The traveller took the sound for
affirmation, and passed on. He came to a third little creature who,
under a tall tree, was singing very loudly indeed, while all around was a
great silence, broken only by sounds like the snuffling of small noses.
The creature stopped singing as the traveller came up, and at once a
storm of huge nuts came down; the traveller found them sweetish and very
oily.
"Why," he said to the creature, "did you sing so loud? You cannot eat
all these nuts. You really do sing louder than seems necessary; come,
answer me!"
But the purblind little creature began to sing again at the top of its
voice, and the noise of the snuffling of small noses became so great that
the traveller hastened away. He passed many other purblind little
creatures in the twilight of this forest, till at last he came to one
that looked even blinder than the rest, but whose song was sweet and low
and clear, breaking a perfect stillness; and the traveller sat down to
listen. For a long time he listened to that song without noticing that
not a nut was falling. But suddenly he heard a faint rustle and three
little oval nuts lay on the ground.
The traveller cracked one of them. It was of delicate flavour. He
looked at the little creature standing with its face raised, and said:
"Tell me, little blind creature, whose song is so charming, where did you
learn to sing?"
The little creature turned its head a trifle to one side as though
listening for the fall of nuts.
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