STRANGER. So I'm wrong there, too! (Pause.)

MOTHER. What do you want here?

STRANGER. Charity!

MOTHER. At last! How was it at the hospital! Sit down and tell me.

STRANGER (sitting). I don't want to think of it. I don't even know
if it _was_ a hospital.

MOTHER. Strange. Tell me what happened after you left here.

STRANGER. I fell in the mountains, hurt my hip and lost
consciousness. If you'll speak kindly to me you shall know more.

MOTHER. I will.

STRANGER. When I woke I was in a red iron bedstead. Three men were
pulling a cord that ran through two blocks. Every time they pulled
I felt I grew two feet taller. ...

MOTHER. They were putting in your hip.

STRANGER. I hadn't thought of that. Then ... I lay watching my past
life unroll before me like a panorama, through childhood, youth. ...
And when the roll was finished it began again. All the time I heard
a mill grinding. ... I can hear it still. Yes, here too!

MOTHER. Those were not pleasant visions.