Beppo the old wheelhorse confides his vision of Paradise:
“The place I’ve always dreamed of,” said Beppo, gazing across the landscape with a wistful look in his old eyes, “is like this -- part of it is sloping and part of it is flat. Slopes are such a nice change: the grass is nearer to your nose, and the flats are restful to get back to after the slopes. Then it has trees, big spreading trees with fat trunks -- the kind horses love to stand under and think, after a hearty meal. It has a copse where herbs and wild roots grow, the sorts we love to nibble for a change -- especially wild mint, which is soothing to the stomach when you’ve eaten too much. It has good water -- not a muddy little pond, but a decent brook where the water is always sparkling and clear. In a hollow it has a nice old shelter with a dry floor and a mossy, tiled roof that doesn’t let the rain in. The pasture varies: some places are firm, croppy turf; others are deep, luscious, long hay-grass with buttercups and fragrant wildflowers mixed in it. At the top of the hilly part you can get a view of the sunsets to the westward and the south. And on the summit there is a good firm post to scratch your neck on. I love to watch the sun go down as I scratch my neck of an evening. The whole place is protected with good fences from snappy dogs and worrisome people. It is quiet. It is peaceful. And that, John Dolittle, is the place where I would spend my old age.”
-- Hugh Lofting, Doctor Dolittle’s Circus (1924)
Blessings, blessings; amen.
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