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What caused it? Was it the late night drinking and talking, or did it have to do withto die? Did the wolves have soination by the witches’ place?

I don’t know It had co visited upon me from outside One minute it was an idea, and the next it was real I think you can invite that sort of thing, but you can’t make it come

Of course it was to slacken But the sky was never quite the saain I mean the world looked different forever after, and even in , the sense of our frailty and our hopelessness

Maybe it was a presentiment But I don’t think so It was more important than that, and frankly I don’t believe in presenti all thisto say these s about death and chaos to her But she heard from everyone else that I’d lost ht of Lent, she came to me

I was alone in e at twilight for the big bonfire that was the custo

I had always hated the celebration It had a ghastly aspect to it -- the roaring fla afterwards through the orchards with their torches to the tune of their strange chanting

We had had a priest for a little while who called it pagan But they got rid of hih The farmers of our mountains kept to their old rituals It was to row, all this And on this occasion, more than any other, I felt I saw the kind of men and women who could burn witches

In my present frame ofto resist the urge to go to theand look down on the big fire that drew ly as it scared me

My mother came in, closed the door behind her, and told me that she must talk to me Her whole manner was tenderness

"Is it on account of , what’s come over you?" she asked "Tell me if it is And put your hands in mine"

She even kissed own, and her hair was undone I couldn’t stand to see the streaks of gray in it She looked starved

But I told her the truth I didn’t know, and then I explained some of what had happened in the inn I tried not to convey the horror of it, the strange logic of it I tried not to make it so absolute

She listened and then she said, "You’re such a fighter, my son You never accept Not even when it’s the fate of all mankind, will you accept it"

"I can’t!" I said miserably

"I love you for it," she said "It’s all too like you that you should see this in a tiny bedroo wine And it’s entirely like you to rage against it the way you rage against everything else"

I started to cry again though I knew she wasn’t conde me And then she took out a handkerchief and opened it to reveal several gold coins

"You’ll get over this," she said "For thelife for you, that’s all But life is h Now listen to what I have to say I’ve had the doctor here and the old wo than he knows Both agree with "

"Stop, Mother," I said, aware of how selfish I was being, but unable to hold back "And this tiifts Put the money away"