TO THE LIGHTHOUSEthe light (and James could not sleep without alight) there was always a shadow somewhere.

"But think, Cam, it’s only an old pig," said Mrs.Ramsay, "a nice black pig like the pigs at thefarm." But Cam thought it was a horrid thing,branching at her all over the room.

"Well then," said Mrs. Ramsay, "we will coverit up," and they all watched her go to the chest ofdrawers, and open the little drawers quickly oneafter another, and not seeing anything that woulddo, she quickly took her own shawl off and woundit round the skull, round and round and round, andthen she came back to Cam and laid her head almostflat on the pillow beside Cam’s and said how lovelyit looked now; how the fairies would love it; it waslike a bird’s nest; it was like a beautiful mountainsuch as she had seen abroad, with valleys andflowers and bells ringing and birds singing and littlegoats and antelopes and . . . She could see thewords echoing as she spoke them rhythmically inCam’s mind, and Cam was repeating after her howit was like a mountain, a bird’s nest, a garden, andthere were little antelopes, and her eyes were open-ing and shutting, and Mrs. Ramsay went on speak-ing still more monotonously, and more rhythmicallyand more nonsensically, how she must shut her eyesand go to sleep and dream of mountains and valleys172

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