Lana

My class just read a story call The Bet. This book was about a banker and a lawyer having a disscution about jail and the banker said to the lawyer I bet you can’t spend 5 years in prison, and the lawyer said I bet i can spend 15 years in prison. So the laywer and the banker took that bet and for 15 years the laywer stayed in the bankers basement and read a bunch a books on languages, philososy, history, novels and shakespeare. Over the years the lawyer became very wise and when it was soon the day that he was aloud out of prison, he wrote a note to the banker, in this not he stated that he would leave 5 mintues before he was supposed to recived his two million rubles. the nigth before , the banker had a plan to kill the lawyer and blam it on the gaurd so he would not have to pay the man, so he snuck down stairs and found the lawyer sleeping and also found the note from the lawyer and so he changed his mind and went to bed and slept in that next morning.

Here is the note that the lawyer wrote the the banker the night before he was aloud out.

“To-morrow at twelve o’clock I regain my freedom and the right to associate with other men, but before I leave this room and see the sunshine, I think it necessary to say a few words to you. With a clear conscience I tell you, as before God, who beholds me, that I despise freedom and life and health, and all that in your books is called the good things of the world.
“For fifteen years I have been intently studying earthly life. It is true I have not seen the earth nor men, but in your books I have drunk fragrant wine, I have sung songs, I have hunted stags and wild boars in the forests, have loved women … Beauties as ethereal as clouds, created by the magic of your poets and geniuses, have visited me at night, and have whispered in my ears wonderful tales that have set my brain in a whirl. In your books I have climbed to the peaks of Elburz and Mont Blanc, and from there I have seen the sun rise and have watched it at evening flood the sky, the ocean, and the mountain-tops with gold and crimson. I have watched from there the lightning flashing over my head and cleaving the storm-clouds. I have seen green forests, fields, rivers, lakes, towns. I have heard the singing of the sirens, and the strains of the shepherds’ pipes; I have touched the wings of comely devils who flew down to converse with me of God … In your books I have flung myself into the bottomless pit, performed miracles, slain, burned towns, preached new religions, conquered whole kingdoms …
“Your books have given me wisdom. All that the unresting thought of man has created in the ages is compressed into a small compass in my brain. I know that I am wiser than all of you.
“And I despise your books, I despise wisdom and the blessings of this world. It is all worthless, fleeting, illusory, and deceptive, like a mirage. You may be proud, wise, and fine, but death will wipe you off the face of the earth as though you were no more than mice burrowing under the floor, and your posterity, your history, your immortal geniuses will burn or freeze together with the earthly globe.
“You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don’t want to understand you.
“To prove to you in action how I despise all that you live by, I renounce the two million of which I once dreamed as of paradise and which now I despise. To deprive myself of the right to the money I shall go out from here five hours before the time fixed, and so break the compact …”

Was it wise of the lawyer to walk out 5 minutes before he had freedom? or do you think he should of stayed around and got his rubles? give me your thoughts on this story.

- bye =)