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Show •304 "Most of it. The same winter in Butte that I got to know Father Ragni. He told me I should. Nothing much else to do in December and January in Montana anyhow." "Anybody who's interested in American Literature should know it by heart," Carlo said. "That's where the whole thing begins." "I didn't like it much," I said, "It's a sad poem." "I didn't mind that. But I didn't like God, and the Devil didn't have a chance." "You have to admire him, though." "The Devil? I don't think Milton wanted us to." "How do you know? Anyhow he only wrote it-I'm the reader and it's up to me now. Besides you can't tell what a man means to say in his book by what he says or does in life. Maybe everything else is just a coverup and this is the one place where Milton told the truth, even if he might not have intended to. Adam and I took turns reading it out loud." "What did Adam think of it?" I said. "When we got to the part where the Devil says to himself 'I won't' and we know he's going to have to pay for that one-tenth of a second with all eternity in Hell, he asked me if I thought it was worth it." "What did you tell him?" |