ut of course that's only part--it's too big to explain...."

"But George--Joe as you call him ... highly talented ... sensitive ...
shouldnt be allowed to decay," the general argued. "Fascination ...
understand, but effort of will ... break the spell. Europe ...
birthplace of culture ... reflection ... give him a proper perspective
... chance to do things...."

Even when the evening lengthened and he became more lucid under the
stimulus of cornwhisky and cointreau he could not shake them. "Judicious
retreat, especially in the face of overwhelming superiority, has always
been a military weapon and no captain, no matter how valiant, has ever
feared to use it."

"Pop," George Thario had retorted goodhumoredly, "you dragged in the
metaphor, not I. Youve heard of the Alamo and Vicksburg and Corregidor?
Well, this is them--all rolled into one."

_56._ The first snows of this ominous winter halted progress of the
Grass. It went sluggish and then dormant first in the far north, where
only the quick growingseason, once producing cabbages big as hogsheads,
had allowed it to spread at a rate at all comparable to its progress
farther south. But by now there could be no doubt left that _Cynodon
dactylon_, once so sensitive to cold that it had covered itself, even in
the indistinguishable Southern California winter, with a protective
sheath, had become inured to frost and chill, hibernating throughout the
severest cold and coming back vigorously in the spring.

It now extended from Alaska to Hudson Bay, covering all Manitoba and
parts of Ontario. It had taken to itself Minnesota, the northern
peninsula of Michigan, Wisconsin, a great chunk of Illinois, and stood
baffled on the western bank of the Mississippi from Cairo to its mouth.
The northwestern, underpopulated half of Mexico was overrun, the Grass
moving but sluggishly into the estados bordering the Gulf Coast.

I cannot say this delusive safety was enjoyed, for there was
unbelievable hardship. In spite of the great bulk of the country's
coalfields lying east of the Grass and the vast quantities of oil and
natural gas from Texas, there was a fuel famine, due largely to the
breakdown of the transportation system. People warmed themselves after a
fashion by burning furniture and rubbish in improvised stoves. Of course
this put an additional strain on firedepartments, themselves suffering
from the same lack of new equipment, tires, and gasoline, afflicting the
general publi