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Americans drank beer. 1 told her a great many Americans never 
drank either wine or beer, that I had never had. They regarded 
it as a peculiar custom. It made ay hair stand on end to see the 
way mi so drank wine, hut 1 concluded that her old grandmother had 
probably been drinking it all her life. It is astonishing what 
the hum® body oan adjust itself to. I had en awful time trying to 
understand. I knew 1 would have, so I came prepared with pencils and 
a block of paper and we wrote to each other in irench, when w© failed 
to understand. The grandmother kept on beaming and talking as if • 
I understood. Saturday afternoon we walked out into the country. 
The wheat was about ready to cut. They plant the wheat in rows, 
as we do com, with a deep groove between. It looked very wasteful 
of space. There was a string of people that cam© to call on lime 
balade that evening as we sat out on the back porch. I realized 
that I was distinguised for once in ay life. They all wanted to 
know how old I was. '.Then me 3 told them (she had asked me) they 
all expressed polite surprise. It reminded me of the community in 
the Guadeloupe ats of fleeter* Texas, where they did the same thing. 
It was great day for KLise. I had taken her some little gifts and 
also a box of eandy. She took them all off to show her girl friends, 
and came back with not a piece gone from the box of candy! Then she 
' asked ae to take the first piece— but she had wanted to show it in 
all its glory, and think of showing it without giving any! Sunday ' 
morning we went to the public bath on the outskirts of the town, 
where there is a great spring. The country is as beautiful as Uor 
candy. I had to leave before supper Sunday so Sfcae falade put up 
some lunch for me- she started to put in all that^was^left of the 
chicken, but I dissuaded her. She came up to 8©*4e**s with me and 
returned on a late train. We walked out along the river Gironde 
i J 
elad I went, both to se 
1 
