ROBERT

A dreamer who gave up the sea for a farm he's failing at tells his child about the horizon he never sailed past.

1:36Dramatic20s–30sAdvanced

The speech208 words · 3 beats

0:00 / 1:36

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So gradually I came to believe that all the wonders of the world happened on the other side of those hills. There was the home of the good fairies who performed beautiful miracles. I believed in fairies then. Perhaps I still do believe in them.

Anyway, in those days they were real enough, and sometimes I could actually hear them calling to me to come out and play with them, dance with them down the road in the dusk in a game of hide-and-seek to find out where the sun was hiding himself. They sang their little songs to me, songs that told of all the wonderful things they had in their home on the other side of the hills; and they promised to show me all of them, if I'd only come, come! But I couldn't come then, and I used to cry sometimes and Ma would think I was in pain. That's why I'm going now, I suppose.

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ROBERT

Beyond the Horizon · Eugene O'Neill · 1:36 · 208 words

Those were the only happy moments of my life then, dreaming there at the window. I liked to be all alone — those times. I got to know all the different kinds of sunsets by heart. And all those sunsets took place over there — beyond the horizon. So gradually I came to believe that all the wonders of the world happened on the other side of those hills. There was the home of the good fairies who performed beautiful miracles. I believed in fairies then. Perhaps I still do believe in them. Anyway, in those days they were real enough, and sometimes I could actually hear them calling to me to come out and play with them, dance with them down the road in the dusk in a game of hide-and-seek to find out where the sun was hiding himself. They sang their little songs to me, songs that told of all the wonderful things they had in their home on the other side of the hills; and they promised to show me all of them, if I'd only come, come! But I couldn't come then, and I used to cry sometimes and Ma would think I was in pain. That's why I'm going now, I suppose.

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