"Nuts," said Matt. "I've seen the Governor of Iowa with a hot dog in one hand and a piece of pie in the other."
"I'll bet it wasn't at a state dinner," Tex countered. "No, Matt, it made sense the way he told it. He said pie wasn't important, but it was part of a larger pattern-for instance that you must never mention death on Mars or to a Martian."
"Is that a fact?"
"I guess so. He said that in time I would learn how to 'eat pie with a fork' as he put it, under any possible circumstances on any planet. He let it go at that."
"I should think he would. I take it he lectured you all evening?"
"Oh, my, no. Ten minutes, maybe."
"Then where were you? You still hadn't come back to your room, just before taps."
"Oh, I was still in Ski's room, but I was busy."
"Doing what? Stroking his brow?"
"No." Tex looked mildly embarrassed. "I was writing- 'I will always eat my pie with my fork,' two thousand times."