Chapter 7 7.Jacob's Ladder

As Anthony grew older, he became familiar with the nearby mountains and valleys, including one that was too steep for a child to climb.But on one side of the mountain there were two rows of little holes hewn out for one's feet, and grass grew all around the holes, so that they showed dry yellowish-white earth.The two rows of step-holes rose side by side on the slope to the top. "I'm going to climb up, Baba!" said Anthony to his little nurse one day as they sat in that valley, Anthony picking flowers and Baba mending socks. "Then you must rely on Jacob's Ladder," said Baba, nodding at the two long rows of holes.

"Is that Jacob's ladder?" Anthony asked. "Yes." Baba nodded again. "Who is Jacob?" "Oh, Jacob's gone." "Where did he go? Did he get on the ladder?" "I wish he was like that." "What's on top of the mountain, Baba?" "It's heaven." Baba said, raising his head to see the blue sky connecting with the high place. "Will Jacob come back?" "You can't come back from heaven." Baba replied in a low voice, always being very practical in his speech. Anthony looked at the sky carefully, he didn't want to go up.Because once he gets there, he hates hearing people say "no".Why is he "no way" to do this, and "no way" to do that?Why can't he do whatever he wants?He raised his legs to the small hole and began to climb up.The hill rose almost straight up beside his small body, and he could only press his toes into the holes so that he could get his dirty hands into the two holes in his head.But when he struggled desperately to go up about a dozen holes, he saw that the mountain was like an endless wall above him, and he suddenly felt that it was too difficult for him to climb up. .Even though it was only a short distance down, he was not sure how to go down.How bad it would be if he had to stick to the hillside like this all the time!He stretched one foot down, but unexpectedly that foot could not touch the small hole.So he waved his legs behind him, signaling that he was dying, and yelled, "Baba! Come on!"

Baba came to the rescue quickly.She climbed up behind him, took his legs in her hands, and pulled him down onto her.They rolled to the foot of the mountain together. "Look, that's what happens!" laughed Baba. "You have to wait until you grow up to climb to heaven." "How old was Jacob when he made the ladder?" "He never made a ladder, he just dreamed about it," said Baba. "Let's go home and drink tea." Anthony was thinking all the way home.Passing by the pantry window, he saw Lara scrubbing the jars. "Did you have a good walk?" Lara asked aloud.

"Yes, thank you, Lara. Who is Jacob?" "Jacob is a very ordinary person who lives in a tent." Lara replied honestly. Anthony went into the garden where his mother was watering the plants. "What did you and Baba see today?" she said. "We saw Jacob's ladder," Anthony said. "It's funny," Mom said, "I saw Jacob's ladder too." She pointed to a plant in the flower bed, full of blue flowers, very beautiful. "This is Jacob's ladder." Anthony stared at the flowers for a while, as if he had looked so long that he could see Jacob crawling on them.How funny, he thought, that two completely different things, one blue flower and one green mountain, could both be Jacob's ladders, how could that be possible?

"Anshone, what are you looking at?" his dad said behind him. "Looking at Jacob's ladder," Anthony said. "Someday I'll take you to Bath and show you the real Jacob's Ladder," said Dad. "Is that the real Jacob's ladder?" Anthony asked. "Of course it's true," said his mother. A few days later, Anthony's father drove to Bath. He also took Anthony with him, and asked him to go to the city to open his eyes.When he got there, his father bought him a Bath fruit bread, so that Anthony could pass some time while he was doing some boring things.After Dad finished his business, they went to visit the old cathedral.The church had some beautiful stone arches, and his dad said they were flying buttresses.On both sides of the west gate, there are two stone steps carved on the front of the cathedral, and two ladders with stone steps lead to the lovely tower on the top.Seven cherubs are going up the ladder on the right, and seven cherubs are coming down the ladder on the left.The stone wall on the front of the cathedral was even steeper than the grassy slope of the mountain, and Anthony saw the seven cherubs on the left descending from their heads.

"Look," his father said, "this is Jacob's ladder." "Where's Jacob?" Anthony asked. "Oh, he dreamed it all here and there. It was a dream of his, you know." Anthony looked again at the angels on the cathedral ladder. "Then this is my dream too?" He wondered secretly. His dad said, "When we get home, I'll read you something about it." That night he went to Anthony's room, sat by Anthony's bed, and read how Jacob learned from Bill. The story of Sheba's departure for Harley. "He came down suddenly to a certain place, because the sun had set, and stayed there all night, and there he took some stones, put them under his head for a pillow, and lay down there to sleep.

"He dreamed that he had set up a ladder on the ground, and that ladder went up to heaven, and he saw the angels of God going up and down on that ladder. "'I am Lord of your father Abraham, and Lord of Isaac, of the land on which you lie, and I will give it to you to sow.'" His dad kissed him good night and left. But Anthony was thinking about Jacob and couldn't enter his dream.No matter how hard he tried, he still couldn't understand all this.Which was Jacob's ladder, the mountain, the tweeds, or the stone wall of Bath Cathedral?Anthony had seen them all, but if Jacob had only dreamed of them, like Baba and Papa and the books said, how could he, Anthony, have seen them?Unless he saw them in a dream too?Also, where is Jacob?

