st an enormous manila envelope at me. "Here are the first two
movements. There are no copies and I cannot trust the mails or any other
messenger to get them out. If possible I'll send the Old Man the third
movement as soon as it's finished--and the fourth, if I have time. But
take the first two anyway; at least I'll know theyre preserved."

"Joe, Florence!" I exclaimed. "This is ridiculous. Insane. Come back
with me."

Silence.

"You can compose just as well in Europe, if it is so important to you.
In France, say, or England, away from this danger and discomfort. There
is no doubt the country is finished; come to safety while you can."

Florence was busy with a stack of musicpaper and offered no comment. Joe
put his hand for a second on my shoulder and then turned away, talking
with his eyes fixed out the window in the direction of the Grass.

"General Herkimer had both legs shot off at the battle of Oriskany. He
made his men put his back to a treestump and with a flintlock rifle
fired at the enemy until he bled to death. Commodore Lawrence, mortally
wounded, had only one order. Schoolbooks hold the words of John Paul,
selfnamed Jones, and of Hiram Ulysses Grant. Even yesterday, the old
tradition was alive: 'Enemy landing; issue in doubt.' If I finish my
symphony--"

"When you finish your symphony--" I encouraged.

"If you finish your symphony--" said Florence quietly.

"If I finish my symphony, it must be in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont."
His speech took on a hushed, abstracted tone. "Massachusetts, Rhode
Island or Connecticut. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania--" his voice
rose higher-- "Maryland, Virginia or West Virginia--" his shoulders
shook and he seemed to be crying-- "North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Florida ..."

I left them, convinced the madness of the country had found still
another victim. That night I thankfully boarded the European Clipper for
the last time. The next day I sank back into civilization as into a
comfortable bed.

_63._ "The United States, July 4 (N.A.N.A.)--'A decent respect for the
opinion of mankind' dictates the content of this summary. Less than two
centuries past, a small group of smugglers, merchants and planters
united in an insurrection which in its course gathered to itself such an
accreta of riffraff--debtors, convicts, adventurers, careerists,
foreigners, theoreticians, idealists, revolutionaries, soldiers of
fortune and restless men, that at the height o