“I am watching the moonbeams glistening on the waters,” replied Johnny, “and what greater pleasure could any man have and all for nothing too?”
“’Tis a glorious and a beautiful sight, surely, but the greatest of all pleasures is to see the sun rising and to listen to the birds singing in the bushes and to hear the cocks crowing and clapping their wings, not to say a word about watching the flowers opening up and drinking the morning dew. ’Tis in the morning that the world rejoices, and in the morning we see the work of God everywhere, and ’tis only in the darkness of the night that the badness comes upon men. Everybody loves the morning, and all the poets have written about it.”
“Don’t be bothering me about the poets. I’d rather walk by the light of the moon through the glens and the woods, through the winding boreens when the hawthorn and woodbine are in bloom, or by the shore of the bay when the world does be sleeping, and have nothing to disturb my thoughts, except maybe a rabbit skedaddling through the ferns, or a banshee wailing when some one gets killed in the wars, than to see the sun breaking through the clouds at the grey of dawn.
“There’s a lonesomeness and a queerness about the beginning of everything, and ’twas always the shaky feeling that came over me when I stayed out so late as to be caught by the rising sun on the roadside. But every man is entitled to his own opinion until he gets married, so we won’t quarrel, because people who quarrel are always sorry for the things they say and the things they forget to say.”
“You can’t change a man’s opinion,” said Peep, “unless you change himself, and then he’d be some one else and stick to his own opinion the same as any of us.”
“That’s true,” said Johnny, “and there’s nothing worse than truth except lies. People only tell the truth when they are afraid of telling lies and then they must lie about it before any one believes them.
“Truth will make lies all fall to pieces, but more lies will patch them together again. So ’tis as good to be such a liar that nobody believes you as to be so fond of the truth that no one would trust you.”
“Wisha, for goodness’ sake, do you think that I have nothing else to do but getting my brains twisted trying to follow your contrary reasoning, which only leads a sensible man into confusion and bewilderment? What’s the use of anything if you don’t know how to enjoy yourself?”
“Devil the bit, and why people should go to the inconvenience of annoying themselves in order to please nobody is more than I can understand.”
“If people could understand why they’re sensible they’d become foolish, and if they could understand why they’re foolish they’d become sensible. But as the wise and the foolish will never know what’s the matter with each other, there will be always trouble in the world.”