ature is just as alive as we are, and that she is as
much frightened of us as we are of her, and, mind you this, mankind has
declared war against Nature and we will win. She does not understand
yet that her geologic periods won't do any longer, and that while she is
pattering along the line of least resistance we are going to travel fast
and far until we find her, and then, being a female, she is bound to
give in when she is challenged."

"It's good talk," said the woman, "but it's foolishness. Women never
give in unless they get what they want, and where's the harm to them
then? You have to live in the world, my dear, whether you like it or
not, and, believe me now, that there isn't any wisdom but to keep clear
of the hunger, for if that gets near enough it will make a hare of you.
Sure, listen to reason now like a good man. What is Nature at all but a
word that learned men have made to talk about. There's clay and gods and
men, and they are good friends enough."

The sun had long since gone down, and the grey evening was bowing over
the land, hiding the mountain peaks, and putting a shadow round the
scattered bushes and the wide clumps of heather.

"I know a place up here where we can stop for the night," said she, "and
there's a little shebeen round the bend of the road where we can get
anything we want."

At the word "whoh" the ass stopped and one of the men took the harness
off him. When he was unyoked the man gave him two kicks: "Be off with
you, you devil, and see if you can get anything to eat," he roared.
The ass trotted a few paces off and searched about until he found
some grass. He ate this, and when he had eaten as much as he wanted he
returned and lay down under a wall. He lay for a long time looking in
the one direction, and at last he put his head down and went to sleep.
While he was sleeping he kept one ear up and the other ear down for
about twenty minutes, and then he put the first ear down and the other
one up, and he kept on doing this all the night. If he had anything to
lose you wouldn't mind him setting up sentries, but he hadn't a thing
in the world except his skin and his bones, and no one would be bothered
stealing them.

One of the men took a long bottle out of the cart and walked up the road
with it. The other man lifted out a tin bucket which was punched all
over with jagged holes. Then he took out some sods of turf and lumps of
wood and he put these in the bucket, and in a few minutes