
• 4:45:06
  Speaker 9: music open on the desk before him. It was Haydn's
• 4:45:10
  Speaker 9: Mass in five flats, his dream of beauty among all
• 4:45:13
  Speaker 9: the classical music of the world. As Roger spoke, the
• 4:45:17
  Speaker 9: young curate bent forward and struck down the full, magnificent
• 4:45:21
  Speaker 9: chords of the key. But almost as he struck them,
• 4:45:25
  Speaker 9: he uttered a cry, which it was well the louder
• 4:45:27
  Speaker 9: organ sounds drowned, or Roger would have thought. Geronimo mad
• 4:45:32
  Speaker 9: a cry of both despair and physical distress. As it was,
• 4:45:36
  Speaker 9: something startled the lad, and he let go the blowing
• 4:45:39
  Speaker 9: handle with a jerk. It ran up at once, and
• 4:45:42
  Speaker 9: the organ notes died out in a mournful squeal. As
• 4:45:46
  Speaker 9: to Geronimo, it would be difficult to describe what he did.
• 4:45:51
  Speaker 9: He was off the stool in an instant, shouting to
• 4:45:53
  Speaker 9: Roger to know if he had broken the bellows, then
• 4:45:57
  Speaker 9: back again to retouch the expiring notes and see if
• 4:46:00
  Speaker 9: he had been under a delusion, or if he had
• 4:46:02
  Speaker 9: struck the instrument at random. But no, no, no, then
• 4:46:07
  Speaker 9: how by what miracle could he account for the fact
• 4:46:10
  Speaker 9: that his touch upon that chord had filled the air
• 4:46:12
  Speaker 9: with dissonant vibrations horrible to the most untutored ear, but
• 4:46:17
  Speaker 9: to his refined one, absolutely insufferable chord. Indeed, the very
• 4:46:23
  Speaker 9: word was a mockery. What he had struck was a
• 4:46:25
  Speaker 9: clash of discords. Human nature itself never puzzled Geronimo half
• 4:46:31
  Speaker 9: as much. After the first agony was over, he examined
• 4:46:36
  Speaker 9: the matter with all the calmness and care he could command.
• 4:46:39
  Speaker 9: Made Roger blow again, tried other chords in succession, but
• 4:46:43
  Speaker 9: in all cases with the same result, in a greater
• 4:46:46
  Speaker 9: or less degree once more. Then he got out the
• 4:46:50
  Speaker 9: tuning scale, once more ran over the guiding twenty notes.
• 4:46:54
  Speaker 9: There was not a single flaw, not one, not a
• 4:46:57
  Speaker 9: varying vibration could be heard, and all the others were
• 4:47:01
  Speaker 9: in unison with those. And then again he struck a chord,
• 4:47:05
  Speaker 9: and the cord was no cord at all. He next
• 4:47:08
  Speaker 9: examined the pipes. Perhaps he had cracked all their mouths
• 4:47:11
  Speaker 9: with his cone, but no there was not a split
• 4:47:14
  Speaker 9: in any one of them. He had been far too
• 4:47:16
  Speaker 9: careful for that. And now time was getting on, and
• 4:47:20
  Speaker 9: Roger was half starved. A knocking had already been heard
• 4:47:24
  Speaker 9: at one of the doors. The decorators must be let in,
• 4:47:27
  Speaker 9: and he must go home to his breakfast and his father.
• 4:47:31
  Speaker 9: Geronimo's face, as he locked up the organ and put
• 4:47:34
  Speaker 9: the keys in his pocket, looked ten years older than
• 4:47:37
  Speaker 9: it had done before he had begun his work. He
• 4:47:40
  Speaker 9: gave Roger half a crown as a treat for the day,
• 4:47:43
  Speaker 9: and hastened home. It is difficult to reckon on the
• 4:47:47
  Speaker 9: conduct of anyone under the trial of having made a
• 4:47:50
  Speaker 9: great mistake. Some people fight meanly to get out of
• 4:47:53
  Speaker 9: a little fault, as if self conceit was the leading
• 4:47:57
  Speaker 9: principle of their lives, but humble themselves nobly under a
• 4:48:01
  Speaker 9: great one. And this was the case with Geronimo. He
• 4:48:05
  Speaker 9: went at once to his father and told him all
• 4:48:07
  Speaker 9: that he had done, blaming himself more bitterly than his
• 4:48:10
  Speaker 9: father would allow. He deserved, but he did more than that.
• 4:48:14
  Speaker 9: He stepped into many houses that morning, both of farmers
• 4:48:17
  Speaker 9: and shopkeepers, and told them they must forgive him for
• 4:48:21
  Speaker 9: being the cause of what he feared would be a
• 4:48:23
  Speaker 9: great disappointment. He had wanted to make the organ better,
• 4:48:26
  Speaker 9: and he had unfortunately done something to it which made
• 4:48:30
  Speaker 9: it worse. And as he could not find out what
• 4:48:33
  Speaker 9: was amiss, it couldn't be remedied. He would get the
• 4:48:36
  Speaker 9: choir to make amends by singing their very best, and
• 4:48:39
  Speaker 9: he would help them all he could himself. He begged
• 4:48:42
  Speaker 9: that the blunder might not be allowed to spoil the
• 4:48:45
  Speaker 9: pleasure of the day. Unaccountable human race, we ought, indeed
• 4:48:50
  Speaker 9: to be patient one with another. Geronimo had not received
• 4:48:54
  Speaker 9: so many smiles, and all the time he had been
• 4:48:57
  Speaker 9: curate as now, when he was carrying round the painful
• 4:49:00
  Speaker 9: message of his own defeat, it was wonderful. Kind words
• 4:49:05
  Speaker 9: were on every lip. Not a reproach was heard. It
• 4:49:09
  Speaker 9: had been so good of mister Geronimo to try. They
• 4:49:12
  Speaker 9: were sure it couldn't have been his fault, but something
• 4:49:15
  Speaker 9: had gone wrong of itself. Anyhow, They didn't mind at all,
• 4:49:19
  Speaker 9: and hoped he wouldn't trouble himself. They should hear him
• 4:49:23
  Speaker 9: sing all the plainer, for there being no music besides.
• 4:49:26
  Speaker 9: And as for that piece the old master had talked
• 4:49:29
  Speaker 9: about so much they hoped he'd be so good as
• 4:49:31
  Speaker 9: to play it to them some other day. They begged,
• 4:49:35
  Speaker 9: he wouldn't mind. That was all. Geronimo felt, crowned with
• 4:49:40
  Speaker 9: roses for his frankness, if not for the error he
• 4:49:43
  Speaker 9: had committed. And service, feast and festival were kept with
• 4:49:47
  Speaker 9: unclouded comfort, bringing a promise of further comfort in store,
• 4:49:51
  Speaker 9: a better understanding of what was meant on all sides.
