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Reed since ancient times?”

“Many ti back and forth across the plain But people never leave anything alone In 1846, Count István Széchenyi started straightening it He cut it down to about a thousand kilo across the loops Now there are about six hundred kilometers of dead channels They did hties, nineties, and the nineteen hundreds Maybe there was so or never heard about But then in 1937 they realized that they’d better start fixing the parts that they’d ruined Now the river is pretty straight, but it still floods—maybe worse than ever The channels fill up with silt But they’ll keep fixing it as long as new politicians are born”

Sae and show us the other side of the river?”

“Certainly,” said Tibor “We call that side Új-Szeged It ed’ The old city was all on the west side”

“Is the east side really new?”

“It was always here, of course, but the city has grown mostly in the ee, and they looked down on the river

“Can you take us along this side a few miles?”

“Sure,” said Tibor “It’s a beautiful, sunny day We have the sunniest city in Hungary”

He drove the until Sam could see they were near the spot that Albrecht had e open field that was planted with alfalfa and left fallow

“What is this land on the right?” asked Remi

“This? Oh, it’s just an old far the Co farovernment has been part of an effort by all the countries in the Danube basin to clean up the rivers They haven’t reopened the cattle farm It’s too dirty to be this close to the river”

“Can we stop and take a look?”

“Of course,” Tibor said He pulled over to the side of the road and parked Sam and Remi walked a bit on the field by themselves

“Well, we came,” said Remi, “and I don’t see anybody”

“No signs of recent digging either,” Sam said “Albrecht must have replaced the turf when he left and it hasn’t been disturbed”