MD3PAD 763-765

[Toby G Levy]

        Doctor Isaac demands proof he was named after Isaac Newton and
William tells Isaac to ask aunt Hettie.

        Mason hears of Dixon's death and resolves to go pay his
respects. Doctor Isaac asks to go with him, but Mason's father doesn't
want to let him off work.  By my calculations, Isaac is 21 years old at
this time.Mason offers to pay his father for the time the boy is gone,
but the father doesn't believe Mason has the money.

        It is cold as Mason and his son journey north. When they stop
overnight, Mason tells Isaac stories about Dixon. He tells of the time
that Benjamin Franklin, in a Dr. Frankenstein type laboratory complete
with an Igor-like assistant named Ingvarr, gives Dixon an intense taste
of what electric shock feels like.  Franklin says at one point "Fine
with me, as Howard says to Howard" and the Hyperarts Mason and Dixon
alpha claims this is a reference to the Three Stooges, but I doubt that.
More likely an 18th century expression, but I couldn't find it.

        The next morning Isaac asks Mason if he ever did Dixon's
horoscope.  Mason says he did it but never told Dixon. He thinks Dixon
did the same to him. He tells Isaac that he and Dixon talked about their
children to each other and Isaac thinks that they were contemplating
match making.

Toby