Fantasy fiction; Near-death experiences -- Fiction; Religious fiction; Spiritual life -- Fiction
"Yes, indeed," said Amroth, "it was the body that was tired--the soul is
always fresh and strong--but rest is not idleness. There is no such
thing as unemployment here, and there is hardly time, indeed, for all we
have to do. Every one really loves work. The child plays at working, the
man of leisure works at his play. The difference here is that work is
always amusing--there is no such thing as drudgery here."
We walked all through the village, which stretched far away into the
country. The whole place hummed like a beehive on a July morning. Many
sang to themselves as they went about their business, and sometimes a
couple of girls, meeting in the roadway, would entwine their arms and
dance a few steps together, with a kiss at parting. There was a sense of
high spirits everywhere. At one place we found a group of children
sitting in the shade of some trees, while a woman of middle age told
them a story. We stood awhile to listen, the woman giving us a pleasant
nod as we approached. It was a story of some pleasant adventure, with
nothing moral or sentimental about it, like an old folk-tale. The
children were listening with unconcealed delight.
When we had walked a little further, Amroth said to me, "Come, I will
give you three guesses. Who do you think, by the light of your
psychology, are all these simple people?" I guessed in vain. "Well, I
see I must tell you," he said. "Would it surprise you to learn that most
of these people whom you see here passed upon earth for wicked and
unsatisfactory characters? Yet it is true. Don't you know the kind of
boys there were at school, who drifted into bad company and idle ways,
mostly out of mere good-nature, went out into the world with a black
mark against them, having been bullied in vain by virtuous masters, the
despair of their parents, always losing their employments, and often
coming what we used to call social croppers--untrustworthy, sensual,
feckless, no one's enemy but their own, and yet preserving through it
all a kind of simple good-nature, always ready to share things with
others, never knowing how to take advantage of any one, trusting the
most untrustworthy people; or if they were girls, getting into trouble,
losing their good name, perhaps living lives of shame in big
cities--yet, for all that, guileless, affectionate, never excusing
themselves, believing they had deserved anything that befell them? These
were the sort of people to whom Christ was so closely drawn. They have
no respectability, no conventions; they act upon instinct, never by
reason, often foolishly, but seldom unkindly or selfishly. They give all
they have, they never take. They have the faults of children, and the
trustful affection of children. They will do anything for any one who is
kind to them and fond of them. Of course they are what is called
hopeless, and they use their poor bodies very ill. In their last stages
on earth they are often very deplorable objects, slinking into
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