76
PARTISAN REVIEW
rags were already anxious to scurry in from the west; ("sticky this
afternoon" had been issued as the watchword. So be it.) / Out of
malice one ought to put the question to Ella : just who was this
Berlepsch of hers; that'd make her red slit gape nice and wide . (How
did Pythagoras put it
? :
"Sire no children by women who wear gold !";
and she had several teeth made of it. (Though, to be sure, He
apparently maintained nothing except things like that: "Piss not at
the sun !"; "Avoid, above all, whatever has a black tail !"; "Touch the
earth when it thunders !"; and so on : junk not even worth
discussing, the whole of antiquity!). ).
As a table-base the spare tire! Verily, there's something to be
said for these VW CAMPERS. / Ahwell ; Ernst has been making good
money for the past couple of years; and the "filler-upper" on a big
newspaper doesn't have it easy, either - 1 immediately raised (in
homage, so to speak: "To the Spiritus, Rector !") my pale, murky
tumbler to him (yckh : "grapefruit juice," oh rocks !). But then he
once again took such a good grip on the soft gray slice of bread by its
glassy brown crust; and pressed the butter so firmly into its pores as
if it belonged there; spreading the brown strong-smelling jam over it
thicker and thicker -, - (and the look 1 was giving him grew
considerably more relaxed: You will be surprised, friend, at how
cathartic that is . And diaphoretic : just spread away.). / Cookies all
round,
"GOLD
MARIE"
&
"PITCH MARIE," (these latter with chocolate;
that's why). Cigarettes
&
tobacco; ("tabarettes
&
cigacco"). The
chestnut in Ella's hand (above it Ella's wildandwoolly armpit). :
"Like a smoldering coal."; (1 meant the chestnut; Paula, however,
immediately jealous : "You two have still got the mowing to do
today, you know.").
And further breakfastatic exchange of news from the past quar–
ter of a year during which we hadn't seen one another. / We told
about our hedgehog couple in the shed. - : "He still alive
?";
Ernst,
softly
&
in English, (as if he were afraid the hedgehog might hear
him; or understand German.) / Then about the "Bird in the
Chimney." At first the very noticeable, loud peeping; hour after
hour. Then the difficult task of localization :
? - :
clearly audible
only in the kitchen; around the house outside, not at all; (Paula did
that part beautifully, heart-flutters
&
soot-anxiety.) Finally, how–
ever, he had ventured through the opened damper : hop-hop - and
"brrr!" out through the kitchen window (wide open, of course, by
way of precaution), and into that mixture of leaves
&
country air
that was his by rights . (But moving on now to Meaningful Generali–
zations, the conversation we held later on with the chimney sweep:
