BOOK: | I | II | III | IV |
|113 | 114 |115 |

soully when 'tis thime took o'er home, gin. We cannot say aye1
to aye. We cannot smile noes from noes. Still. One cannot help2
noticing that rather more than half of the lines run north-south3
in the Nemzes and Bukarahast directions while the others go4
west-east in search from Maliziies with Bulgarad for, tiny tot5
though it looks when schtschupnistling alongside other incuna-6
bula,it has its cardinal points for all that. These ruled barriers7
along which the traced words, run, march, halt, walk, stumble8
at doubtful points, stumble up again in comparative safety seem9
to have been drawn first of all in a pretty checker with lamp-10
black and blackthorn. Such crossing is antechristian of course,11
but the use of the homeborn shillelagh as an aid to calligraphy12
shows a distinct advance from savagery to barbarism. It is13
seriously believed by some that the intention may have been14
geodetic, or, in the view of the cannier, domestic economical.15
But by writing thithaways end to end and turning, turning and16
end to end hithaways writing and with lines of litters slittering17
up and louds of latters slettering down, the old semetomyplace18
and jupetbackagain from tham Let Rise till Hum Lit. Sleep,19
where in the waste is the wisdom?20
    Another point, in addition to the original sand, pounce pow- 21
der, drunkard paper or soft rag used (any vet or inhanger in22
ous sot's social can see the seen for seemself, a wee ftofty od23
room, the cheery spluttered on the one karrig, a darka disheen24
of voos from Dalbania, any gotsquantity of racky, a portogal25
and some buk setting out on the sofer, you remember the26
sort of softball sucker motru used to tell us when we were all27
biribiyas or nippies and messas) it has acquired accretions of28
terricious matter whilst loitering in the past. The teatimestained29
terminal (say not the tag, mummer, or our show's a failure!) is a30
cosy little brown study all to oneself and, whether it be thumb-31
print, mademark or just a poor trait of the artless, its importance32
in establishing the identities in the writer complexus (for if the33
hand was one, the minds of active and agitated were more than34
so) will be best appreciated by never forgetting that both before35
and after the battle of the Boyne it was a habit not to sign letters36