Sana looked at the papers for a moment, then commenced to read, “Peach Wine—one pound evaporated peaches, two pounds sugar....”
Mrs. O’Brien interrupted her with a hasty “Shh. Shh. Not so loud. It is against the law for people to know how to do things.”
Sana laughed heartily as she cried, “Oh, es ist verboten!”
She resumed her reading and having finished looked up with “So that is what the people make in order to get what the government doesn’t wish them to have?”
“Yes. It’s good stuff—a peach of a drink. Read the other.”
Sana did as she was told, then laughingly, “I see you people have found a good use for that one-time useless weed to serve the pressing need of the populace. But, if I recall aright, I saw in the papers a few days ago that the government decided that even the poor defenceless dandelion came within the ban of the prohibition laws. Now that decision is being enforced I am sure that your law-abiding citizens will see to the banishing of that innocent flower from the vacant lots.”
“Yes, the question will be, who is first on the lot, I or my neighbor?”
“Has the dandelion drink a strong kick, as you call it?”
“A decided one. They tell me that one can get tipsy and even ‘stewed’ on it, and were one to drink enough of it, he would be ‘soused,’” Mrs. O’Brien laughed.
“Isn’t it funny? Pretty soon the government will order your people not to eat any apples, because, as you know, there are some people who become intoxicated on eating that fruit.”