The sun rose like an irritated eye; wives cooked rice pancakes; children went to play at tag in dusty fields or
caught frogs by the banks of the Euphrates; while the men took to the brick kilns, potters» wheels, and plows; lovers arose to make
love once again; and old men at the gate weighed claims and vows.
They might hurt animals inadvertently — baiting chipmunks with peanuts,
catching frogs and fish and putting them into buckets, touching birds» eggs, collecting chrysalises, caterpillars, and insects in glass jars, netting butterflies — but these children will grow up into adults who
love and feel comfortable in nature.