• 4:49:55
  Speaker 9: And now for the explanation. Neither father nor son could
• 4:49:59
  Speaker 9: unwrap the mystery. The only guess even they could make
• 4:50:03
  Speaker 9: was that the man at the music shop might have
• 4:50:05
  Speaker 9: given them a wrong scale to work by. It was
• 4:50:08
  Speaker 9: not a bad idea, and it served to keep them
• 4:50:11
  Speaker 9: quiet till the organ builder, whom they sent for it
• 4:50:14
  Speaker 9: once came over. He was an odd, sententious old man
• 4:50:18
  Speaker 9: with a good deal of dry humor, so when he
• 4:50:21
  Speaker 9: got into the church and touched the fatal organ, he
• 4:50:24
  Speaker 9: first chuckled and then laughed outright, were the bellows out
• 4:50:29
  Speaker 9: of order? Were the pipes injured? Was the scale incorrect?
• 4:50:33
  Speaker 9: Was the tuning imperfect? Geronimo's questions fell thick and fast.
• 4:50:39
  Speaker 9: Nothing of the sort, young gentleman, said the organ builder
• 4:50:42
  Speaker 9: to every suggestion. There's only one thing the matter, but
• 4:50:46
  Speaker 9: it's everything. The tunings too perfect by half. Both Geronimo
• 4:50:53
  Speaker 9: and his father stared to the organ builder's great delight.
• 4:50:58
  Speaker 9: You don't seem to have heard of this before, gentle
• 4:51:00
  Speaker 9: observed he. But it's a fact. Nevertheless, the scale's all right,
• 4:51:05
  Speaker 9: the system's perfect. But if you stick too close to it,
• 4:51:09
  Speaker 9: it sets you wrong. The organ won't bear it. That's
• 4:51:13
  Speaker 9: the fact, not bear being put into perfect tune, asked Geronimo,
• 4:51:18
  Speaker 9: really astonished. How is that possible. It's an imperfect instrument, sir,
• 4:51:24
  Speaker 9: answered the organ builder, And that being the case, you
• 4:51:27
  Speaker 9: have to make the best you can of it, and
• 4:51:29
  Speaker 9: not expect to get it perfect, for that's not possible.
• 4:51:33
  Speaker 3: Here.
• 4:51:34
  Speaker 9: He took up the scale paper and went on to
• 4:51:36
  Speaker 9: explain that most of the fifths must be left somewhat flat,
• 4:51:40
  Speaker 9: and the few others made somewhat sharp, the octaves alone
• 4:51:44
  Speaker 9: being tuned in perfect unison. And this was the best plan,
• 4:51:48
  Speaker 9: he assured them, of getting a harmonious hole, not perfect,
• 4:51:52
  Speaker 9: I grant even then added he but pretty fair for
• 4:51:55
  Speaker 9: this present life, gentlemen, you see, Geronimo listened in silence.
• 4:52:01
  Speaker 9: A system of expediency in the material world, and in
• 4:52:05
  Speaker 9: music especially, seemed to him monstrous. He sat silently by
• 4:52:10
  Speaker 9: two while the organ builder made his preparations for repairing
• 4:52:13
  Speaker 9: the mischief that had been done. His father slipped away,
• 4:52:17
  Speaker 9: as silent as himself, though possibly he made his own
• 4:52:20
  Speaker 9: reflections before he went. But Geronimo sat silently on till
• 4:52:26
  Speaker 9: at last the organ builder began to tune the fifths,
• 4:52:29
  Speaker 9: leaving each one flat in succession, And then he could
• 4:52:32
  Speaker 9: contain himself no longer. He got up, but only to
• 4:52:36
  Speaker 9: sit down again, and then rose once more. This is
• 4:52:40
  Speaker 9: most trying, he exclaimed, as unsatisfactory to the mind as
• 4:52:44
  Speaker 9: the ear, to have a perfect system to go by here,
• 4:52:49
  Speaker 9: he pointed, to the scale of twenty notes, and not
• 4:52:52
  Speaker 9: be allowed to carry it perfectly out. Though ear and
• 4:52:55
  Speaker 9: heart rebel against the disorder, to have an evil under
• 4:52:59
  Speaker 9: your very hand, to be remedied, and be obliged to
• 4:53:02
  Speaker 9: suffer it. Still I call this dreadful. The organ builder
• 4:53:07
  Speaker 9: stopped his work to listen and reply. It's not very pleasant,
• 4:53:13
  Speaker 9: I admit, said he. But there's one thing worse to find.
• 4:53:17
  Speaker 9: You've worked so hard for the system that you've missed
• 4:53:20
  Speaker 9: the end. It was made for a perfect system ought
• 4:53:24
  Speaker 9: to work out to a perfect end, murmured Geronimo. But
• 4:53:29
  Speaker 9: the organ builder shook his head. Not if the instrument
• 4:53:32
  Speaker 9: isn't perfect, too, persisted he They're sure to be across somewhere.
• 4:53:39
  Speaker 9: Drone went another pipe, Another imperfect fifth was tuned, and
• 4:53:43
  Speaker 9: the organ builder made another pause. He was a very
• 4:53:47
  Speaker 9: sententious man, and liked to explain all around his subject.
• 4:53:51
  Speaker 9: It's the same all through life, observed he. The best rules,
• 4:53:55
  Speaker 9: even short of gospel rules, of course, mustn't be pressed
• 4:53:58
  Speaker 9: too close. Neither man nor organ can bear it. If
• 4:54:02
  Speaker 9: we were all up in heaven, it might be different
• 4:54:06
  Speaker 9: in spite of himself. Geronimo smiled, and the smile did
• 4:54:09
  Speaker 9: him good. What a choice of evils, said He can't
• 4:54:13
  Speaker 9: be otherwise, remarked his companion. So long as things are
• 4:54:17
  Speaker 9: all imperfect together, men and organs, perhaps even rules too.
