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Page 17
THE BOY
I like to sit under these trees. It makes me think of the Old Testament.
THE MAN
That's interesting. How?
THE BOY
Well, maybe I'm wrong, but whenever I think of the Old Testament I see an
old man under a tree--
THE MAN
Yes?
THE BOY
A man who has lived it all through, you know, and found out something real
about it; and he sits there calm and strong, something like a tree
himself; and every once in a while somebody comes along--a boy, you
know,--and the boy talks to him all about himself, just as we imagine
we'd like to with our fathers, if they weren't so busy, or our teachers,
if they didn't depend so much upon books, or our ministers, if we thought
they would really understand,--and the old man doesn't say much maybe, but
the boy goes away much stronger and happier....
THE MAN
Yes, yes, I understand. The Old Testament.... They _did_ get hold of
things, didn't they?
THE BOY
What I can't understand is how nowadays people seem more grown up and
competent than those men were, in a way, and we do such wonderful
things--skyscrapers and aeroplanes--and yet we aren't half so wonderful as
they were in the Old Testament with their jugs and their wooden plows. I
mean, we aren't near so big as the things we do, while those old fellows
were so much bigger. We smile at them, but if some day one of our machines
fell over on us what would we do about it?
THE MAN
I wonder.
THE BOY
I went through a big factory just last week. One of my friends' father is
the manager, and all I could think of was what could a fellow do who
didn't like it, who didn't fit in.... Nowadays most everybody seems
competent about factories or business or something like that--you
know--and they've got hold of everything, so a fellow's got to do the same
thing or where is he?
THE MAN
That's the first question, certainly: where is he? But where is he if he
does do the same thing?
THE BOY
Why, he's with the rest. And _they_ don't ask that question....
THE MAN
I'm afraid they don't. It would be interesting to be there if they should
begin to ask it, wouldn't it?
THE BOY
Yes.... I'd like to be there when some _I_ know ask themselves! But they
never will. Why should they?
THE MAN
Don't you mean how _can_ they?
THE BOY
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