TOBACCO LEAVES 



good from evil, for I had not yet tasted 

 the forbidden joy. For me there was Puri- 

 tan asceticism on the one hand the witch- 

 ery of the world on the other. And I was 

 still young. Witchery stood for sin. 

 Pleasure, that had pleasure for its own 

 sole excuse, was voluptuousness a snare 

 and a wile and a device of the Evil One 

 with two capital letters ; not the benevolent 

 indulgence of an all-loving Father. 



And the jade tempted me and I fell. 



It was of a Sunday afternoon, a long 

 summer day. Sick to desperation with 

 heimweh; with nothing to read in the 

 camp ; scruple-bound too fast and too 

 hard to join in the pursuit of the only 

 game to be found at that hour of the day 

 draw-poker. I watched with empty 

 and longing soul my comrades' calm con- 

 tent as they puffed their pipes, and dream- 

 ily traced the smoke wreaths lazily and 

 gracefully floating upward. 



151 



