The Crock of Gold | Page 5

did not burn him at all, but he did

not like to remain in it, fearing that he might be cooked. When he went
home with the pine cones he said nothing to the Grey Woman of Dun
Gortin or to the Thin Woman of Inis Magrath or to the two Philos-
ophers, but he told the little girl all about it when they went to bed, and
every day afterwards they used to go and play with the sunlight, and the
rabbits and the squir- rels would follow them there and join in their
games with twice the interest they had shown before.
CHAPTER II
To the lonely house in the pine wood people sometimes came for
advice on subjects too recondite for even those extremes of elucidation,
the parish priest and the tavern. These people were always well
received, and their per- plexities were attended to instantly, for the
Philosophers liked being wise and they were not ashamed to put their
learning to the proof, nor were they, as so many wise people are, fearful
lest they should become poor or less respected by giving away their
knowledge. These were favourite maxims with them:
You must be fit to give before you can be fit to receive.
Knowledge becomes lumber in a week, therefore, get rid of it.
The box must be emptied before it can be refilled.
Refilling is progress.
A sword, a spade, and a thought should never be al- lowed to rust.
The Grey Woman and the Thin Woman, however, held opinions quite
contrary to these, and their maxims also were different:
A secret is a weapon and a friend.
Man is God's secret, Power is man's secret, Sex is woman's secret.
By having much you are fitted to have more.

There is always room in the box.
The art of packing is the last lecture of wisdom.
The scalp of your enemy is progress.
Holding these opposed views it seemed likely that visitors seeking for
advice from the Philosophers might be astonished and captured by their
wives; but the women were true to their own doctrines and refused to
part with information to any persons saving only those of high rank,
such as policemen, gombeen men, and dis- trict and county councillors;
but even to these they charged high prices for their information, and a
bonus on any gains which accrued through the following of their
advices. It is unnecessary to state that their fol- lowing was small when
compared with those who sought the assistance of their husbands, for
scarcely a week passed but some person came through the pine wood
with his brows in a tangle of perplexity.
In these people the children were deeply interested. They used to go
apart afterwards and talk about them, and would try to remember what
they looked like, how they talked, and their manner of walking or
taking snuff. After a time they became interested in the problems which
these people submitted to their parents and the replies or instructions
wherewith the latter relieved them. Long training had made the children
able to sit perfectly quiet, so that when the talk came to the interesting
part they were entirely forgotten, and ideas which might otherwise have
been spared their youth became the com- monplaces of their
conversation.
When the children were ten years of age one of the Philosophers died.
He called the household together and announced that the time had come
when he must bid them all good-bye, and that his intention was to die
as quickly as might be. It was, he continued, an unfortu- nate thing that
his health was at the moment more robust than it had been for a long
time, but that, of course, was no obstacle to his resolution, for death did
not depend upon ill-health but upon a multitude of other factors with
the details whereof he would not trouble them.

His wife, the Grey Woman of Dun Gortin, ap- plauded this resolution
and added as an amendment that it was high time he did something,
that the life he had been leading was an arid and unprofitable one, that
he had stolen her fourteen hundred maledictions for which he had no
use and presented her with a child for which she had none, and that, all
things concerned, the sooner he did die and stop talking the sooner
everybody con- cerned would be made happy.
The other Philosopher replied mildly as he lit his pipe: "Brother, the
greatest of all virtues is curiosity, and the end of all desire is wisdom;
tell us, therefore, by what steps you have arrived at this commendable
reso- lutton."
To this the Philosopher replied: "I have attained to all the wisdom
which I am fitted to bear. In the space of one week