"Deep thoughts are too near our own," Loetta explained one day when she visited Hawes. "We find action stimulating, for life is rather dull up here."
She explained that exertion was almost unheard of in this land. People obtained food without a great deal of effort and there was really nothing to work for.
"We find Dr. Duerkes' thoughts hard to digest," she said, "but perhaps they will be better flavored in time."
Because life was so effortless, Hawes wondered how the people of this country escaped complete boredom. It was a nation where everyone was unemployed, for there was nothing to do. To build a house, one had merely to create it from thought. Thought also was food and the medium of exchange.
"Man misses a great deal," Loetta went on. "His five senses completely overlook the most worthwhile things of life."
"There are all kinds of men. Have you ever really studied them?"
"I know all about them," replied Loetta. "That is why I can imitate men so easily. I can eat their food, just as you do. I drink their drinks. I have watched men die and I have lived as they lived. But it is too primitive."
Captain Hawes smiled as he recalled a few lines of Kipling:
"I have eaten your bread and salt,
I have drunk your water and wine,