Page:Through the woods; a little tale in which there is more than meets the eye (IA throughwoodslitt00yate).pdf/8



"Nonsense," said the Dream. "If you'd try it the other way—'Open your eyes and shut your mouth'—you'd find that you didn't need anything 'to make you wise.

Marjorie pondered for a moment. "Perhaps you are right," she said, finally. "I'm sure I've had more trouble through opening my mouth than I ever had through keeping it shut."

"I don't doubt it," said the Dream.

"And of course," went on Marjorie, "I see more with my eyes open, my thinking eyes, I mean, than I do with them shut."

The Dream nodded.

"But," she added, "the rhyme says that I'll be given something if I do the other way."

"Don't you ever believe it," said the Dream. "It says that, because 'wise' rhymes with 'eyes.' Don't you ever believe anything just because it sounds pretty and rhymes; and don't you ever believe that you'll get anything to make you wise while you have your mental eyes shut. If a plum lands anywhere near to that poenopen [sic] mouth, it is pretty sure to hit one of