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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Venus Trap, by Evelyn E. Smith
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Venus Trap
+
+Author: Evelyn E. Smith
+
+Illustrator: Dick Francis
+
+Release Date: March 10, 2010 [EBook #31583]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENUS TRAP ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Josephine Paolucci and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Venus Trap
+
+By EVELYN E. SMITH
+
+Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS
+
+Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction
+June 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.
+
+     One thing Man never counted on to take along into space with
+     him was the Eternal Triangle--especially a true-blue
+     triangle like this!
+
+
+"What's the matter, darling?" James asked anxiously. "Don't you like the
+planet?"
+
+"Oh, I love the planet," Phyllis said. "It's beautiful."
+
+It was. The blue--really blue--grass, blue-violet shrubbery and,
+loveliest of all, the great golden tree with sapphire leaves and pale
+pink blossoms, instead of looking alien, resembled nothing so much as a
+fairy-tale version of Earth.
+
+Even the fragrance that filled the atmosphere was completely delightful
+to Terrestrial nostrils--which was unusual, for most other planets, no
+matter how well adapted for colonization otherwise, tended, from the
+human viewpoint, anyway, to stink. Not that they were not colonized
+nevertheless, for the population of Earth was expanding at too great a
+rate to permit merely olfactory considerations to rule out an otherwise
+suitable planet. This particular group of settlers had been lucky,
+indeed, to have drawn a planet as pleasing to the nose as to the
+eye--and, moreover, free from hostile aborigines.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+As a matter of fact, the only apparent evidence of animate life were the
+small, bright-hued creatures winging back and forth through the clear
+air, and which resembled Terrestrial birds so closely that there had
+seemed no point to giving them any other name. There were insects, too,
+although not immediately perceptible--but the ones like bees were devoid
+of stings and the butterflies never had to pass through the grub stage
+but were born in the fullness of their beauty.
+
+However, fairest of all the creatures on the planet to James Haut--just
+then, anyhow--was his wife, and the expression on her face was not a
+lovely one.
+
+"You do feel all right, don't you?" he asked. "The light gravity gets
+some people at first."
+
+"Yes, I guess I'm all right. I'm still a little shaken, though, and you
+know it's not the gravity."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He would have liked to take her in his arms and say something
+comforting, reassuring, but the constraint between them had not yet been
+worn off. Although he had sent her an ethergram nearly every day of the
+voyage, the necessarily public nature of the messages had kept them from
+achieving communication in the deeper sense of the word.
+
+"Well, I suppose you did have a bit of a shock," he said lamely.
+"Somehow, I thought I had told you in my 'grams."
+
+"You told me plenty in the 'grams, but not quite enough, it seems."
+
+Her words didn't seem to make sense; the strain had evidently been a
+little too much. "Maybe you ought to go inside and lie down for a
+while."
+
+"I will, just as soon as I feel less wobbly." She brushed back the long,
+light brown hair which had got tumbled when she fainted. He remembered a
+golden rather than a reddish tinge in it, but that had been under the
+yellow sun of Earth; under the scarlet sun of this planet, it took on a
+different beauty.
+
+"How come the preliminary team didn't include--_it_ in their report?"
+she asked, avoiding his appreciative eye.
+
+"They didn't know. We didn't find out ourselves until we'd sent that
+first message to Earth. I suppose by the time we did relay the news, you
+were on your way."
+
+"Yes, that must have been it."
+
+The preliminary exploration team had established the fact that the
+planet was more or less Earth-type, that its air was breathable, its
+temperature agreeably springlike, its mineral composition very similar
+to Earth's, with only slight traces of unknown elements, that there was
+plenty of drinkable water and no threatening life-forms. Human beings
+could, therefore, live on it.
+
+It remained for the scout team to determine whether human beings would
+_want_ to live on it--whether, in fact, they themselves would want to,
+because, if so, they had the option of becoming the first settlers. That
+was the way the system worked and, in the main, it worked well enough.
