18 THE OPEX ATE. 



and to try which can get the most round things you 

 have one in your pocket." 



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



"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, hum, to follow in some foolish course 

 that has caused you all this unhappiness a thousand 

 years, and you will not have a spirit like us, and feel 

 like us. Till you have a spirit like us, and feel like 

 us, you will never, never be happy. Lie still, dear ; 

 the shadow of the oak is broad and will not move 

 from you for a long time yet." 



" But perhaps Paul will come up to my house, and 

 Percy and Morna." 



" Look up in the oak very quietly, don't move, just 

 open your eyes and look," said the Wheat, who was 

 very cunning. Guido looked and saw a lovely little 

 bird climbing up a branch. It was chequered, black 

 and white, like a very small magpie, only without 

 such a long tail, and it had a spot of red about its 

 neck. It was a pied woodpecker, not the large green 



