do not know; it is a fact which
you deplore, but which you are bound to accept. Fortunately, on the
other hand, here is the fair path which none may tread. This path is
faithful to the sound traditions; it is not to be lost sight of; for by
it enter into your daily existence the difficult problems of life.

Would you have an example? You are sleeping peacefully in a ray of the
sun that covers the threshold of the kitchen with pearls. The
earthenware pots are amusing themselves by elbowing and nudging one
another on the edge of the shelves trimmed with paper lace-work. The
copper stewpans play at scattering spots of light over the smooth white
walls. The motherly stove hums a soft tune and dandles three saucepans
blissfully dancing; and, from the little hole that lights up its inside,
defies the good dog who cannot approach, by constantly putting out at
him its fiery tongue. The clock, bored in its oak case, before striking
the august hour of meal time, swings its great gilt navel to and fro;
and the cunning flies tease your ears. On the glittering table lie a
chicken, a hare, three partridges, besides other things which are called
fruits--peaches, melons, grapes--and which are all good for nothing. The
cook guts a big silver fish and throws the entrails (instead of giving
them to you!) into the dust-bin. Ah, the dust-bin! Inexhaustible
treasury, receptacle of windfalls, the jewel of the house! You shall
have your share of it, an exquisite and surreptitious share; but it does
not do to seem to know where it is. You are strictly forbidden to
rummage in it. Man in this way prohibits many pleasant things, and life
would be dull indeed and your days empty if you had to obey all the
orders of the pantry, the cellar and the dining-room. Luckily, he is
absent-minded and does not long remember the instructions which he
lavishes. He is easily deceived. You achieve your ends and do as you
please, provided you have the patience to await the hour. You are
subject to man, and he is the one god; but you none the less have your
own personal, exact and imperturbable morality, which proclaims aloud
that illicit acts become most lawful through the very fact that they
are performed without the master's knowledge. Therefore, let us close
the watchful eye that has seen. Let us pretend to sleep and to dream of
the moon....

Hark! A gentle tapping at the blue window that looks out on the garden!
What is it? Nothing; a bough of hawthorn that