+
+After less than two weeks, this scout team had beamed back to Earth the
+message that the planet was suitable for colonization, so suitable that
+they would like to give it the name of Elysium, if there was no
+objection.
+
+There would be none, Earth had replied, so long as the pioneers bore in
+mind the fact that six other planets had previously been given that
+name, and a human colony currently existed on only one of those. No need
+to worry about a conflict of nomenclature, however, because the name of
+that other planet Elysium had subsequently been changed by unanimous
+vote of settlers to Hades.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After this somewhat sinister piece of information, Earth had added the
+more cheerful news that the wives and families of the scouts would soon
+be on their way, bringing with them the tools and implements necessary
+to transform the wilderness of the frontier into another Earth. In the
+meantime, the men were to set up the packaged buildings with which all
+scout ships were equipped, so that when the women came, homes would be
+ready for them.
+
+The men set to work and, before the month was out, they discovered that
+Elysium was neither a wilderness nor a frontier. It was populated by an
+intelligent race which had developed its culture to the limit of its
+physical abilities--actually well beyond the limit of what the astounded
+Terrestrials could have conceived its physical abilities to be--then,
+owing to unavoidable disaster, had started to die out.
+
+The remaining natives were perspicacious enough to see in the
+Terrestrials' coming not a threat but a last hope of revivifying their
+own moribund species. Accordingly, the Earthmen were encouraged to go
+ahead building on the sites originally selected, the only ban being on
+the type of construction materials used--and a perfectly reasonable one
+under the circumstances.
+
+James had built his cottage near the largest, handsomest tree in the
+area allotted to him; since there were no hostile life-forms, there was
+no need for a closely knit community. Everyone who had seen it agreed
+that his house was the most attractive one of all, for, although it was
+only a standard prefab, he had used taste and ingenuity to make it a
+little different from the other unimaginative homes.
+
+And now Phyllis, for whom he had performed all this labor of love, for
+whom he had waited five long months--the tedium of which had been broken
+only by the intellectual pleasure of teaching English to a sympathetic
+native neighbor--Phyllis seemed unappreciative. She had hardly looked at
+the inside of the cottage, when he had shown her through, and now was
+staring at the outside in a blank sort of way.
+
+The indoctrination courses had not, he reflected, reconciled her to the
+frontiersman's necessarily simple mode of living--which was ironic,
+considering that one of her original attractions for him had been her
+apparent suitability for the pioneer life. She was a big girl, radiantly
+healthy, even though a little green at the moment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He just managed to keep his voice steady. "You don't like the house--is
+that it?
+
+"But I _do_ like it. Honestly I do." She touched his arm diffidently.
+"Everything would be perfect if only--"
+
+"If only what? Is it the curtains? I'm sorry if you don't like them. I
+brought them all the way from Earth in case the planet turned out to be
+habitable. I thought blue was your favorite color."
+
+"Oh, it is, it is! I'm mad about the curtains."
+
+Perhaps it wasn't the house that disappointed her; perhaps it was he
+himself who hadn't lived up to dim memory and ardent expectation.
+
+"If you want to know what _is_ bothering me--" she glanced up
+apprehensively, lowering her voice as she did--"it's that tree. It's
+stuck on you; I just know it is."
+
+He laughed. "Now where did you get a preposterous idea like that, Phyl?
+You've been on the planet exactly twenty-four hours and--"
+
+"--and I have, in my luggage, one hundred and thirty-two ethergrams
+talking about practically nothing but Magnolia this, Magnolia that. Oh,
+I had my suspicions even before I landed, James. The only thing I didn't
+suspect was that she was a _tree_!"
+
+"What are you talking about, honey? Magnolia and I--we're just friends."
+
+"Purely a platonic relationship, I assure you," the tree herself agreed.
+It would have been silly for her to pretend not to have overheard, since
+the two were still standing almost directly underneath her. "Purely
+platonic."
