MS-TCD-4662

[0484] The lights in his house bid him welcome home
and a feeble barking makes him say, It is time
I had him destroyed. [0485] There's a nice ^passage.. [0486] ^{[↖]Soon it will be even better, soon things will be better.}

[0487] I am going to rummage a little in my
belongings. [0488] Then I shall put my head under
the blankets. [0489] Then things will be better, for
Sapo and for him who follows him, who
asks nothing but to follow ^{in his footsteps}, ^by clear and endurable ways.

[0490] Sapo’s calm, his silent ways, were not
calculated to please. [0491] In the midst of tumult,
at school and at home, he remained motionless
in his place, often standing, and
looked straight before him with eyes as pale and
unwavering as a gull's. [0492] People wondered
what he could brood on thus, for hours at a
stretch.

[0493] His father supposed him the prey of
the first stirrings of sex. [0494] At sixteen I was
the same, he would say. [0495] At sixteen you were
making a living, said his wife. [0496] So I was, said
Mr. Saposcat. [0497] But in the
opinion of his teachers the signs were those of
besottedness pure and simple. [0498] Sapo dropped his
jaw and breathed through his mouth.

[0499] It is hard
to see wherein this expression is incompatible
with erotic thoughts. [0500] But indeed his dream was
less of girls than of himself, his own life,
his life to come. [0501]
That is more than enough to stop up the nose
of a lucid and sensitive boy, and
cause his jaw to sag. [0502] But it is time I took
a little rest, for safety's sake.

[0503] I don't like these
gull's eyes. [0504] They remind me of an old
shipwreck, I forget which. [0505] It's a small
thing I know. [0506] But I am easily
frightened now. [0507] I know
these little phrases that seem so innocent
and, when you let them in, can pollute the
whole of speech. [0508] Nothing is realer than nothing