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"So did I!" said To to an old and dear friend, confiding, groith the topic

The Martian closed his eyes and opened the It has to do with Timent of the Past!"

"No, you are fro had time to think of it now

"You are so certain How can you prove who is from the Past, who from the Future? What year is it?"

"Two thousand and one!"

"What does that mean to me?"

To"

"It is as if I told you that it is the year 4462853 SEC It is nothing and ! Where is the clock to show us how the stars stand?"

"But the ruins prove it! They prove that I am the Future, I am alive, you are dead!"

"Everything in ers, my mouth thirsts No, no, not dead, not alive, either of us More alive than anything else Caught between is ht, that is it Two strangers passing Ruins, you say?"

"Yes You're afraid?"

"Who wants to see the Future, who ever does? A man can face the Past, but to think--the pillars crumbled, you say? And the sea empty, and the canals dry, and the maidens dead, and the floithered?" The Martian was silent, but then he looked on ahead "But there they are I see theh for me? They wait for me now, no matter what you say"

And for To for hiree," he said

"Let us agree to disagree," said the Martian "What does it matter who is Past or Future, if we are both alive, for what folloill follow, tomorrow or in ten thousand years How do you know that those temples are not the temples of your own civilization one hundred centuries from now, tuht is very short There go the festival fires in the sky, and the birds"

Tomas put out his hand The Martian did likewise in imitation