• 4:54:22
  Speaker 9: Sometimes Geronimo shook his head, but the organ builder did
• 4:54:27
  Speaker 9: not notice it and went back to his tuning, as cheerful,
• 4:54:30
  Speaker 9: as if no such thing as a sad necessity existed
• 4:54:33
  Speaker 9: in the world. And Geronimo went on listening to the
• 4:54:37
  Speaker 9: unsatisfactory sounds, musing the while. Thereupon irregularity inconsistency contradictions even
• 4:54:45
  Speaker 9: were as rife then in the material world as in
• 4:54:48
  Speaker 9: the spiritual, must be born with, allowed for, made the
• 4:54:51
  Speaker 9: best of in the one case as in the other,
• 4:54:55
  Speaker 9: in order to compass the great object. At last, the
• 4:54:58
  Speaker 9: organ builder's business was is not so much more satisfactory
• 4:55:02
  Speaker 9: than a clergyman's. After all, Now, sir, you may play
• 4:55:06
  Speaker 9: Heyden's mass in five flats for as long as you please,
• 4:55:09
  Speaker 9: observed the organ builder as he concluded the tuning, striking
• 4:55:13
  Speaker 9: down the full cord of the key, and proof of
• 4:55:15
  Speaker 9: the fact the organ goes sweetly enough now. And so
• 4:55:19
  Speaker 9: it did sweetly enough, if not as perfectly as Geronimo
• 4:55:24
  Speaker 9: could have desired. But he had had his lesson, and
• 4:55:27
  Speaker 9: must henceforth be contented with something short of his ideal,
• 4:55:32
  Speaker 9: that type of perfect in his mind. In nature can
• 4:55:36
  Speaker 9: he nowhere find nowhere in the lower nature at least,
• 4:55:41
  Speaker 9: And for the full development of the higher he must
• 4:55:43
  Speaker 9: wait in patience. But patience is the philosophy of experience,
• 4:55:49
  Speaker 9: and even Geronimo attained it. At last, end of chapter
• 4:55:53
  Speaker 9: twenty seven.
• 4:55:55
  Speaker 5: Chapter twenty eight, cobwebs, I cannot make this matter plain,
• 4:56:04
  Speaker 5: but I would shoot howe'er in vain a random arrow
• 4:56:09
  Speaker 5: from the brain Tennyson. Twinette the spider was young, hungry,
• 4:56:18
  Speaker 5: and industrious. Weave yourself a web, my dear, said her mother,
• 4:56:24
  Speaker 5: as you know how without teaching, and catch flies for
• 4:56:28
  Speaker 5: yourself only, don't weave near me in the corner here.
• 4:56:32
  Speaker 5: I am old, and stay in the corners. But you
• 4:56:35
  Speaker 5: are young and needn't Besides you would be in my way.
• 4:56:41
  Speaker 5: Scramble along the rafters to a little distance off and spin.
• 4:56:45
  Speaker 5: But mind, just see there's nothing there below you, I mean,
• 4:56:51
  Speaker 5: before you begin, you won't catch anything to eat if
• 4:56:54
  Speaker 5: there isn't empty space about you for the flies to
• 4:56:57
  Speaker 5: fly in Toinette was dutiful and obeyed. She scrambled along
• 4:57:04
  Speaker 5: the woodwork of the growing roof of the church, for
• 4:57:07
  Speaker 5: it was there her mother lived till she had gone
• 4:57:11
  Speaker 5: what she thought might fairly be called a little distance off,
• 4:57:16
  Speaker 5: And then she stopped to look round, which, considering that
• 4:57:19
  Speaker 5: she had eight eyes to do it with, was not difficult.
• 4:57:24
  Speaker 5: But she was not so sure of what there might
• 4:57:27
  Speaker 5: be below. I wonder whether mother would say there was
• 4:57:33
  Speaker 5: nothing here below me, I mean, but empty space for
• 4:57:37
  Speaker 5: flies to fly in, said she. But you might have
• 4:57:41
  Speaker 5: stood wondering there forever. So she went back to her
• 4:57:45
  Speaker 5: mother and asked what she thought. Oh dear, oh dear,
• 4:57:50
  Speaker 5: said her mother, How can I think about what I
• 4:57:53
  Speaker 5: don't see there? Usn't to be anything there in my
• 4:57:58
  Speaker 5: young days, I'm sure, but everybody must find out things
• 4:58:02
  Speaker 5: for themselves. Let yourself down by the family rope, as
• 4:58:07
  Speaker 5: you know how, without teaching, and see for yourself if
• 4:58:11
  Speaker 5: there's anything there or not. Twinette was a very intelligent
• 4:58:17
  Speaker 5: young spider, quite worthy of the age she was born in.
• 4:58:21
  Speaker 5: So she thanked her mother for advice and was just
• 4:58:25
  Speaker 5: starting afresh when another thought struck her. How shall I
• 4:58:29
  Speaker 5: know if there's anything there when I get there, asked she.
• 4:58:35
  Speaker 5: Dear me, if there's anything there, how can you help
• 4:58:38
  Speaker 5: seeing it? Cried the mother, rather teased by her daughter's
• 4:58:42
  Speaker 5: inquiring spirit. You with at least eight eyes in your head.
• 4:58:49
  Speaker 5: Thank you, now I quite understand, said Twinette, and scuttling
• 4:58:54
  Speaker 5: back to the end of the rafter, she began to
• 4:58:57
  Speaker 5: prepare for the family rope. It was the most exquisite
• 4:59:02
  Speaker 5: thing in the world, so fine you could scarcely see it,
• 4:59:09
  Speaker 5: so elastic it could be blown about without breaking such
• 4:59:15
  Speaker 5: a perfect gray that it looked white against black things
• 4:59:19
  Speaker 5: and black against white. So manageable that Twinette could both
• 4:59:26
  Speaker 5: make it and slide down it at once, and when
• 4:59:30
  Speaker 5: she wished to get back, could slip up by it
• 4:59:34
  Speaker 5: and roll it up at the same time. It was
• 4:59:38
  Speaker 5: a wonderful rope for anybody to make without teaching. But
• 4:59:43
  Speaker 5: Toinette was not conceited. Rope making came as natural to
• 4:59:47
  Speaker 5: her as eating and fighting, due to intelligent little boys,
• 4:59:53
  Speaker 5: so she thought no more about it than we do
• 4:59:56
  Speaker 5: of chewing our food. How she did it is another question,
• 5:00:03
  Speaker 5: and not one easily answered. However intelligent we may be,
• 5:00:08
  Speaker 5: Thus much may be hinted. Out of four little spinning
• 5:00:12
  Speaker 5: machines near the tail came four little threads, and the
• 5:00:18
  Speaker 5: rope was a fore twist of these, But as each
• 5:00:22
  Speaker 5: separate thread was itself a many twist of a great
• 5:00:25
  Speaker 5: many others, still finer. I do not pretend to tell
• 5:00:30
  Speaker 5: the number of strands, as rope threads are called in
• 5:00:35
  Speaker 5: Twinette's family. Rope enough that as she made it now,
• 5:00:40
  Speaker 5: it has been made from generation to generation, and there
• 5:00:45
  Speaker 5: seems to be no immediate prospect of a change. The
• 5:00:51
  Speaker 5: plan was for the spinner to glue the ends to
• 5:00:54
  Speaker 5: the rafter and then start off. Then out came the
• 5:00:59
  Speaker 5: threads from the spin machines, and twist went the rope.
• 5:01:03
  Speaker 5: And the further the spinner traveled, the longer the rope became.
