'He means that he would like to marry me, but he doesn't think his attentions would be acceptable. He's wrong.' Foila looked from Melito to Hallvard, and her smile had become a grin. 'Are you two really so frightened of him in a storytelling contest? You must have run like rabbits when you saw an Ascian on the battlefield.'
Neither of them answered, and after a time, the Ascian began to speak: 'In times past, loyalty to the cause of the populace was to be found everywhere. The will of the Group of Seventeen was the will of everyone.'
Foila interpreted: 'Once upon a time '
'Let no one be idle. If one is idle, let him band together with others who are idle too, and let them look for idle land. Let everyone they meet direct them.
It is better to walk a thousand leagues than to sit in the House of Starvation.'
'There was a remote farm worked in partnership by people who were not related.'
'One is strong, another beautiful, a third a cunning artificer. Which is best?
He who serves the populace.'
'On this farm lived a good man.'
'Let the work be divided by a wise divider of work. Let the food be divided by a just divider of food. Let the pigs grow fat. Let rats starve.'
'The others cheated him of his share.'
'The people meeting in counsel may judge, but no one is to receive more than a hundred blows.'
'He complained, and they beat him.'
'How are the hands nourished? By the blood. How does the blood reach the hands?
By the veins. If the veins are closed, the hands will rot away.'
'He left that farm and took to the roads.'
'Where the Group of Seventeen sit, there final justice is done.'
'He went to the capital and complained of the way he had been treated.'
'Let there be clean water for those who toil. Let there be hot food for them and a clean bed.'
'He came back to the farm, tired and hungry after his journey.'
'No one is to receive more than a hundred blows.'
'They beat him again.'
'Behind everything some further thing is found, forever; thus the tree behind the bird, stone beneath soil, the sun behind Urth. Behind our efforts, let there be found our efforts.'
'The just man did not give up. He left the farm again to walk to the capital.'
'Can all petitioners be heard? No, for all cry together. Who, then, shall be heard is it those who cry loudest? No, for all cry loudly. Those who cry longest shall be heard, and justice shall be done to them.'
'Arriving at the capital, he camped upon the very doorstep of the Group of Seventeen and begged all who passed to listen to him. After a long time he was admitted to the palace, where those in authority heard his complaints with sympathy.'
'So say the Group of Seventeen: From those who steal, take all they have, for nothing that they have is their own.'
'They told him to go back to the farm and tell the bad men in their name that they must leave.'
'As a good child to its mother, so is the citizen to the Group of Seventeen.'
'He did just as they had said.'
'What is foolish speech? It is wind. It has come in at the ears and goes out of the mouth. No one is to receive more than a hundred blows.'
'They mocked him and beat him.'
'Behind our efforts, let there be found our efforts.'
'The just man did not give up. He returned to the capital once more.'
'The citizen renders to the populace what is due to the populace. What is due to the populace? Everything.'
'He was very tired. His clothes were in rags and his shoes worn out. He had no food and nothing to trade.'
'It is better to be just than to be kind, but only good judges can be just; let those who cannot be just be kind.'
'In the capital he lived by begging.'
At this point I could not help but interrupt. I told Foila that I thought it was wonderful that she understood so well what each of the stock phrases the Ascian used meant in the context of his story, but that I could not understand how she did it how she knew, for example, that the phrase about kindness and justice meant that the hero had become a beggar.
'Well, suppose that someone else Melito, perhaps were telling a story, and at some point in it he thrust out his hand and began to ask for alms. You'd know what that meant, wouldn't you?'
I agreed that I would.
