Matisse Picasso and Gertrude Stein / With Two Shorter Stories

by Gertrude Stein

If hurrying was what not any one of them was doing, waiting was not what any one of them was doing. If persisting was what one of them was doing, hesitating was what that one was doing.

They did not declare that they were there and they were not there when they declared that they were staying where they were going. It was not all of the urging that had come out of anything that decided everything. It was not the troubling every one that hurt every one. It was not the following one that meant that they followed something. There was room for ten when there was room for six. Sixty came and they stayed when they stayed. And two would not believe that they had stayed all they had stayed. There was room for ten when there was room for six.

They were all staying and they did not stay because they had stayed to stay. They had not stayed to stay. They had come to stay.

In staying they were not following one, they were following all who stayed, and following all who stayed they did not follow as they all stayed.

They did all stay and staying they did with feeling that they were saying what they knew they were saying.

They did begin one and one and all of them to stay. They did stay. They were saying, one was saying, they were saying, each was saying, all were saying that which they said they knew they were saying.

They did all of them come to staying. They did all of them come to following each one. They did all of them come to say that they had been saying what they knew they were saying.

If they had any of them refused all they could refuse they would have been all of them important as they were. They were saying what they knew they were saying. They were refusing all they were refusing.

They did not see all who were staying to say what they knew they were saying. They did hear very much of all they heard. They were enlightened when they said they were staying and that they were saying what they knew they were saying.

They had enough to be attacking confusion, they had enough of staying. They had enough of staying in accomplishing to be aspiring in saying what they were knowing they were saying.