MS-WU-MSS008-3-49

[1917] compared to others, I mean those I have tried, is this, that when you
want to rest you stop and rest, without further ado. [1918] For standing there
is no rest, nor sitting neither. [1919] And there are men who move about sitting,
and even kneeling, hauliⁿg themselves to right and left, forward and
backward, with the help of hooks. [1920] But he who moves in this way, crawling
on his belly, like a reptile, no sooner comes to rest than he begins to
rest, and even the very mo^vement is a kind of rest, compared to other
movements, I mean those that have worn me out.

[1921] And in this way I moved
onward in the forest, slowly, but with a certain regularity, and I covered
my fifteen paces, day in, day out, without killing myself. [1922] And I even
crawled on my back, plunging my crutches blindly behind me into the
thickets, and with the black boughs for sky to my closing eyes.

[1923] I was
on my way to Mother. [1924] And from time to time I said, Mother, to cheer me
I suppose. [1925] I kept losing my hat, the lace had broken long ago, until
in a fit of temper, I banged it down on my skull with such violence that
I couldn't get it off again.

[1926] And if I had met any ladyfriends, assuming
I had ladyfriends, I would have been powerless to salute them properly.
[1927] But there was always present in my mind, which was still working, if
laboriously, the need to turn, to keep on turning, and every three or
four jerks I altered course, which permitted me to describe, if not a
circle, at least a great polygon, perfection is not of this world, and
to hope that I was going forward in a straight line, in spite of everything^,
day and night, towards my mother.

[1928] And true enough the day came when the
forest ended and I saw the light, the light of the plain, exactly as I
had foreseen. [1929] But I did not see it from afar, trembling beyond the harsh
trunks, as I had expected, but suddenly I was in it, I opened my eyes and
saw I had arrived. [1930] And the reason for that was probably this, that for
some time past I had not opened my eyes, or seldom. [1931] And even my little
changes of course were made blindly, in the dark. [1932] The forest ended in