Nisan-Perfecting Our Speech XVI-Chafetz Chaim

The son of the Chafetz Chaim visited his father, 1887. He encountered at his father’s home a man whose actions seemed highly eccentric. One day the man would speak volubly, and the next day he would not utter a syllable. When he asked his father the reason, he received the following reply:

A certain farmer experienced considerable trouble with goats and pigs which would jump over the low fence and damage his garden. He made the fence higher, but the damage continued. He then closed the gate with bars and made the holes of the fence smaller by crossing wooden planks over the openings. Thus the goats and pigs which, if the gate was left open by mistake or the fence was unattended, were prevented from entering the garden.

We have here a comparison with the person you are discussing. Probably he perceived his error in talking too much, thereby committing the sin of tale bearing; therefore he took upon himself the precaution of talking only every second day.

Later, the man who alternated silence with speech proved himself to be a holy person who left for the Holy Land where he spent his last years until his death. (Michtevei haRav Chafetz Chaim, page 70)