stand.

"All the same, I were once a talkin' man myself; ay, and it were then as
I got the first lesson in leavin' things alone. It happened one day when
I were a Methody--long before I knew anything about the stars. I'd been
what they call 'converted'; and one day I were prayin' powerful at a
meetin', and we was all excited, and shoutin' as we wouldn't go home
till the answer had come. Well, it did come--at least it come to me. I
were standin' up shoutin' wi' the rest, when all of a sudden I kind o'
heard somebody whisperin' in my ear. 'The answer's comin',' I sez; 'I'm
gettin' it,' So they all gets quiet, waitin' for me to give the answer.
I suppose they expected me to say as a new heart had been given to
somebody we'd been prayin' for. But instead o' that I shouts out at the
top o' my voice--though I can't tell what made me do it--'Shut up, all
on you! Shut up, Henry Blain! Shut up, John Scarsbrick! Shut up, Robert
Dellanow--_I'm tired o' the lot on you!_' That's what made me give up
bein' a Methody. I began to see from that day that when things begins to
open out you've got to _shut up_."

"The voices of the world are many; and the speech of man is only one,"
said Chandrapal.

"You're right," said Snarley, "but I'm not sure as you ought to call 'em
voices. Most on 'em's more like faces nor voices. It's true there's the
thunder and the wind--'specially when it's blowin' among the trees. And
then there's the animals and the birds."

"It is said in the East that once there were men who understood the
language of birds."

"No, no," said Snarley, "there's no understandin' them things. But
there's one bird, and that's the nightingale, as makes me kind o'
remember as I understood 'em once. And there's no doubt they understand
one another; and there's some sorts of animals as understands other
sorts--but not all. You can take my word for it!"

* * * * *

The light had failed, and the song of the birds, driven to a distance by
our voices, seemed to quicken the darkness into life. 'Darkling, we
listened'--how long I know not, for the subliminal world was awake, and
the measure of time was lost. Snarley was the first to speak, taking up
his parable from the very point where he had left it, as though he were
unconscious that a long interval had elapsed. He spoke to Chandrapal.

"I can see as you're a rememberin' sort o' gentleman," he said. "If you
weren't, you wouldn't ha' come here list