Something seemed to affect his imagination, for he put his
fingers to his ears and shut his eyes, screwing them up tightly
just as a small boy does when his face is being soaped. There was
something pathetic in it that touched me. It also gave me a lesson,
for it seemed that before me was a child, only a child, though the
features were worn, and the stubble on the jaws was white. It was
evident that he was undergoing some process of mental disturbance,
and knowing how his past moods had interpreted things seemingly
foreign to himself, I thought I would enter into his mind as well
as I could and go with him
The first step was to restore confidence, so I asked him,
speaking pretty loud so that he would hear me through his closed
ears,"Would you like some sugar to get your flies a