• 5:01:08
  Speaker 5: And Twinette made ready accordingly, and turning on her back,
• 5:01:13
  Speaker 5: led herself fairly off the glute ends held fast, the
• 5:01:19
  Speaker 5: four strands twined closely together, and down went the family rope,
• 5:01:25
  Speaker 5: with Twinette at the end, guiding it down into the
• 5:01:29
  Speaker 5: middle of the chancel, where there were carved oaken screens
• 5:01:34
  Speaker 5: on three sides, and carved oaken seats below, with carved
• 5:01:39
  Speaker 5: oaken figures at each end of each. Twinette was about
• 5:01:46
  Speaker 5: halfway down to the stone flagged floor when she shut
• 5:01:51
  Speaker 5: up the spinning machines and stopped to rest and look round. Then,
• 5:01:56
  Speaker 5: balancing herself at the end of her rope with her
• 5:01:59
  Speaker 5: legs figs crumpled up round her, she made her remarks,
• 5:02:04
  Speaker 5: this is charming, cried she one had need to travel
• 5:02:09
  Speaker 5: and see the world, and all so nice in the middle. Here,
• 5:02:14
  Speaker 5: nice empty space for the flies to fly about in,
• 5:02:18
  Speaker 5: and a very pleasant time they must have of it.
• 5:02:22
  Speaker 5: Dear me, how hungry I feel, I must go back
• 5:02:26
  Speaker 5: and weave at once. But just as she was preparing
• 5:02:30
  Speaker 5: to roll up the rope and be off, a ray
• 5:02:34
  Speaker 5: of sunshine streaming through one of the chancel windows struck
• 5:02:40
  Speaker 5: in a direct line upon her suspended body, quite startling
• 5:02:45
  Speaker 5: her with the dazzle of its brightness. Everything seemed in
• 5:02:50
  Speaker 5: a blaze all around her, and she turned round and
• 5:02:54
  Speaker 5: round in terror. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, cried she,
• 5:02:59
  Speaker 5: for she didn't know what to say, and still couldn't
• 5:03:02
  Speaker 5: help calling out. Then, making a great effort, she gave
• 5:03:07
  Speaker 5: one hearty spring, and blinded though she was shot up
• 5:03:11
  Speaker 5: to the growing roof as fast as spider could go,
• 5:03:16
  Speaker 5: rolling the rope into a ball as she went, after
• 5:03:20
  Speaker 5: which she stopped to complain. But it is dull work
• 5:03:25
  Speaker 5: complaining to oneself, So she ran back to her mother
• 5:03:29
  Speaker 5: in the corner. Back again so soon, my dear, asked
• 5:03:34
  Speaker 5: the old lady, not over pleased at the fresh disturbance.
• 5:03:40
  Speaker 5: Back again at all is the wonder, whimpered twinette. There's
• 5:03:44
  Speaker 5: something down there after all, besides empty space. Why what
• 5:03:50
  Speaker 5: did you see? Asked her mother. Nothing that was just it,
• 5:03:54
  Speaker 5: answered Twinette. I could see nothing for Dazzle and Blaze,
• 5:03:59
  Speaker 5: But I did see Dazzle and Blaze. Young people of
• 5:04:04
  Speaker 5: the present day are very troublesome with their observations, remarked
• 5:04:08
  Speaker 5: the mother. However, if one rule will not do, here
• 5:04:12
  Speaker 5: is another. Did Dazzle and Blaze shove you out of
• 5:04:16
  Speaker 5: your place, my dear Twinette said, certainly not. She had
• 5:04:21
  Speaker 5: come away of herself. Then how could they be anything,
• 5:04:25
  Speaker 5: asked her mother. Two things could not be in one
• 5:04:29
  Speaker 5: place at the same time. Let Twinette try to get
• 5:04:33
  Speaker 5: into her place while she was there herself and see
• 5:04:37
  Speaker 5: if she could. Twinette did not try, because she knew
• 5:04:42
  Speaker 5: she couldn't, But she sat very silent, wondering what Dazzle
• 5:04:48
  Speaker 5: and Blaze could be if they were nothing at all,
• 5:04:52
  Speaker 5: a puzzle which might have lasted her forever. Fortunately, her
• 5:04:57
  Speaker 5: mother interrupted her by advising her to go and get
• 5:05:01
  Speaker 5: something to do. She really couldn't afford to feed her
• 5:05:04
  Speaker 5: out of her web any longer, she said, If Dazzle
• 5:05:10
  Speaker 5: and Blaze kill me, you'll be sorry. Mother, said Twinette
• 5:05:13
  Speaker 5: in a pet nonsense about Dazzle and Blaze, cried the
• 5:05:19
  Speaker 5: old spider, now thoroughly aroused, I dare say they're only
• 5:05:24
  Speaker 5: a little more light than usual. There's more or less
• 5:05:27
  Speaker 5: light up here in the corners, even at times you
• 5:05:31
  Speaker 5: talk nonsense, My dear Sultoinette scuttled off in silence, for
• 5:05:39
  Speaker 5: she dared not ask what light was, though she wanted
• 5:05:44
  Speaker 5: to know, but she felt too cross to begin to spin.
• 5:05:50
  Speaker 5: She preferred a search after truth to her dinner, which
• 5:05:55
  Speaker 5: showed she was no commonplace spider. So she resolved go
• 5:06:00
  Speaker 5: down below in another place and see if she could
• 5:06:03
  Speaker 5: find a really empty space, and accordingly prepared the family rope.
• 5:06:10
  Speaker 5: When she came down, it was about half a foot
• 5:06:12
  Speaker 5: further east in the chancel, and a very prosperous journey
• 5:06:17
  Speaker 5: she made, come all safe so far, said she, her
• 5:06:23
  Speaker 5: good humor, returning, I do believe I found nothing at last,
• 5:06:28
  Speaker 5: how jolly it is. As she spoke, she hung, dangling
• 5:06:33
  Speaker 5: at the end of her rope, back downwards, her legs
• 5:06:37
  Speaker 5: tucked up round her as before, in perfect enjoyment, when
• 5:06:42
  Speaker 5: suddenly the south door of the church was thrown open
• 5:06:47
  Speaker 5: and a strong gust set in. It was a windy evening,
• 5:06:51
  Speaker 5: and the draft that poured into the chancel blew the
• 5:06:55
  Speaker 5: family rope with toinette at the end of it, backwards
• 5:06:59
  Speaker 5: and forwards for the air till she turned quite giddy.
• 5:07:05
  Speaker 5: Oh dear, oh dear, cried she puffing, What shall I do?
• 5:07:10
  Speaker 5: How could they say? There was nothing here, oh dear,
• 5:07:14
  Speaker 5: but empty space for flies, oh dear, to fly in.