+
+"She's more like a sister to me," James tried to explain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Phyllis stiffened. "Frankly, if I had imagined I was going to have a
+tree for a sister-in-law, I would have thought before I married you,
+James." Bursting into tears, she ran inside the cottage.
+
+"Sorry," he said miserably to Magnolia. "It's a long trip out from Earth
+and an uncomfortable one. I don't suppose the other women were
+especially nice to her, either. Faculty wives mostly and you know how
+they are.... No, I don't suppose you would. But she shouldn't have acted
+that way toward you."
+
+"Not your fault," Magnolia told him, sighing with such intensity that he
+could feel the humidity rise. "I know how you've been looking forward to
+her arrival. Rather a letdown, isn't it?"
+
+"Oh, I'm sure it'll be all right." He tried to sound confident. "And I
+know you'll like Phyllis when you get to know her."
+
+"Possibly, but so far I'm afraid I must admit--since there never has
+been any pretense between us--that she is a bit of a disappointment.
+I--and my sisters also--had expected your females, when they came, to be
+as upright and true blue as you. Instead, what are they? Shrubs."
+
+The door to the cottage flew open. "A shrub, am I!" Phyllis brandished
+an axe which, James winced to recall, was an item of the equipment he
+had ordered from Earth before the scout team had learned that the trees
+were intelligent. "I'll shrub you!"
+
+"Phyllis!" He wrested the axe from her grip. "That would be murder!"
+
+"'Woodman,' as the Terrestrial poem goes," the tree remarked, "'spare
+that tree! Touch not a single bough! In youth it sheltered me and I'll
+protect it now!'"
+
+Good of her to take the whole thing so calmly--rather, to pretend to
+take it so calmly, for he knew how sensitive Magnolia really was--but he
+was afraid this show of moral courage would not diminish Phyllis's
+dislike for her; those without self-control seldom appreciate those who
+have it.
+
+"If you'll excuse us," he said, putting his arm around his wife's
+heaving shoulders, "I'd better see to Phyllis; she's a little upset.
+Holdover from spacesickness, I expect. Poor girl, she's a long way from
+home and frightened."
+
+"I understand, Jim," Magnolia told him, "and, remember, whatever
+happens, you can always count on me."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I must say you're not a very admirable representative of Terrestrial
+womanhood!" James snapped, as soon as the door had slammed behind him
+and his wife, leaving them alone together in the principal room of the
+cottage. "Insulting the very first native you meet!"
+
+"I did not either insult her. All I said was, 'What beautiful
+flowers--do you suppose the fruit is edible?' How was I to know
+it--_she_ could understand? Naturally I wouldn't dream of eating her
+fruit now. It would probably taste nasty anyway. And how do you think
+_I_ felt when a _tree_ answered me back? You don't care that I fainted
+dead away, and I've never fainted before in my life. All you care about
+is that old vegetable's feelings! It was bad enough, feeling for five
+months that someone had come between us, but to find out it wasn't
+some_one_ but some_thing_--!"
+
+"Phyllis," he said coldly, "I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in
+your head."
+
+Dropping into the overstuffed chair, his wife dabbed at her eyes with a
+handkerchief. "She wasn't so very polite to me!"
+
+"Look, Phyllis--" he strove to make his voice calm, adult,
+reasonable--"you happened to have hit on rather a touchy point with her.
+Those trees are dioecious, you know, like us, and she isn't mated. And,
+well, she has rather a lot of xylem zones--rings, you know."
+
+"Are you trying to tell me she's old?"
+
+"Well, she's no sapling any more. And, consideration aside, you know
+it's government's policy for us to establish good relations with any
+intelligent life-form we have to share a planet with. You weren't in
+there trying."
+
+Phyllis put away her handkerchief with what he hoped would be a final
+sniff. "I suppose I shouldn't have acted that way," she conceded.
