"
I need not dwell on the deep disgust with which this speech was listened
to, but the Mayor, and Yram, and George said not a word.
"But, Mayoress," said Panky, who had not opened his lips so far, "are you
sure that you are not too hasty in believing this stranger to be the
Sunchild? People are continually thinking that such and such another is
the Sunchild come down again from the sun's palace and going to and fro
among us. How many such stories, sometimes very plausibly told, have we
not had during the last twenty years? They never take root, and die out
of themselves as suddenly as they spring up. That the man is a poacher
can hardly be doubted; I thought so the moment I saw him; but I think I
can also prove to you that he is not a foreigner, and, therefore, that he
is not the Sunchild. He quoted the Sunchild's prayer with a corruption
that can have only reached him from an Erewhonian source--"
Here Hanky interrupted him somewhat brusquely. "The man, Panky," said
he, "was the Sunchild; and he was not a poacher, for he had no idea that
he was breaking the law; nevertheless, as you say, Sunchildism on the
brain has been a common form of mania for several years. Several persons
have even believed themselves to be the Sunchild. We must not forget
this, if it should get about that Higgs has been here.
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