Life is very sweet, brother; who would
wish to die?' I think that's beautiful," he added simply, "and I think
it's true, too."

"Good for you, Hugh," Ross said quietly.

Hugh blushed with pleasure, but he was taken back by Nutter's vigorous
rejoinder. "Bunk!" he exclaimed. "Hooey! The sun, moon, and stars, and
all that stuff sounds pretty, but it isn't life. Life's earning a
living, and working like hell, and women, and pleasure. The 'Rubaiyat'
's the only poem--if you're going to quote poetry. That's the only poem
I ever saw that had any sense to it.

"Come, Beloved, fill the Cup that clears
To-day of past Regrets and future Fears.
To-morrow? Why, To-morrow I may be
Myself with Yesterday's seven thousand Years.

You bet. You never can tell when you're going to be bumped off, and so
you might just as well have a good time while you can. You damn well
don't know what's coming after you kick the bucket."

"Good stuff, the 'Rubaiyat,'" said Ferguson lazily. He was lying on his
back staring at the ceiling. "I bet I've read it a hundred times. When
they turn down an empty glass for me, it's going to be _empty_. I don't
know what I'm here for or where I'm going or why. 'Into this world and
why not knowing,' and so on. My folks sent me to Sunday-school and
brought me up to be a good little boy. I believed just about everything
they told me until I came to college. Now I know they told me a lot of
damned lies. And I've talked with a lot of fellows who've had the same
experience.... Anybody got a butt?"

Burbank, who was nearest to him, passed him a package of cigarettes.
Ferguson extracted one, lighted it, blew smoke at the ceiling, and then
quietly continued, drawling lazily: "Most fellows don't tell their folks
anything, and there's no reason why they should, either. Our folks lie
to us from the time we are babies. They lie to us about birth and God
and life. My folks never told me the truth about anything. When I came
to college I wasn't very innocent about women, but I was about
everything else. I believed that God made the world in six days the way
the Bible says, and that some day the world was coming to an end and
that we'd all be pulled up to heaven where Christ would give us the
once-over. Then he'd ship some of us to hell and give the good ones
harps. Well, since I've found out that all that's hooey I don't believe
in much of anything."

"I suppose you are talki