human
A winy-looking thing, isn't it? See those red fibers? Why shouldn't such roots, and nuts like those great, burnished horse-chestnuts there--yes, and cattails, and poke-berries, and skunk cabbages, give forth an entirely new outfit of fruits and vegetables? Berber smiled his young ruminating smile; then, with inevitable courtesy, he seemed to remember that he had not answered her question.
gpt
I am not surprised that you and Mr. Strang thought such things about me. I wonder that you have not questioned me before--only you see _now_--I can't answer!
human
You must remember that I am like a foreigner--only worse off, for foreigners pick up a few words for their most vital needs, and I have no words at all--for what--for what vital things I used to know--so that perhaps in time I shall come to forget that I ever knew anything different from--other persons' knowledge.
gpt
One of our professors at college died, and the men of his class were gloomy; some even cried, others could not trust themselves to speak of him.... I noticed that they all called him 'poor' Landworth.... I could see that they felt something the way I do when I miss out on a chemical experiment, or spoil a valuable specimen--only more so--a great deal more. The boy knit his brows, puzzling it all out.
human
Well, it's queer. I liked that professor, too; he was very kind to me--but when I saw him dead I felt glad--glad! Why --Berber looked at her searchingly--
gpt
I grew to be afraid some one would find out _how_ glad!
human
You are the only person I dare tell this to--for I understand the world-- She noted that he spoke as if
gpt
were a kind of plant whose needs he had fathomed.
human
But after that, concluded Berber, speaking as if quite to himself--
gpt
Do you not see--I have--sometimes _known_, not 'guessed' nor 'believed,' but _known_ that death was a wonderful, happy thing--a fulfilment, a satisfaction to him who dies--but I have been educated backward into a life where people cannot seem to help regarding it as a sad thing. And----
human
Yes?--Yes? breathed the eager woman.
gpt
Tell me--tell me----
human
Do you not think that I am doing wrong to speak of these things?