Rattling the Chains 



the truth is out of my system, and I 

 shall go on of course, just as you will 

 probably, trying as best poor human 

 nature can to conform to arbitrary 

 usages; and a lot of the rest of you, 

 thinking as I do but afraid to say it, 

 will also inwardly rebel, and then con- 

 tinue on your pre-planned course to 

 the same transformation into dust that 

 awaits that outlawed but vastly freer 

 sparrow chattering there in blissful 

 innocence upon the window sill. 



What is the occasion of this out- 

 burst? Well, for one thing I suppose I 

 had no business eating that kippered 

 herring set before me at the breakfast 

 table this morning. It never did agree 

 with me. Besides, why pay seventeen 

 prices for something hauled halfway 

 across the continent over tracks cost- 

 ing $75,000 per mile, when it only 

 upsets digestion after you get it; and 

 all this, too, in the face of the fact that 

 my neighbor out there in the country 

 puts up as fine a grade of breakfast 

 [21] 



