“If any of these flowers please you, you can take them without any fear: you will incur no danger by gathering them. I sowed the seed. I take pleasure in watering them and looking at them, but I never touch them.”
“Why not?”
“I fear I might infect them, and should no longer dare give them to any one.”
“For whom do you raise them?”
“The people who bring me food from the hospital are not afraid to gather them. And sometimes children from the city stop before my garden-gate. I immediately ascend the tower, for fear of frightening or infecting them. They look up as they go away, and say with a smile: ‘Good-by, Leper,’ and that gives me a little pleasure.”
“You have succeeded in collecting quite a variety of plants; and you have vines yonder, and several kinds of fruit-trees.”
“The trees are still young. I set them out myself, as well as that grape-vine, which I have trained to the top of the old wall, you see: it is thick enough for me to walk on, and is my favorite resort.—Go up on these stones. I am the architect of this staircase. Hold on to the wall.”
“A charming nook! the very place for a hermit to meditate in!”
“It suits me, too. I can see the country around, the laborers in the fields, and all that is going on in the