+
+"Now you're talking like my own dear Phyllis," James said tenderly,
+though, as a matter of fact, he had a very remote idea of what his own
+dear Phyllis was like. He had met her only a couple of months before the
+scout mission was scheduled, and so their courtship had been brief, and
+the actual weeks of marriage even briefer. He had remembered Phyllis as
+beautiful--and she was beautiful. He had not, however, remembered her as
+pig-headed--and pig-headed she was, too.
+
+"How come she hasn't a mate? I didn't think trees were choosy."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He wouldn't take exception to that statement, uncharitable though it
+was; after all, someone whose only acquaintance with trees had been with
+the Terrestrial variety would naturally be incapable of appreciating the
+total tree at its highest development.
+
+"It's a great tragedy," he told her in a hushed tone. "There was a
+blight some years back and most of the male trees died off, except for a
+few on the other side of the planet--well out of bee-shot, even if the
+females there would let the females here have any pollen, which they
+absolutely won't."
+
+"I don't blame them," Phyllis said coldly. Of course she would identify
+at once with the trees whose domestic lives seemed to be threatened.
+
+"It's not that so much. It's that the male trees produce so little
+pollen."
+
+"This would be a good place for people with hay fever then, wouldn't
+it?"
+
+"And even when there is fruit, so much of it tends to be
+parthenocarpous--no seeds." He sighed. "The entire race is dying out."
+
+"How is it you know so much about botany?" she asked suspiciously. "It's
+not your field."
+
+"I don't know so very much, really," he smiled. "I had to learn a
+little, if I wanted to work the land, so I borrowed an elementary text
+from Cutler." Had he been a trifle idealistic in quitting his snug, if
+uninspiring, job on the faculty to join in this Utopian venture? So many
+of the other men at the university had enrolled, it had seemed a
+splendid idea until Phyllis's arrival.
+
+"Daddy never had any trouble working his land and he doesn't know a
+thing about botany. You've been boning up on it just to please _her_!"
+
+"Phyllis! How can you jump to conclusions without a shred of evidence?"
+Not that she wouldn't be able to collect such evidence later, because
+the allegation happened to be correct. _If, instead of coming to
+Elysium, I had merely gone to China, would she have thought it so odd
+that I studied Chinese? Then why, where the natives are trees, shouldn't
+I study botany? The woman is unreasonable._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"And will her--people let you farm?"
+
+Now he could show her how cogently and comprehensively he could answer a
+logical question. "That aspect of the situation will be all right, dear,
+because only the trees are an intelligent species and, even of them,
+some aren't so bright. They won't have any more objection to our eating
+the other fruit and vegetables than we would have to an
+extraterrestrial's eating our eggs and chickens, for example. We're
+going to try to introduce some Earth plants here, though, as the higher
+forms of vegetation are dying out and we're afraid the lower might
+follow. Pity it's too late for a sound conservation program."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Phyllis said grimly, "She doesn't think it's too late for a sound
+conservation program. She still has hopes--far-fetched, maybe, and I'm
+not so sure they are. Mark my words, James, she's got designs on _you_."
+
+"Don't be idiotic," he protested. "That would be--" he attempted to
+introduce a light note--"it would be miscegenation."
+
+"These foreigners can't be expected to have our standards." And she
+burst into tears again. "A fine thing to go through that miserable
+five-month trip only to find out a tree has alienated my husband's
+affections."
+
+"Oh, come on, Phyl!" He still was trying for a smile. "What would a tree
+see in me?"
+
+"I'm beginning to wonder what I saw in you. You never loved me; you just
+wanted a wife to come out and colonize with you and b-b-breed."
+
+What could he say? It was almost true. Phyllis was a beautiful girl and
+he loved her, but, if he had planned to remain as an instructor with the
+Romance Languages Department instead of joining the scout mission, he
+knew he would never have asked her to be his wife ... for her sake, of
+course, as well as his own. He should say something to reassure her, but
+the words wouldn't come.
