Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you
something
to eat.
Yeats
FOOL.
Such a great wise teacher as you are will not refuse a penny to a fool.
WISE MAN.
What do you know about wisdom?
FOOL.
Oh, I know! I know what I have seen.
WISE MAN.
What is it you have seen?
FOOL.
When I went by Kilcluan where the bells used to be ringing at the
break of every day, I could hear nothing but the people snoring in
their houses. When I went by Tubbervanach, where the young men used
to be climbing the hill to the blessed well, they were sitting at the
crossroads playing cards. When I went by Carrigoras, where the friars
used to be fasting and serving the poor, I saw them drinking wine and
obeying their wives. And when I asked what misfortune had brought all
these changes, they said it was no misfortune, but it was the wisdom
they had learned from your teaching.
WISE MAN.
Run round to the kitchen, and my wife will give you something to eat.
FOOL.
That is foolish advice for a wise man to give.
WISE MAN.
Why, Fool?
FOOL.
What is eaten is gone. I want pennies for my bag. I must buy bacon
in the shops, and nuts in the market, and strong drink for the time
when the sun is weak. And I want snares to catch the rabbits and the
squirrels and the hares, and a pot to cook them in.
WISE MAN.
Go away. I have other things to think of now than giving you pennies.
FOOL.
Give me a penny and I will bring you luck. Bresal the Fisherman lets me
sleep among the nets in his loft in the winter-time because he says I
bring him luck; and in the summer-time the wild creatures let me sleep
near their nests and their holes.
