A Garland of Words

Illustration by Garth Williams from Charlotte's Web (1952)

At this hour, no people were around the pigpen, so the rat and the spider and the pig were by themselves. 

 "I hope you brought a good one," Charlotte said.  "It is the last word I shall ever write." 

 "Here," said Templeton, unrolling the paper. 

 "What does it say?" asked Charlotte.  "You'll have to read it for me." 

 "It says 'Humble,'" replied the rat. 

 "Humble?" said Charlotte.  "'Humble' has two meanings.  It means 'not proud' and it means 'near the ground." That's Wilbur all over.  He's not proud and he's near the ground." 

Charlotte's Web 

-E. B. White

***

Because I have no more talent connecting letters into a useful phrase than a spider, a rat, or a pig; I am borrowing my literary technique from Templeton in Charlotte's Web (sifting through whatever junk is lying around for phrases with the proper tone).

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101072916057;view=2up;seq=252

This is a book on the French language for English scholars written in 1793...

I found it full of phrases that might be useful in portraying my characters plight.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101072916057;view=1up;seq=14

• "The science of numbers"
• "The stars begin to appear (p. 242); I expected nothing less" 
• "an illicit convention" (p. 14)
• "an hyperbolic narration" (p. 14)
• "an immodest posture" (p. 14)
• "undoubted success" (p. 15)
• dureté "an inhuman hardness" (p. 16)
• "one ought not speak of one's self, but with great modesty"  (p. 192)
• "take great pains" (p. 171)
• "give themselves much trouble" (p. 171)
• "she received me kindly" (p. 171)
• "he did it through spite"
• "he submitted to it with the greatest patience"
• "spend money in ware" (p. 173)
• "he makes a shift to live by hard labor" (p. 197)
• "he who shuns company is a stranger to the charms of society" (p. 201)
• "a merchant of whose honor and probity there can be no doubt" (p. 205)
• "sometimes a quality is mentioned in the highest degree without comparison" (p.  231)
• "you have met with more obstacles than you thought" (p. 233)
• "you have asked for less than was your due" (p.  233)
• "how cunning soever they appear, they are sometimes deceived" (p.  221)
• "whatever happy talents a man (or goose) may have, he should cultivate them" (p.  221)
• "do not rely upon the promises of men, whatever they may be" (p. 221)
• "People say, people talk, people believe, people fancy, people do not know" (p.  224)
• "it is said, it is reported, it is assured, it is doubted, it has been proposed it has been resolved." (p.  224)
• "time goes away swiftly" (p. 52)

naive, hideous, insidious

***

Starting to string these together...

Of Geese and Finance

One should not rely on the dispatch of geese

how cunning soever they appear, incontestable in posture, geese are readily deceived

grift comes on swift heels, through the science of numbers; a purely human abstraction

had not won so much as a thought

***

Maybe something about the tuba as an analogy for the heart. (eg. valves and chambers)

something implying a tuba around a goose neck is a heart on a sleeve... a sign of naivety...