+
+"I don't like it here," Phyllis sobbed. "I don't like blue leaves. I
+don't like blue grass. I like them green, the way they're supposed to
+be. I hate this nasty planet. It's all wrong. I want to go home."
+
+She was very young--less than eight years younger than he, true, but he
+was mature for his age. They didn't know each other very well. And,
+finally, there were more men than women on the planet and he had noticed
+that the bachelors had seemed readily disposed, upon her arrival the day
+before, to overlook the fact that she had no college degree. So he must
+be patient with her.
+
+"There's nothing wrong about it, dear. The plants here synthesize
+cyanophyll instead of chlorophyll; that's why the leaves are blue
+instead of green. And, of course, there are different mineral
+constituents of the soil--more aluminum and copper, for instance, than
+on Earth, and some elements we haven't quite isolated yet. So, you see,
+they're bound to be a little different from Terrestrial trees."
+
+"A little different I wouldn't mind," she said sulkily, "but they're a
+lot different without being nearly alien enough."
+
+"Look, Phyllis--_dear_--those trees have been very hospitable, very
+kind. We owe them a lot. They themselves suggested that we come here and
+live with them in, so to speak, symbiosis."
+
+"That's a fine idea!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He beamed. "I knew you'd understand after I had explained it to you."
+
+"We provide the brains and they provide the furniture."
+
+"Phyllis! What a thing to say!"
+
+"I've heard of man-eating trees before. I suppose there could be
+man-loving ones, too."
+
+"Phyllis, these trees are as gentle and sweet as--as--" He didn't know
+how he could explain it to her. No one who had never been friends with a
+tree could appreciate the true beauty of the xylemic character. "Why, we
+even offered to go over to the other side of the planet and fetch some
+pollen for them, but they wouldn't hear of it. Unfortunately, they'd
+rather die than be mated to anyone they had never met."
+
+"What a perfectly disgusting idea!"
+
+"I don't think so. Trees can be idealistic--"
+
+"You fetching pollen for her, I mean. Naturally she wouldn't want pollen
+from a tree on the other side of the planet. She wants _you_!"
+
+"Don't be silly. Incompatibility usually exists between the pollen of
+one species and the stigmata of another. Besides," he added patiently,
+"I haven't got pollen."
+
+"You'd better not, or it won't be her who'll have the stigmata."
+
+"Phyllis--" he sat down on the arm of her chair and tried to embrace
+her--"you know that you're the only life-form I love."
+
+"Please, James." She pushed him away. "I guess I love you, too, in spite
+of everything ... but I don't want to make a public spectacle of
+myself."
+
+"What do you mean now?"
+
+"That tree would know everything that goes on. She's telepathic."
+
+"Where did you get a ridiculous idea like that? What kind of rubbish
+have you been reading?"
+
+"All right, tell me: how else did she learn to speak such good English?"
+
+"It's because she's of a very high order of intelligence. And I
+suppose--" he laughed modestly--"because I'm such a good teacher."
+
+"I don't care how good a teacher you are--a tree couldn't learn to speak
+a language so well in five months. She must be telepathic. It's the only
+explanation."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Give her time," the tree advised later, as James came out on the lawn
+to talk to his only friend on the planet.
+
+He hadn't seen much of the other scouts since the house-building frenzy
+had started, and visits among the men had decreased. The base camp,
+where the bachelors and the older married couples lived, was located a
+good distance away from his land, for he had raised his honeymoon
+cottage far from the rest; he had wanted to have his Phyllis all to
+himself. In the idyll he had visualized for the two of them, she would
+need no company but his. Little had he imagined that, within twenty-four
+hours of her arrival, he would be looking for company himself.
+
+"I suppose so," he said, kicking at a root. "Oh, I'm sorry, Maggie; I
+didn't think."
+
+"That's all right," Magnolia said bravely. "It didn't really hurt. That
+female has got you all upset, you poor boy."
+
+James muttered a feeble defense of his wife.
