Chapter XXI

Ben Weatherstaff

One of the strange things about living in the
world is that it is only now and then one is
quite sure one is going to live forever and ever
and ever. One knows it sometimes when one gets
up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out
and stands alone and throws one's head far back
and looks up and up and watches the pale sky
slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown
things happening until the East almost
makes one cry out and one's heart stands still at
the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the
sun -- which has been happening every morning
for thousands and thousands and thousands of
years. One knows it then for a moment or so.
And one knows it sometimes when one stands by
oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious
deep gold stillness slanting through and under
the branches seems to be saying slowly again and
again something one cannot quite hear, however
much one tries. Then sometimes the immense
quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of

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v?