"And how do you kindle it? Have you matches, or do you rub sticks
together, or do you use the sun's rays through a burning-glass?"
"Hush! there is no phosphorus, nor any sticks, nor any sun — in this
country."
"Then how do you get fire?"
"There is no fire — in this country."
"But you said you were making a fire!"
"Trying to make a fire, my dear; we are always trying, and never
succeeding — in this country." [258]
"And how long have you been trying?"
"There is no time — in this country."
Iliel was half hypnotized by the reiteration of that negation, and that final
phrase. She began to play a game.
"Well, Old Lady, I've something round, and something red, and something
ripe to make your fire with. I'll give it to you if you can guess what it is."
The Old Lady shook her head. "There's nothing round, and there's nothing
red, and nothing ripe — in this country."
"Well, I'll tell you: it's an apple. If you want it, you may have it."
"We never want anything — in this country."
"Well, I'll go on."
"There's no going on — in this country."
"Oh, but there is, and I'm off."
"Don't you know what a treasure we have — in this country?"
"No — what is it?"
The Old Lady dived into the cleft of the rock, and came out again in a
moment with a monkey, and a mouse-trap, and a mandolin.
"I began," she explained, "with an arrow, and an adder, and an arquebus;
for there are terrible dangers in the beginning — in this country."
"But what are they good for?"
"Nothing at all — in this country. But I'm changing them for a newt, and a
narwhal, and a net, hoping that one day I may get to the end, where one needs
a zebra, a zither, and a zarape', and one can always exchange those for
something round, and red, and ripe — in this country.
It was really a sort of child's fairy story that Iliel was telling herself; but the
teller was independent of her conscious mind, so that she did not know what
was coming next. And really the Old Lady was quite a [259] personality. On
the second occasion she showed Iliel how to use her treasure. She made the