• 5:07:19
  Speaker 5: But at last, in despair, she made an effort of resistance,
• 5:07:23
  Speaker 5: and in the very teeth of the wind, succeeded in
• 5:07:27
  Speaker 5: coiling up the family rope, and so got back to
• 5:07:30
  Speaker 5: the rafter. It was a piece of rare good fortune
• 5:07:35
  Speaker 5: for her that a lazy, half alive fly happened to
• 5:07:40
  Speaker 5: be creeping along it just at the moment as she
• 5:07:44
  Speaker 5: landed from her air dive. She pounced on the stroller,
• 5:07:48
  Speaker 5: killed him and sucked his juices before he knew where
• 5:07:53
  Speaker 5: he was, as people say, Then throwing down his carcass.
• 5:07:59
  Speaker 5: She scrambled back to her mother and told her what
• 5:08:01
  Speaker 5: she thought, though not in plain words, for what she
• 5:08:06
  Speaker 5: thought was that the old lady didn't know what she
• 5:08:09
  Speaker 5: was saying when she talked about empty space with nothing
• 5:08:13
  Speaker 5: in it. Dazzle and blaze were nothing, cried she. At last,
• 5:08:19
  Speaker 5: though they blinded me because they and I were in
• 5:08:21
  Speaker 5: one place together, which couldn't be if they had been anything,
• 5:08:25
  Speaker 5: And now this is nothing, though it blows me out
• 5:08:28
  Speaker 5: of my place twenty times in a minute because I
• 5:08:31
  Speaker 5: can't see it. What's the use of rules one can't
• 5:08:35
  Speaker 5: go by, mother, I don't believe you know a quarter
• 5:08:39
  Speaker 5: of what's down below there, the old spider's head turned,
• 5:08:45
  Speaker 5: as giddy with twin etts arguments as twin Etts had
• 5:08:49
  Speaker 5: done while swinging in the wind. I don't see what
• 5:08:55
  Speaker 5: it can matter what's there, whimpered she. If there's room
• 5:09:00
  Speaker 5: for flies to fly about in I wish you'd go
• 5:09:03
  Speaker 5: back and spin. That's another part of the question, remarked
• 5:09:10
  Speaker 5: Twinette in answer to the first half of her mother's sentence.
• 5:09:14
  Speaker 5: In answer to the second, she scuttled back to the rafter,
• 5:09:18
  Speaker 5: intending to be obedient and spin. But she dawdled, and thought,
• 5:09:24
  Speaker 5: and thought, and dawdled till the day was nearly over.
• 5:09:31
  Speaker 5: I will take one more turn down below, said she
• 5:09:34
  Speaker 5: to herself at last, and looked round me again. And
• 5:09:39
  Speaker 5: so she did, but went further down than before, then
• 5:09:43
  Speaker 5: stopped to rest as usual. Presently, as she hung dangling
• 5:09:47
  Speaker 5: in the air by her line, she grew venturesome. I
• 5:09:51
  Speaker 5: will sift the matter to the bottom, thought she, I
• 5:09:55
  Speaker 5: will see how far empty space goes. So say, She
• 5:10:00
  Speaker 5: reopened her spinning machines and started afresh. It was a
• 5:10:06
  Speaker 5: wonderful rope, certainly, or it would not have gone on
• 5:10:10
  Speaker 5: to such a link without breaking in a few seconds.
• 5:10:14
  Speaker 5: Toinette was on the cold stone pavement, but she didn't
• 5:10:19
  Speaker 5: like the feel of it at all, so it took
• 5:10:22
  Speaker 5: to running as fast as she could go, and luckily
• 5:10:25
  Speaker 5: met with a step of woodwork on one side. Up this,
• 5:10:30
  Speaker 5: she hurried at once and crept into a corner close by,
• 5:10:35
  Speaker 5: where she stopped to take a breath. One doesn't know
• 5:10:39
  Speaker 5: what to expect in such queer, outlandish places, observed she.
• 5:10:44
  Speaker 5: When I've rested, I'll go back, but I must wait
• 5:10:48
  Speaker 5: till I can see a little better. Seeing a little
• 5:10:53
  Speaker 5: better was out of the question, however, for night was
• 5:10:56
  Speaker 5: coming on, and when weary of waiting, she stepped out
• 5:11:00
  Speaker 5: of her hiding place to look round. The whole church
• 5:11:03
  Speaker 5: was in darkness. Now, it is one thing to be
• 5:11:08
  Speaker 5: snug in bed when it is dark, and another to
• 5:11:12
  Speaker 5: be a long way from home and have lost your
• 5:11:14
  Speaker 5: way and not know what may happen to you next minute.
• 5:11:19
  Speaker 5: Twinette had often been in the dark corner with her
• 5:11:22
  Speaker 5: mother and thought nothing of it. Now she shook all
• 5:11:27
  Speaker 5: over with fright and wondered what dreadful thing darkness could be.
• 5:11:34
  Speaker 5: Then she thought of her mother's rules and felt quite angry.
• 5:11:38
  Speaker 5: I can't see anything, and I don't feel anything, murmured she.
• 5:11:43
  Speaker 5: And yet hears something that frightens me out of my wits.
• 5:11:48
  Speaker 5: At last, her very fright made her bold. She felt
• 5:11:52
  Speaker 5: about for the family rope. It was there, safe and sound,
• 5:11:56
  Speaker 5: and she made a spring roll went the rope, and
• 5:12:00
  Speaker 5: up went the owner, higher, higher, higher through the dark
• 5:12:04
  Speaker 5: night air, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing but the
• 5:12:08
  Speaker 5: desperate fear within. By the time she touched the rafter,
• 5:12:15
  Speaker 5: she was half exhausted, and as soon as she was
• 5:12:18
  Speaker 5: safely landed upon it, she fell asleep. It must have
• 5:12:23
  Speaker 5: been late next morning when she woke, for the sound
• 5:12:26
  Speaker 5: of organ music was peeling through the church, and the
• 5:12:29
  Speaker 5: air vibrations swept pleasantly over her frame, rising and falling
• 5:12:34
  Speaker 5: like gusts of wind, swelling and thinking like waves of
• 5:12:38
  Speaker 5: the sea, gathering and dispersing like vapors of the sky.
• 5:12:45
  Speaker 5: She went down by the family rope to observe, but
• 5:12:48
  Speaker 5: nothing was to be seen to account for her sensations.
• 5:12:53
  Speaker 5: Fresh ones, however, stole round her as she hung suspended,
• 5:12:58
  Speaker 5: for it was a harvest festival, and large white lilies
• 5:13:02
  Speaker 5: were grouped with evergreens round the slender pillars of the screens,
• 5:13:08
  Speaker 5: and filled the air with their powerful odor. Still nothing
• 5:13:12
  Speaker 5: disturbed her from her place. Sunshine streamed in through the windows.
• 5:13:18
  Speaker 5: She even felt it warm on her body, but it
• 5:13:22
  Speaker 5: interfered with nothing else. And meanwhile, in such sort as
• 5:13:27
  Speaker 5: spiders hear, she heard music and prayer, whether as music
• 5:13:35
  Speaker 5: and prayer come to us, or as daf men enjoy
• 5:13:38
  Speaker 5: sound by touch. Let those say who can? A door opened,
• 5:13:43
  Speaker 5: and a breeze caught her rope, But still she held fast.
