Jerry: A Novel

Excerpt from Jerry: A Novel "'You know very well that every human being has his tree of life, or his flower of life, just as each is arranged. They look like other plants, but their hearts beat. Children's hearts can beat too. Think of this. Perhaps you may recognize the beating of your child's heart.' And then they went into the great hot-house of Death, where flowers and trees were growing, and marvelously intertwined. There stood the fine hyacinths under glass bells, some quite fresh, others somewhat sickly. There stood gallant palm-trees, oaks, and plantains, and parsley, and blooming thyme. Each tree and flower had its name; each was a human life. There were great trees thrust into little pots, so that they stood quite crowded, and were nearly bursting the pots; there was also many a little weakly flower in rich earth, with moss around it, cared for and tended. But the sorrowful mother bent over all the smallest plants, and heard the human heart beating in each, and out of millions she recognized that of her child. "'That is it!' she cried, and stretched out her hands over a little crocus flower, which hung down quite sick and pale." About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.