روز چهارم

ANOTHER SURPRISE

Thurber’s stories are written in a jocose manner, but they contain enough serious matter to make one pensive.

He tells of some builders who left a pane of glass standing upright in a field near a house they were constructing.

A goldfinch flew across the field, struck the glass and was knocked inert.

He rushed back and divulged to his friends that the air had crystallized.

The other birds derided him, said he had become irrational, and gave a number of reasons for the accident.

The only bird who believed the goldfinch was the swallow.

The goldfinch challenged the large birds to follow the same path he had flown.

This challenge served to whet their interest, and they agreed with gusto.

Only the swallow abjured. The large birds flew together and struck the glass; they were knocked into a stupor.

This caused the astute swallow to wince with pain.

Thurber drew a moral that is the antithesis of the cliche we all accept: He who hesitates is sometimes saved.