• 5:13:48
  Speaker 5: So music and prayer, and sunshine and breeze and scent
• 5:13:53
  Speaker 5: were all there together, and Toinette was among them, and
• 5:13:57
  Speaker 5: saw flies flying about overhead. This was enough. She went
• 5:14:03
  Speaker 5: back to the rafter, chose a home, and began to spin.
• 5:14:09
  Speaker 5: Before evening her web was completed, and her first prey
• 5:14:13
  Speaker 5: caught and feasted on. Then she cleared the remains out
• 5:14:17
  Speaker 5: of her chamber and sat down in state to think.
• 5:14:22
  Speaker 5: For Towinette was now a philosopher. It came to her
• 5:14:29
  Speaker 5: while she was spinning her web. As she crossed and
• 5:14:33
  Speaker 5: twisted her threads, her ideas grew clearer and clearer, or
• 5:14:39
  Speaker 5: she fancied so, which did almost as well. Each line
• 5:14:44
  Speaker 5: she fastened brought its own reflection, And this was the
• 5:14:49
  Speaker 5: way they went on. Empty space is an old wife's tale.
• 5:14:55
  Speaker 5: She fixed that very tight. Sight and t are very
• 5:15:01
  Speaker 5: imperfect guides. This crossed the other at an angle. Two
• 5:15:06
  Speaker 5: or three things can easily be in one place at
• 5:15:09
  Speaker 5: the very same time. This seemed very loose till she
• 5:15:14
  Speaker 5: tightened it by a second. Sunshine and wind and scent
• 5:15:20
  Speaker 5: and sound don't drive each other out of their places.
• 5:15:24
  Speaker 5: That held firm. When one has sensations, there is something
• 5:15:30
  Speaker 5: to cause them, whether one sees it or feels it,
• 5:15:34
  Speaker 5: or finds it out or not. This was a wonderful thread.
• 5:15:40
  Speaker 5: It went right round the web and was fastened down
• 5:15:44
  Speaker 5: in several places. Light and darkness and sunshine and wind
• 5:15:50
  Speaker 5: and sound and sensation and fright and pleasure don't keep
• 5:15:55
  Speaker 5: away flies. The little interlacing threads look quite pretty as
• 5:16:01
  Speaker 5: she placed them. How many things I know of that
• 5:16:05
  Speaker 5: I don't know much about the web? Got thicker every minute,
• 5:16:11
  Speaker 5: and perhaps there may be ever so much more beyond,
• 5:16:14
  Speaker 5: ever so much more, ever so much more beyond. Those
• 5:16:20
  Speaker 5: were her very last words. She kept repeating them until
• 5:16:25
  Speaker 5: she finished her web, and when she sat up in
• 5:16:28
  Speaker 5: state after supper to think, she began to repeat them again,
• 5:16:34
  Speaker 5: for she could think of nothing better or wiser to say.
• 5:16:39
  Speaker 5: But this was no wonder, for all her thoughts put
• 5:16:42
  Speaker 5: together made nothing but a cobweb after all. And when
• 5:16:49
  Speaker 5: the Turks had broom swept it with others from the
• 5:16:52
  Speaker 5: roof Towinette was no longer in the little chamber below.
• 5:16:57
  Speaker 5: She had died and bequeathed her cobweb wisdom to another generation.
• 5:17:03
  Speaker 5: But as it was only cobweb wisdom, spiders remained spiders still,
• 5:17:10
  Speaker 5: and still weave their webs in the roofs of churches,
• 5:17:14
  Speaker 5: without fathoming the mystery of unseen presences below.
• 5:17:23
  Speaker 2: End of Cobwebs, Chapter twenty nine. Birds in the nest,
• 5:17:30
  Speaker 2: safe in the hand of one disposing power, or in
• 5:17:33
  Speaker 2: the natal or the mortal hour. All nature is but
• 5:17:37
  Speaker 2: art unknown to thee all chance direction which thou canst
• 5:17:42
  Speaker 2: not see. Pope's essay on Man. Once upon a time
• 5:17:46
  Speaker 2: there was in a wood, a nest which held eight
• 5:17:49
  Speaker 2: of the dearest little eggs a hnn mother ever looked
• 5:17:52
  Speaker 2: upon with joy. At least this particular hymn mother thought so,
• 5:17:57
  Speaker 2: and her mate rather agreed with her when they talked
• 5:18:00
  Speaker 2: the matter over together, And his opinion had weight, for
• 5:18:04
  Speaker 2: in his flights he sometimes saw other eggs and would
• 5:18:06
  Speaker 2: tell her about them on his return. But what could
• 5:18:10
  Speaker 2: they be to her own? Nothing could be better than
• 5:18:13
  Speaker 2: what was perfect, And her own were perfect in her eyes.
• 5:18:17
  Speaker 2: What a fine shape they had, how beautifully rounded, how
• 5:18:22
  Speaker 2: soft their tent, How tasteful the arrangement of spots. All
• 5:18:26
  Speaker 2: others must needs be too light or too dark, or
• 5:18:30
  Speaker 2: too something or other to suit her particular taste. The
• 5:18:34
  Speaker 2: sea gull, who ate snails in the garden, boasted of
• 5:18:37
  Speaker 2: his family egg as twenty times larger and twenty times
• 5:18:42
  Speaker 2: more beautiful. But if it be more beautiful, what can
• 5:18:46
  Speaker 2: that matter to us, said the hen mother in conclusion,
• 5:18:49
  Speaker 2: when ours are perfect in our eyes, and we are
• 5:18:53
  Speaker 2: so very happy, and shall be so much happier. Yet,
• 5:18:58
  Speaker 2: pursued her mate, who as a traveled bird, had had
• 5:19:01
  Speaker 2: experience and knew what was in store when the little
• 5:19:04
  Speaker 2: ones awake to a life and enjoyment of their own,
• 5:19:08
  Speaker 2: and can feed and sing and know and love us both. Ah,
• 5:19:13
  Speaker 2: to be sure, to be sure, that will be rapture. Indeed,
• 5:19:17
  Speaker 2: cried the hen mother, thank you so much for telling
• 5:19:20
  Speaker 2: me how silly I was thinking. I was as happy
• 5:19:23
  Speaker 2: as I could possibly be. Of course, I shall be
• 5:19:26
  Speaker 2: happier by and by, and how very happy that will be.
