I see you don't understand, and I must explain it to you.
Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before ever it
had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city--a city of
people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and walked, and
talked, and slept, and carried on their business. Here they stabled their
horses and feasted, from here they rode out to fight or drove out to trade.
They were a powerful people, and rich, and great builders. They built to last,
for they thought their city would last forever.
People come--they stay for a while, they flourish, they
build--and they go. It is their way. But we remain. There were badgers here,
I've been told, long before that same city ever came to be. And now there are
badgers here again. We are an enduring lot, and we may move out for a time, but
we wait, and are patient, and back we come. And so it will ever be.
Kenneth Grahame, from The Wind in the Willows
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