But, in a while, remembering Cleone's note, he must needs check his
speed, and taking the paper from his bosom, began to con it over:
1. Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty
spirit before a fall.
2. Selfishness shall find its own reward.
3. Journeys end in lovers' meetings.
Now as he rode thus at a hand-pace, puzzling over these cryptic words,
he was presently aroused by a voice, somewhat harsh and discordant,
singing at no great distance; and the words of the song were these:
"Push about the brisk bowl, 't will enliven the heart
While thus we sit down on the grass;
The lover who talks of his sufferings and smart
Deserves to be reckoned an ass, an ass,
Deserves to be reckoned an ass."
Therefore Barnabas raised his head and, glancing to one side of the
way, beheld the singer sitting beneath the hedge. He was a small,
merry-eyed man and, while he sang, he was busily setting out certain
edibles upon the grass at his feet; now glancing from this very
small man to the very large pack that lay beside him, Barnabas
reined up and looked down at him with a smile.
"And pray," he inquired, "how do books sell these days?"
"Why, they do and they don't, sir.
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