LISTEN TO THE MOCKING-BIRD 



gas and having their teeth out. These things are 

 at least departures, but to eat the same jelly-cake 

 and hard-boiled eggs in a different field seems to 

 me to lack what the critics call motif. Of course 

 nobody can tell till he tries it just how superior 

 as a moral discipline a picnic is to a circus ; and a 

 country picnic, I said, is about the only thing I 

 haven t tried. 



She looked at me, I thought, with just a flicker 

 of commiseration, as if a man who had tried every 

 thing could hardly be worth so much curiosity as 

 she felt. 



I answered her look. &quot; Perhaps it isn t quite 

 as bad as that. But I have had a foolish desire 

 to see all there is in life, and like the man in the 



play, I looked into Vesuvius and there s nothing 



. 

 in it. 



&quot; Not even ashes ? &quot; 



&quot;Well, yes some ashes, but nothing else. 

 It leaves an aching sense of goneness. You see, 

 we city folk fall into the habit of regarding life as 

 a side-show, and if it doesn t keep up the pace, 

 we get dissatisfied.&quot; 



&quot; It must be dreadfully tiresome.&quot; 



&quot; Oh, everybody dees his best to get just as 

 tired as he can. Do you know, I thought I d 

 come up here for a change, where nothing goes 

 by but the seasons, and they seem to kiss their 

 hands to you and say they will come again. 

 There is no such promise in the side-show. 

 The same spring bonnets never come back. 

 The same play-bill is never seen twice. Nobody 



85 



