1302. In his entire life there was nothing to compare to riding in the back of a cart over a rocky road. One time he tried to cross a river and was swept off his feet and carried along a distance until the current washed him up on a river bank. The memory of being carried away by the river was the only thing his mind could attach to the sensation of the cart jogging along the road.
1303. He had a vivid dream, one of those dreams more real than everyday life, a dream whose events, although illogical in the extreme, nevertheless seem much more significant that one's mundane everyday life. In his dream he was in the middle of a river, carried away by the current. He was in danger of drowning, and his only salvation was to manage to swim as best he could, to one shore or the other.
1304. Otis struggled against the current and gradually made his way to the farther shore, but he was dismayed to discover that the shore contained a number of individuals determined to see that he remained in the water. They were the residents of blacksmith boy's village. With cudgels and pitchforks they jabbed at him to keep him away.
1305. You can be certain what this nefarious dream is now going produce for poor Otis. You have had dreams just like this. The farther shore where he can finally escape is, in its turn, covered over with howling angry wolves of his clan, all determined to destroy him if he comes out of the river. The shore, just moments before, was unpopulated; a gentile slope of inviting grass came right down to the edge of the water.
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