Love The Way You Lie

 The farm owner knocked on my door

The farm owner knocked on my door and I invited him in.

“You’ve got it nice in here,” he said. “Yes, sir, you’ve got it nice.”He slipped in the seat beside the table. This table can be low-ered at night and the cushions can be convened to make a double bed. “Nice,” he said again.

I poured him a cup of coffee. It seems to mc that coffee smells even better when the frost is in. “A little something on the side?” I asked. “Something to give it authority?”"No his is fine. This is nice.”"Not a touch of applejack? I’m tired from driving, I’d like a spot myself.”He looked at me with the contained amusement that is con-sidered taciturnity by non-Yankees. “Would you have one if I didn’t?” went farther and farther north and it got colder I was aware of more and more advertising for Florida real estate and, with the approach of the long and bitter winter, I could sec why Florida is a golden word. As 1 went along I found that more and more people lusted toward Florida and that thousands had moved there and more thousands wanted to and would. The advertising, with a side look at Federal Communications, made few claims except for the fact that the land they were selling was’in Florida. Some of them went out on a limb and promised that it was above tide level. But that didn’t matter; the very name Florida carried the message of warmth and ease and comfort. It was irresistible.

I’ve lived in good climate, and it bores the hell out of me. I like weather rather than climate. In Cuernavaca, Mexico, where 1 once lived, and where the climate is as near to perfect as is conceivable, I have found that when people leave there they usu-ally go to Alaska. I’d like to sec bow long an Aroostook County man can stand Florida The trouble is that with his savings moved and invested there, he can’t very well go back. His dice arc rolled and can’t be picked up again. But I do wonder if a down-Easter, sitting on a nylon-and-aluminum chair out on a changclcssly green lawn slapping mosquitoes in the evening of a Florida October do wonder if the sub of memory doesn’t strike him high in the stomach just below the ribs where it hurts. And in the humid ever-summer I dare his picturing mind not to go back to the shout of color, to the clean rasp of frosty air, to the smell of pine wood burning and the caressing warmth of kitchens. For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?

I drove as slowly as custom and the impatient law permitted. That’s the only way to sec anything. Every few miles the states provided places of rest off the roads, sheltered places sometimes near dark streams. There were painted oil drums for garbage, and picnic tables, and sometimes fireplaces or barbecue pits.

The summer semester was in full tide

The summer semester was in full tide: consequently the most frequent figure in and about Heidelberg was the sliidcnt. Most of the students w ere Germans, of course, but the representatives of foreign lands were very numerous. They hailed from every corner of the globe—for instruction is cheap in Heidelberg, and so is living, too. The Anglo-American Club, composed of British and American students, had twenty-five members, and there was still much material left to draw from.

Nine-tenths of the Heiiklberg students wore no badge or uniform: the other tenth wore caps of various colors, and belonged to social organizations called “corps.” There were live corps, each with a color of its own: there were white caps, blue caps, and red. yellow , and green ones. The famous duel-lighting is confined lo the “corps” boys. The “KNEIP” seems lo be a specially of their*, loo. Kneips are held, now ami then, lo celebrate great occasions, like the election of a beer king, for instance. The solemnity is simple: the live corps assemble al night, and at a signal they all fall loading themselves with beer, out of pint-mugs, as fast as possible, and each man keeps his own count—usually by laying aside a lucifcr match for each mud he empties. The election is soon decided. When the candidate-* can hold no more, a count is instituted and the one who has drank the greatest number of pints is proclaimed king. I was told that the lasi beer king elected by the corps—or by his own capabilities—emptied his mug seventy-five limes. No stomach could hold all that quantity al one time, of course—but there arc ways of frequently creating a vacuum, w liich those w ho have been much at sea will understand.

One sees so many students abroad al all hours, lhai he presently begins lo wonder if Ihcy ever have any working-hours. Some of ihem have, some of ihcm haven’t. Each can choose for himself whether he will work or play: for German university life is a very free life: it seems lo have no restraints. The student does not live in the college buildings, but hires his ow n lodgings, in any locality he prefers, and he takes his meals w hen and w here lie pleases. He goes to bed when it suits him. and does not get up al all unless he wants lo. lie is not entered at the university for any particular length of time: so he is likely lo change about. He passes no examinations upon entering college. He merely pays a trilling fee of five or ten dollars, receives a card entitling him to the privileges of the university, and thai is Ihc end of it. He is now ready for business—or play, as he shall prefer. If he elects to work, lie finds u large list of lectures lo choose from. He selects the subjects which he will study, and enters his name for these studies: but he can skip attendance.