orld that I could, and
here I was!"

Well, he had me. There wasn't much more I could say. Joe's idea, of
course, was to build machines and put them on the street corners like
you would newspaper stands. He figured that all the misfits and the
unhappy people would sneak out and use them and _whisht_, off they'd
fly to their own favorite world, leaving all us well-adjusted people
behind. He even had a slogan figured out. "_Paradise--for only a
quarter!_"

You see, he figured he'd have to charge a quarter not only to pay for
the machines but because people are just naturally suspicious of
anything they get for free....

* * * * *

Joe and Wally Claus rigged up three of the machines and installed them
on some of the better known street corners around Fremont. Joe had
trouble getting a license to do it, but when he told the city fathers
what the machines did, they figured the best way to discourage a
crackpot was to let him go ahead and flop on his own.

And he came close to doing it. Those booths just sat on the street
corners all summer and gathered dust. People called them Shannon's
folly, which didn't help things with Marge any.

And then one day, Barney Muhlenberg disappeared. We thought he might
have gotten drunk and fallen in the river and we spent a good two days
dragging it. And then we looked in at his rooming house but we didn't
find a thing except thirty-nine empty bottles and a rusty opener.

It was Joe who first discovered what had happened. He got hold of me
and we went down to the _Paradise_ booth on the corner just opposite
from Schultz's Bar and Grill. There was a quarter in the coin till and
when I looked at the screen, I knew Barney had taken off.

Well, everybody's happy. Joe's glad that his machine has finally
caught on, Barney is probably happy playing Cowboys and Indians even
though he's way too old for it, and the town is happy because its
worst sanitary problem has just eliminated itself.

The news gets spread around and everybody starts laying odds on who's
gonna be the next to go. Nobody goes near the booths for about a week,
and then the kids start passing around a rumor Saturday morning that
Miss Alice Markey has submitted her resignation to the school board
and is packing to leave town.

The town splits. Half the people figure she'll be sensible and leave
by bus. The other half, myself included, station ourselves at the
_Paradise_ booth that's nearest