• 5:19:31
  Speaker 2: For I am happy enough now. I wish the day
• 5:19:34
  Speaker 2: were come. Yet she was very happy, but most so
• 5:19:39
  Speaker 2: when she forgot she was to be happier still, and
• 5:19:42
  Speaker 2: by and by the time came, and when the little
• 5:19:45
  Speaker 2: ones were all hatched and could peer about and see
• 5:19:48
  Speaker 2: their father bringing food, and open their mouths and swallow
• 5:19:51
  Speaker 2: it very fast, and cry for more. Now, then at
• 5:19:55
  Speaker 2: last the happiness is perfect, said the hen mother. I
• 5:19:59
  Speaker 2: have nothing thing further to wish for. And she watched
• 5:20:03
  Speaker 2: them being fed and satisfied, and never felt hungry herself
• 5:20:07
  Speaker 2: till they had had plenty and were at ease. Eight
• 5:20:11
  Speaker 2: darlings in one nest. What a sight to fill one's heart.
• 5:20:15
  Speaker 2: There may be trouble enough, it's true, and very little
• 5:20:18
  Speaker 2: room to rest but one's own. Eight beautiful creatures round
• 5:20:23
  Speaker 2: one under one's wing, all chirping and alive. This is
• 5:20:28
  Speaker 2: perfection of happiness. Indeed, you cannot say so just yet,
• 5:20:33
  Speaker 2: sang the mate. But he did not tell her this
• 5:20:35
  Speaker 2: quite at first. He waited for a soft evening and
• 5:20:39
  Speaker 2: early summer before he piped about what was in store.
• 5:20:43
  Speaker 2: You cannot say so just yet. Our darlings are very sweet,
• 5:20:48
  Speaker 2: but they are poor helpless things at present. Wait till
• 5:20:52
  Speaker 2: they have grown more feathers, have learnt to take care
• 5:20:55
  Speaker 2: of themselves and fly and sing. They cannot be perfect,
• 5:20:59
  Speaker 2: nor can and your happiness be perfect till then some
• 5:21:03
  Speaker 2: of our neighbors are beforehand with us. There were fine
• 5:21:06
  Speaker 2: young birds among the boughs yesterday, twitting our youngsters and
• 5:21:10
  Speaker 2: their songs. With being behindhand altogether, they will not have
• 5:21:16
  Speaker 2: to twit long, I suppose, exclaimed the hen mother rather angrily.
• 5:21:20
  Speaker 2: Of course you will bring ours forward as fast as
• 5:21:22
  Speaker 2: you can. Of course, they must not be behind their neighbors.
• 5:21:26
  Speaker 2: Of course, they must learn to take care of themselves
• 5:21:29
  Speaker 2: and fly and sing like the rest. Dear, dear, how
• 5:21:33
  Speaker 2: silly I was, But thank you so much for telling me.
• 5:21:36
  Speaker 2: It's very well to be easily pleased, and the poor
• 5:21:40
  Speaker 2: helpless things are very sweet, as you say, But of
• 5:21:43
  Speaker 2: course it will be a much grander thing when they
• 5:21:47
  Speaker 2: have grown to be fine young birds like those others,
• 5:21:50
  Speaker 2: able to take care of themselves and to twit their
• 5:21:53
  Speaker 2: neighbors who can't. And of course I shall be as
• 5:21:56
  Speaker 2: happy again. I wish the time were come, and it
• 5:22:00
  Speaker 2: did come, But there was a great deal of trouble
• 5:22:03
  Speaker 2: to be taken. First, the little ones had to be
• 5:22:06
  Speaker 2: nursed and fed till their feathers had grown, and then
• 5:22:09
  Speaker 2: they had to be trained, by slow degrees and with
• 5:22:12
  Speaker 2: much care, to use their young wings in flight. Now
• 5:22:16
  Speaker 2: the hen mother had left her mate no rest till
• 5:22:18
  Speaker 2: he began to teach. For first, she was jealous for
• 5:22:22
  Speaker 2: her children's credit, and secondly she wanted to feel what
• 5:22:26
  Speaker 2: it was to be as happy as it was possible
• 5:22:29
  Speaker 2: to be happy. Enough she was but for this wish,
• 5:22:34
  Speaker 2: but alas for the trouble and fear that came over
• 5:22:37
  Speaker 2: her when the teaching really began. The eight darlings must
• 5:22:41
  Speaker 2: come out of their nest from under her wing. She
• 5:22:43
  Speaker 2: could help them no longer. They could scarcely help themselves.
• 5:22:48
  Speaker 2: Yet they must spread the feeble pinion and strain the
• 5:22:51
  Speaker 2: unpracticed muscle and run a risk of failure and even
• 5:22:55
  Speaker 2: life to insure success. Oh, poor hen mother, what a
• 5:23:00
  Speaker 2: trying changed was this, though brought about by her own
• 5:23:04
  Speaker 2: especial desire. No wonder that while the teaching was going on,
• 5:23:08
  Speaker 2: she would sit and shake with fright and wish all
• 5:23:12
  Speaker 2: manner of foolish things. That they were back in the nest,
• 5:23:15
  Speaker 2: of course, but far more than that, even that they
• 5:23:18
  Speaker 2: were back in the old baby days, in the egg
• 5:23:21
  Speaker 2: shells of their first existence, unconscious of life and of them.
• 5:23:26
  Speaker 2: They were all under my wing then, at any rate,
• 5:23:30
  Speaker 2: said she, my own dear little ones with me, and
• 5:23:33
  Speaker 2: I with them. What more could I want? And oh, dear,
• 5:23:37
  Speaker 2: when the youngsters were safe in the nest once more
• 5:23:40
  Speaker 2: at night, how she used to gather them under her
• 5:23:42
  Speaker 2: wings with joy. I am getting to like night better
• 5:23:45
  Speaker 2: than day, she said at last to her mate. For
• 5:23:48
  Speaker 2: then my birds are in the nest again. You are
• 5:23:51
  Speaker 2: training them very cleverly, I know. And I was the
• 5:23:54
  Speaker 2: first to want them to be clever like other young birds.
• 5:23:58
  Speaker 2: And they are getting cleverer day by day, I dare say.
• 5:24:02
  Speaker 7: So.
• 5:24:02
  Speaker 2: I ought to be happier, but the happiness is not
• 5:24:05
  Speaker 2: as pleasant as it was how can it be when
• 5:24:08
  Speaker 2: they are away so much, and the emptiness stares me
• 5:24:11
  Speaker 2: in the face. The risk are so many too till
• 5:24:14
  Speaker 2: they can really fly well, and I tremble with fear.
• 5:24:18
  Speaker 2: But all is right at night when you all come
• 5:24:21
  Speaker 2: back and sing. Yes, if it wasn't for thinking of
• 5:24:24
  Speaker 2: the morrow, the happiness would be perfect. Indeed, then if
• 5:24:28
  Speaker 2: it were always evening, I mean, and they and you
• 5:24:31
  Speaker 2: were always here, it is natural you should feel as
• 5:24:35
  Speaker 2: you do, replied the mate. But you mistake the cause
• 5:24:38
  Speaker 2: if you are not quite happy yet, it is merely
• 5:24:41
  Speaker 2: because things are not quite perfect. That is all. When
• 5:24:45
  Speaker 2: the young ones can fly really well, for instance, there
• 5:24:48
  Speaker 2: will no longer be any risk. And when they can
• 5:24:51
  Speaker 2: sing better still, our music will be pleasanter than ever.
