“Don’t get so excited,” said Adam. “Seems to me we can’t discuss anything any more but you take it as a personal insult.”

“Maybe the knowledge is too great and maybe men are growing too small,” said Lee. “Maybe, kneeling down to atoms, they’re becoming atom-sized in their souls. Maybe a specialist is only a coward, afraid to look out of his little cage. And think what any specialist misses—the whole world over his fence.”

“We’re only talking about making a living.”

“A living—or money,” Lee said excitedly. “Money’s easy to make if it’s money you want. But with a few exceptions people don’t want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.”

“All right. But do you have any objection to college? That’s what we’re talking about.”

“I’m sorry,” said Lee. “You’re right, I do seem to get too excited. No, if college is where a man can go to find his relation to his whole world, I don’t object. Is it that? Is it that, Aron?”

“I don’t know,” said Aron.

A hissing sound came from the kitchen. Lee said, “The goddam giblets are boiling over,” and he bolted through the door.

Adam gazed after him affectionately. “What a good man! What a good friend!”

Aron said, “I hope he lives to be a hundred.”

His father chuckled. “How do you know he’s not a hundred now?”

Cal asked, “How is the ice plant doing, Father?”

“Why, all right. Pays for itself and makes a little profit. Why?”

“I thought of a couple of things to make it really pay.”

“Not today,” said Adam quickly. “Monday, if you remember, but not today. You know,” Adam said, “I don’t remember when I’ve felt so good. I feel—well, you might call it fulfilled. Maybe it’s only a good night’s sleep and a good trip to the bathroom. And maybe it’s because we’re all together and at peace.” He smiled at Aron. “We didn’t know what we felt about you until you went away.”

“I was homesick,” Aron confessed. “The first few days I thought I’d die of it.”

Abra came in with a little rush. Her cheeks were pink and she was happy. “Did you notice there’s snow on Mount Toro?” she asked.

“Yes, I saw it,” Adam said. “They say that means a good year to come. And we could use it.”

“I just nibbled,” said Abra. “I wanted to be hungry for here.”

Lee apologized for the dinner like an old fool. He blamed the gas oven which didn’t heat like a good wood stove. He blamed the new breed of turkeys which lacked a something turkeys used to have. But he laughed with them when they told him he was acting like an old woman fishing for compliments.

With the plum pudding Adam opened the champagne, and they treated it with ceremony. A courtliness settled over the table. They proposed toasts. Each one had his health drunk, and Adam made a little speech to Abra when he drank her health.