“He’s right, Jake,” said the second man. “’Cause if it took the light a hundred years to get here we couldn’t see them for a hundred years yet. Am I right?”
The first man went back to the stove. Tubby and the second man joined him after a moment.
“I ain’t telling you what I think,” the first man remarked. “I’m telling you what he said—”
“It ain’t got no sense,” said Tubby.
“I’m going to the movies,” said the second man abruptly. “Come on.”
“Not me,” said Tubby. “I ate too much. I’m going to sleep.”
“It’s ‘The Burning of Rome,’” said the first man. “Nero playing the piano while the city burns. Come on. It’s good—I seen the pictures.”
And reluctantly Tubby allowed himself to be led away.
The little Moving Picture Theater was hot and stuffy; Tubby found an aisle seat with his friends, near the back. For a quarter of an hour or more he sat blinking at the flickering screen. The Topical Review interested him not at all; he yawned and squeezed his fat little body lower into the hard narrow seat.
Then the picture changed. It was not “The Burning of Rome” yet, but a short picture, evidently science. Tubby frowned at it in silence.