"
But alas for human certainty! Even then swarms of grasshoppers were
speeding towards us, and by sundown were with us.
In vain Cheon and the staff, the rejected, Bett-Bett every shadow and the
missus, danced war-dances in the vegetable patch, and chivied and chased,
and flew all ways at once; the grasshoppers had found green stuff exactly
to their liking, and coming in clouds, settled, and feasted, and flew
upwards, and settled back, and feasted, and swept on, leaving poor
Cheon's heart as barren of hope as the garden was of vegetables. Nothing
remained but pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and Cheon's tardy watermelons, and
the sight of the glaring blotches of pumpkins filled Cheon with fury.
"Pumpee-kin for Clisymus!" he raved, kicking furiously at the hideous
wens. Not if he knew it! and going to some stores left in our care by
the Line Party, he openly stole several tins of preserved vegetables.
"Must have vegetable longa Clisymus," he said, feeling his theft amply
justified by circumstances, but salved his conscience by sending a gift
of eggs to the Line Party as a donation towards its "Clisymus.
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