Part 2

"It's supper time," Judy explained, looking up from the stove with a flushed face. "Hand me the salt, Jane--they like a lot of salt."

"'They?' _You mean you've been feeding the natives!_"

"We couldn't let them starve," Judy replied defiantly. "And, after all, it was all your fault they weren't gathering roots for food. If you hadn't gone and built them that handball court...!"

Ned looked accusingly at Danny. Danny lowered his eyes. "I suppose," he murmured to his wife, "'oup' means soup."

"You suppose correctly. And, if you two weren't such stubborn mules, you would realize that it was very clever of them to have learned the word. Get me the dehydrated potatoes, please, Jane; they're very nourishing."

Danny took off his helmet and ran his hands through his thick brown hair. "All right, so what if they do have a higher intelligence than Furbish thought? That still doesn't make them people. Still less does it make them our responsibility. How long are you proposing to run this soup kitchen, dear? You know, we were left with food supplies for four, not forty, or four hundred."

"They don't eat as much as we do," Jane put in, obviously quoting, "because of being smaller. And there are a lot of emergency stores in case Captain Harnick and the ship never come back, on account of being eaten by monsters or something. You thought we didn't know about that," she said proudly, "but we did."

"We don't have _that_ amount of supplies, of course," Judy rushed to inform them before either of the men could protest. "As soon as I've got the natives organized--" Ned and Dan exchanged glances "--I plan to teach them more efficient ways of gathering roots, so that they'll have time for both work and play."

"And I don't suppose you had planned to organize a few to do your housework, had you?" Dan asked penetratingly.

"Well, naturally, I would be spending a good deal of time on this project, so I should expect to get what help I could with my regular duties."

"The captain said--" Ned began.

"The captain said the natives weren't intelligent and he only warned us not to make pets of them or kill them. He said fortunately we couldn't exploit them, which, of course, I wouldn't do, even if we could. Anyhow, I believe it was Ned who tried to get them to help build the handball court, wasn't it?"

"What can we do?" Danny asked. "Harnick isn't here and she is."

* * * * *

"Now, remember this, girls," Ned admonished them, for the men were off on another mission, to chart the south pole this time--not that it was really so urgent, but the cottage had begun to take on the aspect of a Salvation Army Mission and was no longer homelike. "Feed the natives, if you must, but don't let any inside the house."

"How will we train them to do the housework then?" Judy wanted to know.

"It'll be a long time before you can get them to do that," Dan said diplomatically. "Why not try to teach them English first? They'll need to know it in order to follow your directions."

"That's true," Judy admitted.

"And it'll be a nice, healthy, out-of-doors occupation for you two." Ned pinched his wife's pale cheek. "You've been knocking yourself out, shug."

"I haven't worked half as hard as Judy has," Jane protested loyally. "And she does all the thinking besides."

"Yeah," said Ned. "She sure does. Why don't you take yourself a rest too, Jude?"

When the copter had gone, Judy sat herself down at the table with pencil and paper. "We must compile a list of suitable words to teach them. Let's figure out which ones are most important.... _Broom_," she said aloud as she scribbled, "and _sink_ and _dust_ and _laundry_...."

There was a thump at the door. They looked at each other. Under the lure of food, plus the attractions of a second handball court, the natives had been persuaded to withdraw their athletic endeavors from the vicinity of the house, so the knock could not be the result of a fortuitous stone.

Jane looked out of the window. "It's a very little native, and he's banging a can on the door. How cute!" Since there weren't enough serving utensils, cans had been distributed to the natives to be used as dishes. Even so, there hadn't been sufficient to go around, and the fact that this individual had been canny enough to pre-empt one for his exclusive use argued a superior mentality.

Judy got up and opened the door. "Oup," said the native, thrusting his tin forward suggestively. "Oup."

"It isn't time for supper, dear."

The native gave her a winning smile, and proposed an alternative. "Orridge," he said. "Orridge."

Both girls gasped. The natives had been fed other things besides soup, but heretofore none had used any word other than "oup" to describe food generically or specifically.

"Obviously he has linguistic aptitude," Judy decided. "Just the one to start teaching English to. Come on in, dear." She opened the door wider.

