MS-WU-MSS008-2-47

[0768] to sticking a pig ^{[place = supralinear] pigs} seemed of no help to him in the matter of
rearing them, and it was seldom his own exceeded nine stone.
[0769] Clapped into a tiny sty on the day of its arrival, in the
month of April, it remained there until the day of its death, on
Christmas Eve. [0770] For Lambert persisted in dreading for his pigs,
though every passing year proved him wrong, the thinning effects
of ec ^{[place = overwritten] x [place = inline] [⁁] [place = supralinear] x}ercise. [0771] Daylight and fresh air he dreaded for them too.

[0772] And it was finally a weak pig, blind and lean, that he lay on its
back in the box, having tied its legs, and killed, indignantly
but without haste, upraiding it the while for its u ^{[place = inline] [⁁] [place = margin left] i}[ ^{[place = supralinear] i}]ngratitude, at
the top of his voice. [0773] For he could not or would not understand
that the pig was not to blame, but he himself, who had coddled
it unduly. [0774] And he persisted in his error.

^{[place = inline] [⃞]}[0775] Dead world, airless, waterless. [0776] That's it, reminisce. [0777] Here
and there, in the bed of a crater, the shadow of a withered
lichen. [0778] And nights of three hundred hours. [0779] Dearest of lights, wan,
pitted, least fatuous of lights. [0780] That's it, babble. [0781] How long can
it have lasted? Five minutes? Ten minutes? [0782] Yes, no more, not much
more. [0783] But my sliver of sky is gleaming ^{[place = inline] [⁁] [place = margin left] silvery} [ ^{[place = supralinear] silvery}] with it yet.

[0784] In the old
days I used to count, up to three hundred, four hundred, and with
oh ^{[place = overwritten] t}her things too, the showers, the bells, the chatter of the
sparrows at dawn, or with nothing, for no reason, for the sake
of counting, and then I divided, by sixty. [0785] That passed the time,
I was time, I devoured the world. [0786] Not now, any more. [0787] A man changes.