er little world.

"A hundred yards from the city we crossed a sort of road--just a
hard-packed mud trail, and then, all of a sudden, along came one of the
mound builders!

"Man, talk about fantastic beings! It looked rather like a barrel
trotting along on four legs with four other arms or tentacles. It had no
head, just body and members and a row of eyes completely around it. The
top end of the barrel-body was a diaphragm stretched as tight as a drum
head, and that was all. It was pushing a little coppery cart and tore
right past us like the proverbial bat out of Hell. It didn't even notice
us, although I thought the eyes on my side shifted a little as it
passed.

"A moment later another came along, pushing another empty cart. Same
thing--it just scooted past us. Well, I wasn't going to be ignored by a
bunch of barrels playing train, so when the third one approached, I
planted myself in the way--ready to jump, of course, if the thing didn't
stop.

"But it did. It stopped and set up a sort of drumming from the diaphragm
on top. And I held out both hands and said, 'We are friends!' And what
do you suppose the thing did?"

"Said, 'Pleased to meet you,' I'll bet!" suggested Harrison.

"I couldn't have been more surprised if it had! It drummed on its
diaphragm, and then suddenly boomed out, 'We are v-r-r-riends!' and gave
its pushcart a vicious poke at me! I jumped aside, and away it went
while I stared dumbly after it.

"A minute later another one came hurrying along. This one didn't pause,
but simply drummed out, 'We are v-r-r-riends!' and scurried by. How did
it learn the phrase? Were all of the creatures in some sort of
communication with each other? Were they all parts of some central
organism? I don't know, though I think Tweel does.

"Anyway, the creatures went sailing past us, every one greeting
us with the same statement. It got to be funny; I never thought to
find so many friends on this God-forsaken ball! Finally I made a
puzzled gesture to Tweel; I guess he understood, for he said,
'One-one-two--yes!--two-two-four--no!' Get it?"

"Sure," said Harrison, "It's a Martian nursery rhyme."

"Yeah! Well, I was getting used to Tweel's symbolism, and I figured it
out this way. 'One-one-two--yes!' The creatures were intelligent.
'Two-two-four--no!' Their intelligence was not of our order, but
something different and beyond the logic of two and two is four. Maybe I
missed his meaning. Perhaps he meant that thei