The Winged Beetle

22 THE HERMIT AN ATTACK ON BARBERCRAFT AT LAST an end of all I hoped and feared ! Muttered the hermit through his elfin beard. Then what art thou ? the evil whisper whirred. I doubt me sorely if the hermit heard. To all God’s questions never a word he said, But simply shook his venerable head. God sent all plagues ; he laughed and heeded not, Till people took him for an idiot. God sent all joys ; he only laughed amain, Till people certified him as insane. But somehow all his fellow-lunatics Began to imitate his silly tricks. And stranger still, their prospects so enlarged That one by one the patients were discharged. God asked him by what right he interfered ; He only laughed into his elfin beard.