• 5:24:55
  Speaker 2: And when they are able and independent, all your cares
• 5:24:59
  Speaker 2: and anxiety will be at an end. Wait a little
• 5:25:02
  Speaker 2: longer and you will be happy. Indeed, the hen mother sighed,
• 5:25:07
  Speaker 2: I suppose you must be right, said she. I will wait,
• 5:25:12
  Speaker 2: But if I could sing myself, I would sing a
• 5:25:14
  Speaker 2: mother's song about the birds in the nest. It may
• 5:25:17
  Speaker 2: not have been perfection, but it was a very happy time.
• 5:25:23
  Speaker 2: So she waited and did her best to be pleased.
• 5:25:26
  Speaker 2: But for longer and longer intervals, the emptiness stared her
• 5:25:29
  Speaker 2: in the face, and she thought many things she did
• 5:25:32
  Speaker 2: not dare to say, even the old foolish wish that
• 5:25:36
  Speaker 2: they were all in their eggshells again. Still every evening
• 5:25:41
  Speaker 2: when they came back and perched in the boughs, if
• 5:25:43
  Speaker 2: not in the nest, and the singing grew sweeter and sweeter,
• 5:25:47
  Speaker 2: she cheered up and rejoiced once more. And now at
• 5:25:51
  Speaker 2: last the nestlings were full grown birds, and could fly
• 5:25:55
  Speaker 2: and sing as well as their parents. Perfection had come.
• 5:25:59
  Speaker 2: They were independent. Nobody's young birds could twit them now.
• 5:26:04
  Speaker 2: But now, of course, said their father, they must go
• 5:26:07
  Speaker 2: out and seek their fortunes as we did, and choose
• 5:26:10
  Speaker 2: mates and settle in life for themselves. You see the
• 5:26:14
  Speaker 2: justice of this. The hen mother to whom he was speaking,
• 5:26:19
  Speaker 2: answered yes, but her heart was half broken. And when
• 5:26:23
  Speaker 2: he added, this is the real perfection of happiness to parents,
• 5:26:28
  Speaker 2: she made no answer at all. It ought to be, perhaps,
• 5:26:32
  Speaker 2: thought she to herself. But it isn't so with me.
• 5:26:35
  Speaker 2: I wonder why. She sat on the edge of the
• 5:26:37
  Speaker 2: empty nest and wondered still, But she couldn't find out
• 5:26:41
  Speaker 2: the secret. There then the young ones piped to her
• 5:26:45
  Speaker 2: from the woods, and at last said she, things are altered.
• 5:26:49
  Speaker 2: I see, I will go to them. And the very
• 5:26:52
  Speaker 2: thought comforted her as she flew away. And when she
• 5:26:55
  Speaker 2: had found them and watched them in the full enjoyment
• 5:26:58
  Speaker 2: of their own young life, listened to them as they
• 5:27:01
  Speaker 2: warbled merrily to each other among the trees, were sported
• 5:27:05
  Speaker 2: with friends here and there she began to understand the
• 5:27:08
  Speaker 2: whole matter. She was rejoicing in their joy rather than
• 5:27:13
  Speaker 2: in her own. And time went on, and one day,
• 5:27:16
  Speaker 2: as she sat so listening on a branch in the
• 5:27:19
  Speaker 2: center of the wood, her mate by her side said she,
• 5:27:23
  Speaker 2: it is all becoming quite clear, and I can see
• 5:27:25
  Speaker 2: that you were right on the whole. This is nearer
• 5:27:29
  Speaker 2: the perfection of happiness than anything else could be. But
• 5:27:33
  Speaker 2: the quite perfect is not to be had. Still, this
• 5:27:36
  Speaker 2: is nearest and best, Whether sweetest or not, I scarcely know,
• 5:27:41
  Speaker 2: but thank you for telling me. I was selfish before,
• 5:27:45
  Speaker 2: wanted my own darlings to myself under my own wing
• 5:27:48
  Speaker 2: and my own particular nest safe, as I called it,
• 5:27:52
  Speaker 2: foolish that I was, oh narrow, narrow thought, as if
• 5:27:56
  Speaker 2: one place was safer than another. When the sun looks
• 5:27:59
  Speaker 2: down everywhere, streaming warmth and comfort upon all, I see
• 5:28:04
  Speaker 2: things differently. Now the wood is but a larger nest,
• 5:28:08
  Speaker 2: and those that live in it but a larger family.
• 5:28:12
  Speaker 2: I spread out my love a little wider, and behold,
• 5:28:15
  Speaker 2: my happiness spreads out too. Though each in turn, for
• 5:28:18
  Speaker 2: a time must form his own little circle of joy,
• 5:28:21
  Speaker 2: the whole must form one larger circle together, And who
• 5:28:25
  Speaker 2: knows where it is to end? She ceased, and then
• 5:28:29
  Speaker 2: listened again, And truly the wood was ringing with melodies,
• 5:28:34
  Speaker 2: her mate by her side, her children now here, now
• 5:28:37
  Speaker 2: there with the dear ones they loved. The circle grew
• 5:28:40
  Speaker 2: whiter and whiter as time went further on. But by
• 5:28:44
  Speaker 2: and by, when age had crept over both, the mate
• 5:28:47
  Speaker 2: had tender thoughts himself of old times, and tenderer still
• 5:28:51
  Speaker 2: for her. She had not been wrong altogether. He whispered
• 5:28:54
  Speaker 2: softly and kindly. It was not selfishness only that had
• 5:28:58
  Speaker 2: filled her heart. He would sing her the songs she
• 5:29:01
  Speaker 2: used to wish she could have sung herself. A mother's
• 5:29:04
  Speaker 2: song about the birds in the nest, and it went
• 5:29:08
  Speaker 2: to the hearts of both other mothers in other nests.
• 5:29:12
  Speaker 2: Lift up your souls as the circle widens from your feet.
• 5:29:15
  Speaker 2: One God and Father of all, who is above all
• 5:29:19
  Speaker 2: and through all and in you, all has altogether now
• 5:29:23
  Speaker 2: in the circle of his care yea, even though a
• 5:29:26
  Speaker 2: world or the change we call death may seem to
• 5:29:29
  Speaker 2: divide them, and he will bring his own together at
• 5:29:32
  Speaker 2: last into one home, the Father's house. One home. Be
• 5:29:37
  Speaker 2: the mansions never so many. The end End of Parables
• 5:29:42
  Speaker 2: from Nature by Margaret Gaddy