+
+"Jim, forgive me if I speak frankly," the tree went on in a low rustle,
+"but do you think she's really worthy of you?"
+
+"Of course she is!"
+
+"Surely on your planet you could have found a mate more admirable,
+high-minded, exemplary--more, in short, like yourself. Or are all the
+human females inferior specimens like Phyllis?"
+
+"They're--she suits me," James said doggedly.
+
+"Of course, of course. It's very noble of you to defend her; you would
+have disappointed me if you had said anything else, and I honor you for
+it, James."
+
+He kicked at one of the pebbles. The tree meant well, he knew, yet, like
+so many well-meaning friends, she succeeded only in dispiriting him. It
+was almost like being back at the faculty club.
+
+"I don't suppose a clod like her would have brought any more books
+along," the tree changed the subject. James's own library had been
+insufficient to slake the tree's intellectual thirst, so he had gone all
+over the planet to borrow books for Magnolia. Dr. Lakin, at Base, who
+had formerly taught English literature, possessed a fine collection
+which he had been reluctant to lend until he had learned that they were
+not for James but for a tree. At that, he had fetched the books himself,
+since he was anxious to meet her.
+
+"A lot of the trees here have learned the English language," he had told
+James, "but none seems to have developed a taste for its literature.
+Your Magnolia is undoubtedly a superior specimen. Excellent natural
+taste, too--perhaps a little unformed when it comes to poetry and the
+more sophisticated aspects of life, but she'll learn, she'll learn."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Unfortunately, the same, James knew, could hardly be said of his wife.
+"Phyllis did bring some books," he told Magnolia.
+
+"For you, no doubt. That was kind of her. I'm sure she has many good
+qualities which will unfold one by one, as her meristems start
+differentiating. I hope you don't feel I've been too--well, personal,
+Jim. I was only trying to help. If I've gone too far...."
+
+"Of course not, Maggie. After all--" he laughed bitterly--"I do know you
+better than I know her."
+
+"We _have_ been good friends, haven't we, Jim? It was rather nice--these
+five months we spent alone together. For the first time in my life, I
+have never regretted being so far from my sisters. 'And this our life,
+exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running
+brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.'"
+
+Her blue leaves shone violet in the scarlet rays of the setting sun; the
+gold of her trunk was lit with red radiance. She was the most beautiful
+creature he had ever seen ... but she was a tree, not a woman.
+
+"I'm sure she'll fit in after a while," Magnolia continued. "Perhaps she
+isn't well. She seems to guttate an awful lot. Do you suppose she's been
+overwatered?"
+
+"That wasn't guttation," James said heavily. "It was tears. It means
+she's unhappy."
+
+"Unhappy? Perhaps she won't fit in on this planet, in which case she
+should by all means go back to Earth. It's cruel and unfair to keep an
+intelligent--loosely speaking--life-form anywhere against her will,
+don't you think?"
+
+"She'll be happy here," James vowed. "I'll _make_ her happy."
+
+"Well, I certainly hope you can manage it! By the way, do you suppose
+you'll have a chance to read me the books she brought, or will she be
+keeping you too busy?"
+
+"I'll never be too busy to read to you, Magnolia."
+
+"That's very nitrogenous of you, Jim. Our--intellectual communions have
+meant a lot to me. I'd hate to have to give them up."
+
+"So would I," he said. "But there won't be any need to. Phyllis will
+understand."
+
+"I certainly hope so. I so admire your English literature. It's so
+deeply cognizant of the really meaningful things in life. And if your
+coming to this planet has served only to add poetry to our cultural
+heritage, it would be reason enough to welcome you with open limbs. For
+it was a truly perceptive versifier who wrote the immortally simple
+lines: 'Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.'
+
+"And such a charming tune to go with it, too," Magnolia went on. "We
+have always sung the music that the wind and the rain have taught us,
+but, until you came, we never thought of putting words and melody
+together to form one glorious whole. 'A tree that may in summer wear,'"
+she caroled in a pleasing contralto, "'a nest of robins in her hair.' By
+the way, Jim, ever since reading that poem, I've been meaning to ask you
+precisely what are robins and do you think they'd look well in my hair,
+by which, I suppose the bard refers, in a somewhat pedestrian flight of
+fancy, to leaves?"
