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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"

They felt the big world
flying.
"We're changing," he murmured, seizing some fragments of half-
remembered speech. "We're marvellously changed!"
"Daisies," he heard her vanishing reply, "we're two daisies on the
lawn!"
And then their voices went. That was the end of speech, the end of
thinking too. They only felt....
Long periods passed above their heads and then the air about them
turned gorgeous as a sunset sky. It was a Clouded Yellow that sailed
lazily past their faces with spreading wings as large as clouds. They
shared that saffron glory. The draught of cool air fanned them. The
splendid butterfly left its beauty in them before it sailed away. But
that sunset sky had lasted for hours; that cool wind fanning them was
a breeze that blew steadily from the hills, making "weather" for half
an afternoon. Time and duration as humans measure them had passed
away; there was existence without hurry; end and beginning had not
been invented yet. They did not know things in the stupid sense of
having names for them; all that there was they shared; that was
enough. They knew by feeling.
For everything was plentiful and inexhaustible--the heavens emptied
light and warmth upon them without stint or measure; space poured
about them freely, for they had no wish to move; they felt themselves
everywhere, for all they needed came to them without the painful
effort of busy things that hunt and search outside themselves; both
food and drink slipped into them unawares from an abundant source
below that equally supplied whole forests without a trace of lessening
or loss.


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