"Judy! You remember what Ned--what the boys said!"

"Oh, them! I can't give English lessons outside with all the natives throwing stones and howling. Besides, this is such a little fellow, he couldn't matter too much. And he is in already."

Which was undeniably true. The diminutive creature was not only in but engaged in tasting Judy's pencil. "Orridge," it said dubiously.

"No, dear. Pencil." Judy removed the implement from his grasp and made demonstrative marks on the paper.

"En-cil," the native agreed, putting out a small, slate-blue hand for it.

After a moment of hesitation, Judy allowed him to have the pencil. He took the paper and made marks of his own. "Oo-dee," he said proudly, handing the paper back to her.

His satisfaction was entirely justified, for on the paper there was a primitive but very life-like drawing of Judy herself.

"It isn't really so surprising," she said stoutly. "After all, they do live in caves.... And why are you wrinkling up your nose like that, Jane?"

"Oh, not the picture--it's just that--well--I didn't like to say it, but it is a little close in here and...." Jane looked apologetically at the native. He beamed at her. "I expect it's a difference in metabolism."

"I expect it's dirt," Judy contradicted. "I've often wondered whether they'd stay the same color if they were washed. Now's my chance to find out. How would you like a nice bath, dear?"

"Ath?" the creature repeated. "Orridge!"

"After your ath--bath, that is." Judy was already filling a large basin with warm water.

"But, Judy, maybe he isn't washable!"

"What do you think he'll do--shrink? Or run?" Judy looked at the native. "Come to think of it, he might run at that. Why don't you get out some of the music tapes, Jane, and play them to distract him?"

But the native loved being bathed. He loved the music tapes. And, at the end of his ablutions, he stood revealed as the possessor of not only a beautiful cerulean skin, but a fine, true soprano.

By the time Ned and Dan had returned from the south pole, the Furbishian Glee Club had been formed.

* * * * *

"I'd hoped to have come and gone before Christmas," Captain Harnick sighed discontentedly. "These isolated outposts are so depressing at holiday time."

"But think of the personnel, sir," the pilot told him with gentle reproach. "They have to spend _all_ their time here."

"You're right, Wilkins," the captain admitted shamefacedly. "It's a hard, dull life for them. And Furbish is particularly bad. Only four people on an otherwise uninhabited planet. They must go mad with the monotony. The weeks must seem like months, the months like years, the years--"

"Uninhabited, did you say?" Wilkins interrupted. "I could have sworn I saw a village down there. Of course it is growing dark, but still--aha, there it is!"

The captain leaned forward and peered into the dusk below. "By George, you're right! There seem to be a good two dozen houses there. Now, how could that have happened?"

"Good solid stone buildings too--definitely not native huts."

"Of course the survey team was composed of both males and females," the captain muttered, "but, no, reproduction alone couldn't account for this, not in five years, even if you do allow for the mysterious influence of cosmic rays."

"What's all that light!" Lieutenant Wilkins exclaimed. "Damned if it doesn't look like a Christmas tree."

It was a Christmas tree, thirty feet tall, composed of interlaced branches and illuminated bladders. And, as the scout ship settled gently to the ground, its occupants could hear a chorus of sweet, true voices coming to them through the frosty air: "Ark uh er-ald an-gels ing/ O-ry oo uh oo-orn ing;/ Eace on Urbish and ercy i-yuld...."

"It's a hallucination," the captain said, rubbing his eyes. "We've been too long in space."

Lights came moving toward them through the darkness, and there was the babble of excited voices. "Captain Harnick!" Ned McComb cried. "We thought you were never coming!" All four members of the survey team crowded around the scout ship, shaking hands and talking at once. They looked fit, the captain noticed, although thin and strangely pale in the torchlight.

"We have so much to tell you!" Judy cried. "So much has been happening here we've hardly had time to turn around. I never knew five years could pass so rapidly."

Harnick and Wilkins looked at one another. They climbed out of the ship, and saw the choristers--a dozen small creatures in soft, lovely hues of blue and violet, standing in a semicircle nearby, regarding the newcomers without fear, as they continued to pipe lustily: "I-lent ight, O-ly ight;/ All is alm, all is ight...."

