But when she asked
him about this, he answered more simply and clearly than she would have
believed possible. It was a cold night, but warm beside the fire,
somewhere near the apex of winter. Even the tiger remained indoors,
sleeping in its accustomed place just inside the barrier. The cub
rested quietly beside the man-child, while he gently stroked her chest
and side. Life was all around him, and he felt it deeply.
'I think that the two ways, if I can call them that, are just the two
sides of a man's life: like day and night, summer and winter. They
both spring from the fountainhead of Life, both are necessary; they only
seem different, as Lao Tsu said. He understood the need to yield to
Nature, and Hemingway the need to fight back. They make me think of
Skither and Barabbas. There are times when one is right, and times when
the other---'
'To everything there is a season,' she broke in suddenly,
understanding and taken back by the apparent ease with which he had
arrived at one of man's profoundest insights. 'And a time to
every purpose under Heaven.'
Upon hearing this he became so animated, and insisted so fervently that
she read to him the entire passage from which this was taken, that
despite misgivings she brought out a tattered Gideon's Bible and read
to him the verses from Ecclesiastes.
Pages:
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196