“No wonder you can’t see a thing,” laughed Peterkin. “Take your hair out of your eyes!”
The little boy stopped short at the sound of a voice. He nodded his head sadly.
“What are eyes?” he asked. “I know I have two of them—but what use are they? Won’t you tell me, stranger?”
“Why, silly!” roared Peterkin. “Eyes are to see with!”
The little boy smiled more sadly than before. “No,” he sighed. “If you can see with your eyes, you are not of this valley. For I am blind. And so are my father and my mother, and all our neighbors, too. And so is everybody in this valley. All of us are blind!”
XVI
THE VALE OF THE BLIND
THE little boy led Peterkin into the house to meet his father and mother. But they, like the boy, were in rags and tatters—and blind!