"I'm in the valley, Anthony, come and climb my ladder." A voice came to him through the window. Anthony got out of bed and ran over to look.The garden was empty except for flowers and moonlight.Unexpectedly, the voice was calling him again. "In the valley, in the valley!" So Anthony stopped hesitating.He ran out of the house, across the garden, down the path, down into Jacob's valley, faster than he could run up and down the stairs during the day. The valley under the moonlight was completely different from what he saw during the day.It was full of blue flowers, just like the ones in his mother's garden.Between them a tent was pitched, and outside of it lay an ordinary man in a striped robe.His head was resting on a pile of rocks, and he seemed to be in a deep sleep.

"Are you dreaming, Jacob?" Anthony asked, kneeling beside him. "Yes." Jacob replied. "What are you dreaming about?" "Dream about my ladder." "What's your ladder made of?" Anthony asked. "It's made of light and goes all the way to heaven." "So it's not that mountain?" "No, it's that mountain too." "Then it's not made of flowers?" "No, it's made of flowers." "Then it's not made of stone?" "No, it's made of stone. You can make it of anything you like. It always leads to heaven, if you climb it."

"I want to climb it," Anthony said, "but it's too hard." "You've got to dream it first," Jacob said in his sleep. Anthony lay down beside him, his head resting on a grassy mound.Unexpectedly, Jacob spoke again. He said, "This mound is too soft. You have to rest your head on a rock when you want to dream." So Anthony went to find some rocks, piled them into a pillow, and laid his head on it. I closed my eyes.No sooner had he done this than he saw the steep hill change, though still grassy on the surface, into the appearance of Bath Cathedral.It ascended at last to heaven in two radiant towers with stars overhead, and on either side of them were long ladders ascending, each step of which was a blue flower.The little angels flew up and down like birds, with their heads facing the sky when they went up, and their heads facing the ground when they came down.In the blink of an eye, Anthony was among them.He climbed and climbed, and he didn't have to worry about stepping on the wrong step. He climbed one flower after another, and there were little angels in front and back.

Finally he stood among the stars on top of the tower on the right.He wasn't alone there, with a host of men and cherubs for company.They were all moving in a light that was different from the light of day and different from the light of night.He looked down at the valley he had just left, which seemed so far below, and he cried out, "Jacob, Jacob, I climbed the tower, and I am in heaven!" "You're in heaven, you're in heaven!" the little angels sang together. "Can you see me, Jacob?" Anthony shouted from the tower. "Yes, very clearly," said a voice beside him, and it turned out that Jacob was standing beside him. "I didn't see you coming up. Are you following me?" Anthony asked. "No, I'm far ahead of you," Jacob said. "Anshone, you're here now, do you like it?" "Yes," Anthony said, "but I'm going down to tell my mother now." "You can't go back, you can't go back from heaven!" The little angels were laughing at him. "If you don't want to be here, what are you doing up here?" Jacob asked. "I just wanted to see it," Anthony said.He ran from tower to tower, and put his feet up on the topmost flower of the ladder, but looking down, his head was dizzy from the height. "You gotta stay, you gotta stay!" sang the little angels. "Oh, Jacob," Anthony begged, "you went back, I saw you down there." "It was a dream," Jacob said. "Then it's a dream, too," said Anthony. "Have you never come out of a dream?" "Never before, you can only dream of another dream than this one." "But how to make this dream?" Anthony asked. "You've got to rest your head on a rock," Jacob said. Anthony looked down the ladder again, and he saw that the flowers turned into pieces of stone, and the angels were all standing on their heads, bumping and bumping all the way, step by step towards the ground. bump away. "If you must go down, do so quickly," said Jacob, "for as soon as morning comes the mountain will spread its buttresses and fly away. Put your head upside down on the topmost stone Dream; when you get down there, you plant this seed in the ground where you lie, and that land will be yours forever." When Anthony put his head on the stone flower below, Jacob put A pinch of dust jammed his hand, and Anthony closed his eyes and dreamed again. Bang, bang, Anthony went down one step at a time, and there were cherubs in front of him and behind him.When he stumbled all the way to the ground, with one finger, the seeds were scattered.As soon as they hit the ground, they turned into blue flowers.As soon as Anthony's head touched the valley, the mountain, with its grassy peaks and flowering ladders, unfurled its great projecting buttresses and flew into the blue sky. "That's right!" laughed Jacob, who was still sleeping outside his tent.But was Jacob really asleep or awake; he was here, or somewhere else; were the stones flowers, or were the flowers stones; was the mountain a cathedral, or was the cathedral a mountain; Even if it was Anthony's first dream, or his second dream, or his third or fourth dream... Anthony couldn't figure it out.All he knew was that when Jacob laughed and said, "That's right!" the laugh and the voice were exactly the same as Baba's.