THE CHILD WANDERS IN THE WOOD. 309 



sunshine and the rain? How happy your 

 people could be if they would only agree! 

 But you go on teaching even the little children 

 to follow the same silly objects, hum, hum, 

 hum, all the day, and they will grow up to 

 hate each other, and to try which can get the 

 most round things you have one in your 

 pocket. 7 



" i Sixpence,' said Guido. l It's quite a new 

 one.' 



" i And other things quite as silly/ the Wheat 

 continued. ' All the time the flowers are 

 flowering, but they will go, even the oaks will 

 go. We think the reason you do not all have 

 plenty, and why you do not do only just a 

 little work, and why you die of hunger if you 

 leave off, and why so many of you are unhappy 

 in body and mind, and all the misery is because 

 you have not got a spirit like the wheat, like 

 us ; you will not agree, and you will not share, 

 and you will hate each other, and you will be 

 so avaricious, and you will not touch the 

 flowers, or go into the sunshine (you would 

 rather half of you died among the hard stones 

 first), and you will teach your children hum, 