"You were entirely wrong about the natives, you know." Judy linked her arm through the captain's as she drew him through the cottage. "They're not only remarkably intelligent, but talented. Don't they sing beautifully? And you should see the murals they've done!"

"_The natives!_" Suspicion became certainty. "Then this," the captain thundered, pointing to the neat rows of stone houses, "is their work. You've enslaved them!"

"But you said there was no intelligent life on this planet, sir," Wilkins protested, bewildered.

The captain shrugged. "The fauna didn't seem to be intelligent, but the preliminary survey was sketchy. We may have been mistaken. We didn't even think they could communicate with one another."

"They couldn't," Judy told him. "It simply had never occurred to them to communicate, because they hadn't anything to say at that time."

"But we gave them something to say," Jane added happily.

"And something to do, also," the captain grunted. "You've exploited the poor beasts. Making them build houses and--"

"Don't misunderstand, captain," Dan said, with a peculiar smile. "The natives aren't exploited. They love what they're doing ... and what's being done for them."

"And besides," Ned contributed, "it was we who built the houses for them. Shame they should have to live in caves like animals. There aren't nearly enough buildings yet, but, after all, there were only four of us. I think we did pretty well, considering."

"And it's been so rewarding, too." Jane flung open the door of the prefab, as she spoke. It was, Harnick noticed, by far the least imposing edifice in the community. "You must listen to some of the music they've composed! Lucky thing we brought a recorder with us; you'll undoubtedly want to take some of the tapes back with you."

"Elcome oo Urbish, entlemen," they were greeted by a bright blue native, who was lolling in the best chair and showed no signs of rising. "Oodee," it, or he, complained, "it's oo ot in ere."

"I've shown you how to work the thermostat, dear," Judy said gently, as she adjusted the device. "They don't seem to have any aptitude for mechanical things," she explained, as she removed her heat suit, "but they're so marvellous in the arts you couldn't really ask for more."

"I'm afraid, sir," Wilkins whispered, "that the Terrestrial Government has another colony on its hands." The captain nodded gloomily.

* * * * *

They removed their heat suits. The temperature of the room was much too low for terrestrial comfort. And there was a peculiar odor which seemed to be emanating from a large pot that bubbled on the stove. None of the standard rations allotted to the team could possibly smell like that, Harnick knew; he hoped the young people had not been experimenting with the local vegetables. There was a regulation against that.

Either there was something wrong with the light or with his eyes, for the faces of the four team members appeared to have a distinct bluish tinge. On the other hand, Lieutenant Wilkins' visage seemed as comfortably rosy as ever.

"You won't recognize the place, sir!" Ned declared enthusiastically, as he took their suits. "We've built them tennis courts and a swimming pool; they're as apt at sport as art."

"Only thing they don't seem to take to," Danny Field murmured, "is work."

The other three glared. "Culture is far more important!" his wife snapped. "And I trust you'll be able to spare us a lot more personnel for the post," she addressed Harnick, "because we need to build a stadium. And possibly a museum. And a school, of course."

"You don't want to go back then?" Wilkins asked curiously.

All four shook their heads. "We have a mission here now," Judy said.

"Look," Harnick protested, knowing it was no use, "the Earth Government's intention was only to use Furbish as a fueling and repair station."

"Fuel!" Judy snorted. "I don't know whether it would even be right to let the government ships land here. Those coarse, uncultured crews might contaminate our natives; they're so impressionable, you know."

"But isn't it wonderful," Jane, the peacemaker, put in, "how they've thrived on terrestrial food. I think that must have a lot to do with the remarkable way they've developed."

Harnick's anger was lost in shock. "You mean you've been giving them your rations? But surely there wasn't that much food, even with the emergency stores!"

"Well," said Judy, "they don't eat as much as we do, of course. And you'd be surprised how tasty the native roots are. We've grown quite fond of them; in fact, I doubt whether we'd be able to stomach terrestrial food by now."

The odor from the pot grew stronger and even less appetizing. There was nothing wrong with either the light, Harnick realized, or his eyes. The faces of the four members of the survey team were really quite blue.

THE END