+
+"They're a kind of bird," he said drearily.
+
+"Birds--nesting in my hair! I wouldn't think of allowing it. But then I
+suppose Terrestrial birds are quite different from ours? More
+housebroken, shall we say?"
+
+"Everything's different," James said and, for an irrational moment, he
+hated everything that was blue that should have been green, everything
+sweet that should have been vicious, everything intelligent that should
+have been mindless.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Since matters could not grow much worse, they improved to a degree.
+After a day or two had passed, Phyllis, being a conscientious girl, came
+to realize how wrong it had been for her as a Terrestrial immigrant to
+show overt hostility toward a native of the planet that had welcomed
+her.
+
+"But how can she be a--a person?" Phyllis wanted to know, when they were
+inside the cottage, for she had learned to hold her tongue when they
+were near Magnolia or any of her sisters, who, though they could not
+speak the language as fluently as she, understood it very well and
+eavesdropped at every possible opportunity in order, they said, to
+improve their accents. "She's a tree. A plant. And plants are just
+vegetables." She stabbed her needle energetically through the tablecloth
+she was embroidering.
+
+"You mustn't project Terrestrial attitudes upon Elysian ones," James
+said, patiently looking up from his book. "And don't underestimate
+Magnolia's capabilities. She has sense organs, and motor organs, too.
+She can't move from where she is, because she's rooted to the ground,
+but she's capable of turgor movements, like certain Terrestrial forms of
+vegetation--for example, the sensitive plant or blue grass."
+
+"Blue grass," Phyllis exclaimed. "I'm sick of blue grass. I want green
+grass."
+
+"However, these trees have conscious control of their _pulvini_, whereas
+the Earth's plants don't, and so they can do a lot of things that Earth
+plants can't."
+
+"It sounds like a dirty word to me."
+
+"_Pulvini_ merely means motor organs."
+
+"Oh."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He closed his book, which was a more advanced botany text, covered with
+the jacket of a French novel in order to spare Phyllis's feelings.
+"Darling, can't you get it through your pretty head that they're
+intelligent life-forms? If it'll make it easier for you to think of them
+as human beings who happen to look like trees, then do that."
+
+"That's exactly what I _am_ doing. And I'm quite sure she thinks of you
+as a tree who happens to look like a human being."
+
+"Phyllis, sometimes I think you're being deliberately difficult. Do you
+know one of the reasons why I took such pains to teach Magnolia English?
+It was that I hoped she would be a companion for you, that you could
+talk to each other when I had to be away from home."
+
+"Why do you call her Magnolia? She isn't a lot like one."
+
+"Isn't she? I thought she was. You see, I don't know so much botany,
+after all." Actually, he had picked that name for the tree because it
+expressed both the arboreal and the feminine at the same time--and also
+because it was one of the loveliest names he knew. But he couldn't tell
+Phyllis that; there would be further misunderstanding. "Of course she
+has a name in her own language, but I can't pronounce it."
+
+"They _do_ have a language of their own then?"
+
+"Naturally, though they don't get much chance to speak it, since they've
+grown so few and far apart that verbal communication has become
+difficult. They communicate by a network of roots that they've
+developed."
+
+"I don't think that's so clever."
+
+"I merely said ... oh, what's the use of trying to explain everything to
+you? You just don't want to understand."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Phyllis put down her needlework and closed her eyes. "James," she said,
+opening them again, "it's no use pretending. I've been trying to be
+sympathetic and understanding, but I can't do it. That tree--I've forced
+myself to be nice to her, but the more I see of her, the more convinced
+I am that she's trying to steal you from me."
