the Child did not understand what that meant and stood without
moving.

"What's that?" continued Tyltyl, touching the Child's blue dress.

The Child, who was absorbed in what he was looking at, did not answer,
but gravely touched Tyltyl's hat with his finger:

"And that?" he lisped.

"That?... That's my hat," said Tyltyl. "Have you no hat?"

"No; what is it for?" asked the Child.

"It's to say How-do-you-do with," Tyltyl answered. "And then for when
it's cold...."

"What does that mean, when it's cold?" asked the Child.

"When you shiver like this: Brrr! Brrr!" said Tyltyl. "And when you go
like this with your arms," vigorously beating his arms across his
chest.

"Is it cold on earth?" asked the Child.

"Yes, sometimes, in winter, when there is no fire."

"Why is there no fire?..."

"Because it's expensive; and it costs money to buy wood...."

The Child looked at Tyltyl again as though he did not understand a
word that Tyltyl was saying; and Tyltyl in his turn looked amazed:

"It's quite clear that he knows nothing of the most everyday things,"
thought our hero, while the child stared with no small respect at "the
little Live Boy" who knew everything.

Then he asked Tyltyl what money was.

"Why, it's what you pay with!" said Tyltyl, scorning to give any
further explanation.

"Oh!" said the Child, seriously.

Of course, he did not understand. How _could_ he know, a little boy
like that, who lived in a paradise where his least wishes were granted
before he had learned to put them into words?

"How old are you?" asked Tyltyl, continuing the conversation.

"I am going to be born soon," said the Child. "I shall be born in
twelve years.... Is it nice to be born?"

"Oh, yes," cried Tyltyl, without thinking. "It's great fun!"

But he was very much at a loss when the little boy asked him "how he
managed." His pride did not allow him to be ignorant of anything in
another child's presence; and it was quite droll to see him with his
hands in his breeches-pockets, his legs wide apart, his face upturned
and his whole attitude that of a man who is in no hurry to reply. At
last, he answered, with a shrug of the shoulders:

"Upon my word, I can't remember! It's so long ago!"

"They say it's lovely, the earth and the Live People!" remarked the
Child.

"Yes, it's not bad," said Tyltyl. "There are birds and cakes and
toys.... Some have them all; but those who have none can look at the
others!"

This refl