"Thought is our food and drink," she said. "We cannot eat our own thoughts, for that would be cannibalism. The wild crop that we collect at random over the earth is neither satisfying nor dependable. That is why we seek to cultivate our own foodstuffs. You two human beings will supply us with food. In time you will be mental giants." "You made no mistake when you picked me," Dr. Duerkes beamed. "Already my thoughts are pretty well advanced." "Your thoughts are quite obvious," Loetta retorted. "You simply have a knack of guessing the right answers and for most things there is more than one right answer. I'm afraid that we'll have to depend on Hawes to supply us with the staple foods. You can give us the lighter stuff--desserts and pastry--" "Hawes! Why he never had a deep thought in his life!" Duerkes exclaimed. "His thoughts are rather cute. Very simple, tender and digestible." She sighed. "It is funny none of us Green Clouds ever thought about kissing before." Loetta took a step forward, threw her arms around Captain Hawes and planted a deep, fervent kiss on his lips. "I think," Captain Hawes said, as he and his companion were led to a little garden of clouds, "that I am well enough stimulated to win a grand championship as a mental milch cow." "Bah!" Dr. Duerkes snorted. "This is no superior race!" * * * * * The Green Clouds insisted that their food be of the highest quality. But their standards were their own. Noble philosophy was carted away by the scavengers scarcely nibbled, while thrilling, exciting thoughts were bolted ravenously. "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, The deaths ye died I have watched beside, And the lives that ye led were mine."