The decrease in size, from Ralph down, was gradual; and though there was a dubious region inhabited by Simon and Robert and Maurice, nevertheless no one had any difficulty in recognizing begins at one end and littleness the other. The undoubted littlest, those aged about six, led a e distinct, and at the same time intense, life of their own. They ate most of the day, picking fruit where they could reach it and not particular about ripeness and quality.
They were used now to stomach-aches and a sort of chronic diarrhea. They suffered untold terrors In the dark and huddled together for comfort. Apart from food and sleep, they found time for play, aimless and trivial, in the white sand by the bright water. They cried for their mothers much less Often than might have been expected; they were very brown, and filthily dirty. They obeyed the summons of the conch, partly because Ralph blew it, and he was big enough to be a link with the adult world of authority; and partly because they enjoyed the entertainment of the assemblies.
But otherwise they seldom bothered tit the begins and their passionately emotional and corporate life was their own. The littlest played here, if not happily at least with absorbed attention; and often as many as three of them would play the same game together. Jack and the mask – From Chapter 4: Painted Faces and Long Hair, pages 88 -90 Jack was standing under a tree about ten yards away. When Roger opened his eyes and saw him, a darker shadow crept beneath the swarthiness of his skin; but Jack noticed nothing. He was eager, impatient, beckoning, so that Roger went to him.
There was a small pool at the end of the river, dammed back by sand and full f white water-lilies and needle-like reeds. Here Sam and Eric were waiting, and Bill. Jack, concealed from the sun, knelt by the pool and opened the two large leaves that he carried. One of them contained white clay, and the other red. By them lay a stick of charcoal brought down from the fire. Jack explained to Roger as he worked. “They don’t smell me. They see me, I think. Something pink, under the trees. ” He smeared on the clay. “If only I’d some green! ” He turned a half-concealed face up to Roger and answered the incomprehension of his gaze. For hunting. Like in the war. You know?dazzle paint. Like things trying to kick like something else He twisted in the urgency of telling. “?like moths on a tree trunk. ” Roger understood and nodded gravely. The twins moved toward Jack and began to protest timidly about something. Jack waved them away. “Shut up. ” He rubbed the charcoal stick between the patches of red and white on his face. “No. You two come with me. ” He peered at his reflection and disliked it. He bent down, took up a double handful of lukewarm water and rubbed the mess from his face. Freckles and sandy eyebrows appeared. Roger smiled, unwillingly. You don’t half look a mess. Jack planned his new face. He made one cheek and one eye-socket white, then he rubbed red over the other half of his face and slashed a black bar of charcoal across from right ear to left jaw. He looked in the pool for his reflection, but his breathing troubled the mirror. “Sameness. Get me a coconut. An empty one. ” He knelt, holding the shell of water. A rounded patch of sunlight fell on his face and a brightness appeared in the depths of the water. He looked in astonishment, no longer at himself but at an awesome stranger. He spilt the water and leapt to his feet, laughing excitedly.
Beside the pool his since. N. NY body held up a mask that drew their eyes and appalled them. He began to dance and his laughter became a bloodthirsty snarling. He capered toward Bill, and the mask was a thing on its own, behind which Jack hid, liberated from shame and self-consciousness. The face of red and white and black swung through the air and jigged toward Bill. Bill started up laughing; then suddenly he fell silent and blundered away through the bushes. Jack rushed toward the twins. “The rest are making a line. Come on! ” “But?” “Come on! I’ll creep up and stab The mask compelled them.
