And the Unknown said, "Play with me."

But the Child raised its soft hand slowly and the tender fingers grew
apart, and its thumb was poised in thought upon its nose, and it spake
not at all. And the feather flitted far, far over the waste, and men
came forth and gazed upon it, but it heeded them not.

Then said Life, "I am strong. Kings have need of me and earth is
my dominion." But the Unknown gathered up the scattered marbles,
concealing them gently, and answered only this--"I am a greater than
Life."

And the Child strayed onwards and the feather flitted, and TANT'
SANNIE still stewed _kraut_ in the old Dutch saucepan. And BONAPARTE
BLENKINS was glad.

CHAPTER II.

Cruelty, cruelty, cruelty--all is cruelty! Boys are beaten; oxen
are stabbed till the blood bursts forth; happy, industrious,
dung-collecting beetles are bitten in two by careless, happy,
beetle-collecting dogs--everything is wicked and cruel. The Kaffir
has beautiful legs, but he will kick his wife, and TANT' SANNIE,
alas! will not be there to drop a pickle-tub on his head. And over
everything hangs that inscrutable charm which hovers for ever for the
human intellect over the incomprehensible and shadowy. _Omne ignotum
pro mirifico_, I might say, but I prefer the longer phrase.

And I stood at the gate of Heaven, I and TANT' SANNIE; and we spoke
to everybody quite affably; and they all had time to listen to what we