I suppose this
half delirious wretch must have been myself. But I must have been more
ill when I left England than I thought I was, or Erewhon would not have
broken me down as it did."
No doubt he was right. Indeed it was because Mr. Cathie and his doctor
saw that he was out of health and in urgent need of change, that they
left off opposing his wish to travel. There is no use, however, in
talking about this now.
I never got from him how he managed to reach the shepherd's hut, but I
learned some little from the shepherd, when I stayed with him both on
going towards Erewhon, and on returning.
"He did not seem to have drink in him," said the shepherd, "when he first
came here; but he must have been pretty full of it, or he must have had
some bottles in his saddle-bags; for he was awful when he came back. He
had got them worse than any man I ever saw, only that he was not awkward.
He said there was a bird flying out of a giant's mouth and laughing at
him, and he kept muttering about a blue pool, and hanky-panky of all
sorts, and he said he knew it was all hanky-panky, at least I thought he
said so, but it was no use trying to follow him, for it was all nothing
but horrors. He said I was to stop the people from trying to worship
him. Then he said the sky opened and he could see the angels going about
and singing 'Hallelujah.
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