Avon Fantasy Reader No. 10 — page 100: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The professor’s son was named John! Could anythiag be more common- lace? ’ “Tl have to take you around and show you things tomorrow,” Joho said cordially, accepting the account of my arrival without surprise, A red-headed servant-girl, coast-pork and rhubarb-sauce for dinner, and checkers afterwards, a hot bath at bedtime, the ringing of a telephone some- where else in the house—is it any wonder that it was months before I would believe that I had actually come iato a different universe? What slight dif- ferences there were in the people and the world, merely served to emphasize the similarity. For instance, I think they were just a little more hospitable and “old-fashioned” than we are. Making due allowances for the fact that I was a rather remarkable phenomenoa, I think I was welcomed more heartt- ly ia this home and in others later, people spaced me more of their time and interest from their daily business, than would have happened under similac circumstances in a correspondingly busy city in America, Again, Joha found a lot of time to take me about the city and show me banks and stores and offices. He drove a little squat car with tall wheels, run by a spluttering gasoline motor. (The car was not as perfect as our modern cars, and horses were quite numerous in the streets. Yet John was a busy business man, the district superintendent of a life-iasurance agency). Think of it! Life insurance in Einstein’s ¢ dimension. “You're young to be holding such an important position,” I suggested. — “Got started early,” John replied, “Dad is disappointed because I didn’t see fit to waste time in college. Disgrace to the family, I am.” What in particular shall I say about the city? It might have been any one of a couple of hundred American cities. Only it wasn’t. The electric street cars, except for their bright green color, were perfect; they might have been brought over bodily from Oshkosh or Tulsa. The ten-cent stores with gold letters on their signs; drug-stores with soft drinks; a mad, scrambling stock- exchange; the blaring sign of aa advertising dentist; brilliant entrances to motion-picture theaters, were all there. The beauty-shops did wondets to the women’s heads, excelling our own by a good deal, if I am any judge; and at that time I had nothing more important on my mind than to speculate oa that question. Newsboys bawled the Evening Sun, and the Morning Gale, in whose curious, flat type I could read accounts of legislative doings, mur- ders, and divorces, quite as fluently as I could in my own Tribune at home. Strangeness and unfamiliarity had bothered me a good deal on a trip to Quebec a couple of years ago; but they were not noticeable here in the ¢ ’ dimension. _ For three or four weeks the novelty of going around, looking at things, meeting people, visiting concerts, theaters, and depactment stores, was suff- cient to absorb my interest. Professor Vibens’ hospitality was so sincerely extended that I did not hesitate to accept, though I assured him that I would repay it as soon as I got established in this world. In a few days I was thor- 98 a comicbooks.com