human
What thinking about, Worthie dear?
gpt
Oh, I wasn't thinking, Aunt Kate, he replied soberly.
human
I was just wondering.
gpt
You too?
human
And what would you say, Worthie, she asked after they had gone a little way in silence,
gpt
Well, I don't know, 'cept when you think you know what you're thinking about, and when you wonder you just don't know anything.
human
Maybe you wonder when you don't know what to think,
gpt
Yes, maybe so. There's more to wonder about than there is to think about, don't you think so, Aunt Kate?
human
I wonder,
gpt
You do wonder, don't you, Aunt Kate? You wonder more than you think.
human
Worth, she asked, after another pause in which the mind of twenty-five and the mind of six were wondering in their respective fashions,
gpt
The what, Aunt Kate?
human
Underlying principles of life,
gpt
Why no, he acknowledged,
human
I guess I never heard of them.
gpt
I never did either, till just lately. I want to find out something about them. Do you know, Worthie dear, I'd go a long way to find out something about them.
human
Where would you have to go, Aunt Kate? Could you go in a boat?
gpt
No, I fear you couldn't go in a boat. Trouble is, she murmured, more to herself than to him,
human
I don't know where you _would_ go.
gpt
Don't Papa know 'bout them?
human
I sometimes think he would like to learn.
gpt
Papa knows all there is to know 'bout guns and powders,
human
Yes, I know; but I don't believe guns and powders have any power to get you to these underlying principles of life.
gpt
Well, what _does_ get you there?
human
I don't know, dear. I honestly don't know. And I'd like to know. Perhaps some time I will meet some one who is very wise, and then I'll ask whether it is experience, or wisdom, or sympathy. Whether some people are born to get there and other people not, or just how it is.
gpt
Watts says you have more sympathy than wisdom, Aunt Kate.
human
You mustn't talk about me to Watts, she admonished spiritedly. Then in the distance she heard a mocking voice insinuatingly inquiring:
gpt
But why not, if it's all one world?
human
But he said, Worth added,
gpt
Indeed! So it's the man that mends the boats says these hateful things about me, is it?
human
Why no, Aunt Kate; not hateful things. He says he's sorry for you. Why, he says he don't know anybody more to be pitied than you are.
gpt
Well--_really!_ I must say that of all the insolent --impertinent--insufferable--
human
He says you would have amounted to something if you'd had half a chance. But he's afraid you never will, Aunt Kate.
gpt
I do not wish to hear anything more about him, said Aunt Kate haughtily.
human
Now, or at any future time.
gpt
Pray what does this absurd being look like?
human
What being, Aunt Kate?
gpt
Why this sympathetic gentleman!
human
Oh, I don't know. He's just a man. Sometimes he wears boots. He's real nice, Aunt Kate.
gpt
Oh I'm sure he must be charming!