Volume 3, Issue 4, page 5

fa9i.d ltegtn en. 'rheaenxe a Tanac
alto' ttvtas Excites ~
9. STRANGE UNDERCURRENTS
IMPORTANT holiday and a vacation of
-Ii!i''N several days is in the offing. It is a
holiday about which the world outside
the House on Martha Avenue becomes excited. Some of the excitement is synthetic,
whipped up. But some is deep, in the human
soul.

This holiday can't be explained to the
children in the house on Martha Avenue so that
even the most intelligent of them can understand. Yet the impression is gained, as soon
as talk about it begins, that they are wiser
than their elders in intelligence. They sense
the holiday and something of its meaning. They
react. Because they are who they are, their
reactions are of great interest and importance. They have strange meanings, suggest tons
of meanings, not apparent in the reactions of
the normal:
Lissa does more winging about than usual.
She tries harder to communicate. She can't sit
still. She isn't disobedient, for she is never
obedient. She snatches small bits of food from
the plates of others. Crumbs fall on the floor
and she is down quickly to scramble for them,
though her plate is heavier with better ones
that are reasonably clean. She rises from her
chair, circles the table, swinging her arms,
swaying her body. There is a heightened glow
on her face. She can't possibly know anything
about the holiday. How can she, when no one
has so far been able to reach her thinking
stream, her sesitivity, which she must have
else she would, 't respond to music or to affection? There is always the appearance of rebellion in Lissa, because she never does what
she is told. She merely looks at whoever tells
her, and says nothing, does nothing. Whether
she understands or not, not even the principal
knows. But the principal never gives up, never
ceases trying to reach Lissa. She never will
cease trying, nor will any of the other three
teachers for one thing seems certain about
LIssa: She likes to be here.

The mongoloid who is always sleepy, who
sits at lasses right hand, isn't as sleepy as
usual. He pays more dull attention to what
goes on around him. He looks oftener and with
seemingly more interest at his table mates. He
eats faster and with more relish. Something is
flowing in this boy, something different. He
is responding to the time, the date, but
whether he is responding of himself, or because of the growing excitement around him,
there is no way of telling, because he himself
can't tell. Since man knows himself less than
he knows the rest of creation, this fact doesn't make the small mongoloid greatly different. Indeed, even the genius uses such a small
area of his mental equipment that the difference between any of us, and any of the rest of
us