rt, but everybody was 'urtin' and
everybody was 'igh-spirited and patriotic, and so they smeshed up
things instead. They jes' went on smeshin'. And afterwards they jes' got
desp'rite and savige."

"It ought to 'ave ended," said the little boy.

"It didn't ought to 'ave begun," said old Tom, "But people was proud.
People was la-dy-da-ish and uppish and proud. Too much meat and drink
they 'ad. Give in--not them! And after a bit nobody arst 'em to give in.
Nobody arst 'em...."

He sucked his old gums thoughtfully, and his gaze strayed away across
the valley to where the shattered glass of the Crystal Palace
glittered in the sun. A dim large sense of waste and irrevocable lost
opportunities pervaded his mind. He repeated his ultimate judgment
upon all these things, obstinately, slowly, and conclusively, his final
saying upon the matter.

"You can say what you like," he said. "It didn't ought ever to 'ave
begun."

He said it simply--somebody somewhere ought to have stopped something,
but who or how or why were all beyond his ken.

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