"That's my communication sphere, to record my thoughts. I would not be without it. When in danger, I swallow it. When in extreme danger, I will have to escape to a spot where I have concealed my ejection mortar, and send my sphere into the galactic drift on a chance that it may be found." "That's no kind of gag to put in an act. What I have in mind is something like this." Blackjack Bracken told a joke. It was a childish one and in poor taste. "I don't believe that is quite my style," I said. "All right, what would you suggest?" "I thought that I might lecture your patrons on the Higher Ethic." "Look, George Albert, my patrons don't even have the lower ethic." "And just what sort of recompense are we talking about?" I asked. "Billy and I had about settled on a hundred and fifty a week." "A hundred and fifty for whom?" "Why, for Billy." "Let us make it a hundred and fifty for myself, and ten per cent for Billy as my agent." "Say, this blob's real smart, isn't he, Billy?" "Too smart." "Yes, sir, George Albert, you're one smart blob. What kind of contract have you signed with Billy here?" "No contract." "Just a gentlemen's agreement?" "No agreement." "Billy, you can't hold him in a cage without a contract. That's slavery. It's against the law." "But, Blackjack, a blob isn't people." "Try proving that in court. Will you sign a contract with me, George Albert?" "I will not dump Billy. He befriended me and gave me a home with the turtles and snakes. I will sign a joint contract with the two of you. We will discuss terms tomorrow--after I have estimated the attendance both here and at the night club." III Of the walking grubs (who call themselves "people") there are two kinds, and they place great emphasis on the difference. From this stems a large part of their difficulties. This distinction, which is one of polarity, cuts quite across the years and ability and station of life. It is not confined only to the people grubs, but also involves apparently all the beings on the planet Florida. It appears that a person is committed to one or the other polarity at the beginning of life, maintaining that polarity until death. The interlocking attraction-repulsion complex set up by these two opposable types has deep emotional involvements. It is the cause of considerable concern and disturbance, as well as desire and inspiration. There is a sort of poetic penumbra about the whole thing that tends to disguise its basic simplicity, expressible as a simultaneous polarity equation. Complete segregation of the two types seems impossible. If it has ever been tried, it has now evidently been abandoned as impractical. There is indeed an intangible difference between the two types, so that before that first day at the Reptile Ranch was finished, I was able to differentiate between the two more than ninety per cent of the time. The knowledge of this difference in polarity seems to be intuitive.