nesia, but she's not crazy. As a matter of fact, psychiatrists no
longer recognize the term as such--"

"Pass the roast," Donald said. "Do you think _I'm_ crazy or don't you?"

"I most certainly do not!"

"Do you think I was born in the future?"

"Mr. Fairfield, talking like this isn't getting us anywhere. Now
Mimi--I'm sorry, Mrs. Fairfield--doesn't remember anything previous to
that train ride we were talking about...."

"Naturally," Donald said. "That's when we got here. We'll skip the
technicalities, but it's always easier to land on something that's
moving. Standard procedure. I don't really understand it myself, but I'm
no engineer. We landed in the twentieth century--is it the twentieth or
the twenty-first?"

"The twentieth," Victor assured him.

"Isn't that silly of me. I'm always getting mixed up. It doesn't make
much difference, though, you know. Not much of a change from one to the
other. Not like the nineteenth and twentieth, nothing like that at all.
Do you ever find yourself wondering if it's the twentieth of the month
or the twenty-first?"

"I have a calendar on my desk."

"Oh," Donald mused. "I didn't notice it." He stared intently at Victor
Quink while he munched his celery. "It's not hard to see why you've
risen to the top of your profession. Calendar on your desk, eh?" He
looked at his wife and tapped the side of his head significantly.

* * * * *

"You landed aboard this train some eight months ago," Dr. Quink
prompted. "What are you doing here, anyhow? Are you an historian?"

"Nonsense," he replied at once. "Haven't you noticed all the books you
people are writing? Every one of your presidents, every general, every
field-marshal, every scientist, manufacturer, tennis star, and juvenile
delinquent has written a book, or at least a serial for the _Post_. No
reason at all for any historian to come back to this particular age. No
other age in all history, I might add, has been so fond of itself or so
cognizant of the need for preserving itself and its records for
posterity as has yours. And with very little reason. But of course that
last is only a personal observation, and I may be prejudiced, having
lived here, so to speak, for these past months. You get to see the seamy
side of a civilization, you know, when you live there yourself.
Incidentally, would you be interested to know how your age has been
classified by posterity? Of course you would, silly of me