MR. GRANDISON, YOU'VE HAD ANOTHER THREATENING CALL FROM ARCHIE POUCH, THE ATTORNEY INTERESTED IN THE DISPOSAL OF LOT 17. HE WAS MOST INSISTENT! HE SPOKE OF DIRE CONSEQUENCES!.

"Homer," said Mary disapprovingly, "you can't go around stealing papers from people's desks."

PERSONAL INJURY MEDICAL MALPRACTICE DEFECTIVE PRODUCTS NEGLIGENCE SLIP AND FALL TOXIC INJURIES UNDERGROUND STORAGE TANKS 2I-E HAZARDOUS WASTE LEAD PAINT POISONING DRUNK DRIVING.

And finally, as a general catch-all invitation: LITIGATION.

The implicit message of all the ads was the samea""Consider yourself aggrieved? Sue the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"

*41*

POUCH, HEAVISIDE AND SPROCKET ATTORNEYS AT LAW.

said the bra.s.s plate on the door. Homer walked in and flinched. What was the matter with him? He had become absurdly sensitive to high-toned sw.a.n.k. He blamed it on the year he had spent in Florence, surrounded on every side by perfection of proportion and effortless grace. He would have to get over it, if he was going to go on consorting with the likes of Jefferson Grandison and Archie Pouch.

*42*

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*45*

Go thou my incense upward from this hearth And ask the G.o.ds to pardon this clear flame.

*46*

NOW HEAR THIS: KINDLY DIRECT YOUR GAZE TO THE EASTERN QUARTER OF THE SKY AND YOU WILL SEE SOMETHING RATHER ATTRACTIVE, IF I DO SAY SO MYSELF.

Actually Homer had stayed an hour longer in the library than he had meant to. He was late for the party at the Badgers' house. As he parked in the Badgers' driveway, Mary saw him from the porch, and she ran out and hauled him inside.

*47*

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...the spirit can for the time pervade and control every member and function of the body, and trans.m.u.te what in form is the grossest sensuality into purity and devotion.

Purity and devotion! Hope was filled with bitter cynicism. How much trans.m.u.ting of sensuality into purity and devotion was Ananda practicing, that eager disciple of Henry Th.o.r.eau?

*50*

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*55*

TO THE VOTERS OF THE TOWN OF CONCORD FROM THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT ROGER BLAND.

Ananda was not an American citizen, not a voter, and therefore the letter was not addressed to him. But he didn't think he would be invading the privacy of Hope and Oliver Fry by reading it. After putting a kettle on the stove, he sat down at the table and looked at the sheet of pale green paper. Behind him the shrews scrambled in their cage. The snakes writhed in the aquarium.

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The wood thrush afara"so superior a strain to that of other birds ... This is the gospel according to the wood thrush. He makes a sabbath out of a weekday. I could go to hear him, could buy a pew in his church.

And here is the footnote:.

Probably it was the hermit thrush, not the wood thrush, for which the date is too early, whose song he had been praising.

One might add a cautionary footnote to the footnote: Th.o.r.eau was such a keen observer and wrote so often about both the hermit thrush and the wood thrush, perhaps he was not mistaken after all.

end.