BOOK
ELEVEN
THE BOOK OF GRAY BOAR
Chapter One
Now, in The One-Thousand-Twenty-Eighth Season From The Beginning, there
was born in a village on the upper end of The Eastern River a boy who
was called Little Gray Boar, and he was a joy to his family. Though
always mischievous and playful he was a good child, and obeyed his
parents readily.
2 One day his mother, Little Blue Blossom, had to leave the village on
an errand, and there was no one to watch the boy. So his father
announced, "I'll take him down to the dock with me. He'll be safe
enough if I keep a rope on him so he can't run around."
3 Now, Gray Boar's job was loading barges. The barges were filled at
the head of the river, then floated downstream on the current, and
later hauled back up by a tug, to be filled again.
4 It only took one man to handle the big oar that kept the barge in the
middle of the channel, and carried along by the current. It was a very
economical way to ship cargo down to Eastern, and had been used from
the earliest times.
5 As Gray Boar worked that day, his son sat happily on the back of the
barge, playing with some wooden blocks one of the men had given him.
"That son of yours is going to be an engineer!" commented one of the
men. "Look how he stacks the blocks so precisely and makes such
beautiful little designs!"
6 "He is a wise child," agreed Gray Boar, "I HOPE he grows to be a man
of great wisdom!"
7 They were all on the docks getting their next load, when suddenly the
stern line holding the barge snapped, and it started to swing slowly,
out into the current, without anyone noticing. Suddenly one of the men
cried, "My Lord! The barge!" But it was too late.