308 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



till you came running over and played with 

 us. 



<f ' It is not because there is not enough: it 

 is because your people are so short-sighted, so 

 jealous and selfish, and so curiously infatuated 

 with things that are not so good as your old 

 toys which you have flung away and forgotten. 

 And you teach the children hum, hum, all 

 day to care about such silly things, and to 

 work for them, and to look to them as the 

 object of their lives. It is because you do not 

 share us among you without price or differ- 

 ence ; because you do not share the great earth 

 among you fairly, without spite and jealousy 

 and avarice ; because you will not agree ; you 

 silly, foolish people to let all the flowers wither 

 for a thousand years while you keep each other 

 at a distance, instead of agreeing and sharing 

 them! Is there something in you as there 

 is poison in the nightshade, you know it, dear, 

 your papa told you not to touch it is there a 

 sort of poison in your people that works them 

 up into a hatred of one another? Why, then, 

 do you not agree and have all things, all the 

 great earth can give you, just as we have the 



