After Living In This Place Almost Two Years...

Why this craving for change? Why not stay quietly here, like us, and be jolly?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Fun?" said the Rat. "Now that's just what I don't understand. If you've GOT to leave this pleasant place, and your friends who will miss you, and your snug homes that you've just settled into, why, when the hour strikes I've no doubt that you'll go bravely, and face all the trouble and discomfort and change and newness, and make believe that you're not very unhappy. But to want to talk about it, or even think about it, till you really need..."

"No, you don't understand, naturally", said the second swallow. "First, we feel it stirring within us, a sweet unrest; then back come the recollections one by one, like homing pigeons. They flutter through our dreams at night, they fly with us in our wheelings and circlings by day."

"In due time," said the third swallow, "we shall be homesick once more for quiet water-lilies swaying on the surface of an English steam. But today all that seems pale and thin and far away. Just now our blood dances to a different music."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And you, you will come too, young brother; for the days pass, and never return... Take the Adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! 'Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into the new! Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company. You can easily overtake me on the road, for you are young..."


From The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame