and a glass of genuine cherry brandy--anything you want!
Then we will talk Portuguese, long for the Brazilian sun, and sing,
I in a hoarse bass and you in a sweet spiritual tenor,

_Minha terra tem palmeiras_,
_onde canta o sabia_,
_minha terra tem primores_,
_que eu nunca encontro ca._"

He smilingly listened to me, smilingly shook his head and said, "You
are an enviable youth! Every time I think of you I think that. As a
child amuses himself at an annual fair, you scamper through the world,
feast your eyes on what you like to look at, take your pleasure in what
you see, and build air-castles out of these materials."

He continued to pluck his tea leaves; I stood silently by and marveled
at his words, their truth and their error.

"Yes, there are such favorites of fortune," he continued. "As children
build castles of sand, demolish them, and build them up again, so you
build air-castles. When one of them has occupied you long enough, you
turn your back upon it and build another; this is your pleasure, and
you never tire of it. We others, when at the age of fifteen or sixteen
we have come to our senses, we build a single air-castle: one sees
himself as a prosperous farmer--as far as the eye can reach all the
land is his; the other sees himself as a merchant, with a heavy golden
chain on his paunch, standing at his shop-door; the third means to
cultivate black roses and incidentally become a millionaire--and this
castle in the air we cherish, and care for, and prop up, and support as
long as we live, and for the most part we do not in the least notice
that it has long since collapsed beyond repair. I have long thought I
must tell you this some time, in order that you might know it and thank
God!" He straightened up, looked me in the face, and nodded to me with
kindly seriousness. With a smile I returned his nod.

He continued plucking leaves. In silence I watched him a while longer;
for anything that I could have said in answer was no concern of his.

"Since my bones are as yet somewhat younger than yours," I remarked
finally, "I will keep them fresh, and now take them into the shade."

We separated.

"Every one sees you in a different light from every one else," I said
to myself as I walked along, "and even the wisest fails to see you as
you are; for even the humblest human soul is like the sun, which one
can gaze upon