2“But the hardness of it!” cried Firefly; “the cruelty! The universal heartache!”
“It could have been only a dream,” persisted. Willow.
“It is not the barbarism I think of,” said Firefly; “not the wars and diseases, the shortened, crippled lives, the ugly towns, the narrow countryside, but worse than that the sorrow of the heart, the universal unkindness, the universal failure to understand or care for the thwarted desires and needs of others. As I think of Sarnac’s story I cannot think of any one creature in it who was happy—as we are happy. It is all a story of love crossed, imaginations like flies that have fallen into gum, things withheld and things forbidden. And all for nothing. All for pride and spite. Not all that world had a giver who gave with both hands...Poor Milly! Do you th
