The hand is moved to write or draw them
spontaneously. The symbol comes first, the interpretation afterwards. Here
is a vulture soaring away with a lamb. It has a meaning."
"A deep meaning!" I added. "We have known such a vulture!"
"Here," he cried,--too excited to heed any words but his own,--"are swine
feeding upon golden fruit."
"Oh, the swine! Oh, the precious, wasted, golden fruit!"
"Here is one in words; it reads, _Beware of falling from a balloon_. It
requires a peculiar experience," added Pendlam, with a smile, "to enable
one to understand that beautiful symbol."
"Perhaps I have not had the requisite experience; but"--I laid my hand on
Pendlam's shoulder--"I know a man who has fallen from several balloons!"
"Here is one," said Pendlam, turning to the table, "which I have just
drawn. I was trying to get at its meaning when you came in." He showed me a
sketch consisting of a number of zigzag lines, joined one to another, and
tending towards a circle.
"My dear John Henry," said I, "any person who has watched your course for
the last four or five years will readily see the meaning of that symbol.
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