Another Surprise
Thurber's stories are written in a jocose manner, but they contain enough
serious matter to make one pensive. He tells of some builders who left a pane
of glass standing upright in a field near a house they were constructing. A 
goldfinch flew across the field, struck the glass and was knocked inert. He 
rushed back and divulged to his friends that the air had crystallized. The
other birds derided him, said he had become irrational, and gave a number of
reasons for the accident. They only bird who believed the goldfinch was the 
swallow. The goldfinch challenged the large birds to follow the same path he
had flown. This challenge served to whet their interest, and they agreed with
gusto. Only the swallow abjured. The large birds flew together and struck the 
glass; they were knocked into a stupor. This caused the astute swallow to wince
with pain. Thurber drew a moral that is the antithesis of the cliche we
all accept: He who hesitates is sometimes saved.


tongue in one's cheek--not to be sincere.
John's father surely had his tongue in his cheek when he told his son
to go sow wild oats and to kick over the traces at his kindergarten party.