+
+Phyllis was beginning to poison his mind, he thought, because it had
+seemed to him also, in his last conversation with Magnolia, that he had
+discerned more than ordinary warmth in her attitude toward him ... and
+perhaps a trace of spite toward his wife?
+
+Preposterous! The tree had only been trying to cheer him up as any
+friend might reasonably do. After all, a tree and a man.... Nonsense!
+One had an anabolic metabolism, one a catabolic.
+
+But this was a different kind of tree. She spoke, she read, she was
+capable of conscious turgor movements. And he, he had often thought
+secretly, was a different kind of man. Whereas Phyllis....
+
+But that was disloyalty--to the type as well as the individual. The tree
+could be a companion to him, but she could not give him sons to work his
+land; she could not give him daughters to populate his planet; moreover,
+she did not, could not possibly know what human love meant, while
+Phyllis could at least learn.
+
+"Look, dear," he said, sitting down beside his wife on the couch and
+taking her hand in his. She didn't draw away this time. "Suppose that
+what you say is true--not that it is, of course. Just because the tree
+has a crush on me doesn't mean I necessarily have a crush on her, does
+it?"
+
+His wife looked up at him, her rose-red lips parted, her moss-gray eyes
+shining. "Oh, if only I could believe that, James!"
+
+"Anyhow, she doesn't know what the whole thing's about, poor kid!"
+
+"Poor _kid_!"
+
+"Phyllis, you know you're prettier than any tree." That was not
+literally true, but reason was useless; he had to make his point in
+terms she could understand. "And, remember, she's got a lot of
+rings--she must be centuries old--while you are only nineteen."
+
+"Twenty," Phyllis corrected. "I had a birthday on the ship."
+
+"Well, you certainly must allow me to wish you a happy birthday,
+darling."
+
+She was in his arms at last; he was about to kiss her, and the tree
+seemed very remote, when she drew back. "But are you sure she
+doesn't--she isn't--she can't be watching us?"
+
+"Darling, I swear it!" "_Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips
+with silver all these fruit-tree tops_".... But he had sense enough not
+to say it, and Elysium had not one blessed moon, but three, and
+everything was all right.
+
+For a while anyway.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"I see your wife is developing a corm," the tree remarked, as James
+paused for a chat. He hadn't much time to be sociable those days, for
+there was such a lot of work to be done, so many preparations to be
+made, so many things to be requisitioned from Earth. The supply ships
+were beginning to come now, bringing necessities and an occasional
+luxury for those who could afford it.
+
+"She's pregnant," James explained. "Happened before I left Earth."
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"She's about to fruit. Didn't I read that zoology book to you?"
+
+"Yes, but--oh, James, it all seems so vulgar! To fruit without ever
+having bloomed--how squalid!"
+
+"It all depends on how you look at it," he said. "I--that is, we had
+hoped that when the baby came, you would be godmother to it. You know
+what that is, don't you?"
+
+"Of course I do. You read _Cinderella_ to me. I know it's a great honor.
+But I'm afraid I must decline."
+
+"Why? I thought you were my--our friend."
+
+"Jim, there is something I must confess: my feelings toward you are not
+merely those of a friend. Although Phyllis doesn't have too many rings
+of intellect, she is a female, so she knew all along." Magnolia's leaves
+rustled diffidently. "I feel toward you the way I never felt toward any
+intelligent life-form, but only toward the sun, the soil, the rain. I
+sense a tropism that seems to incline me toward you. In fact, I'm
+afraid, Jim, in your own terms, I love you."
+
+"But you're a tree! You can't love me in my own terms, because trees
+can't love in the way people can, and, of course, people can't love like
+trees. We belong to two entirely different species, Maggie. You can't
+have listened to that zoology book very attentively."
+
+"Our race is a singularly adaptable one or we wouldn't have survived so
+long, Jim, or gone so far in our particular direction. It's lack of
+fertility, not lack of enterprise, that's responsible for our decline.
+And I think your species must be an adaptable one, too; you just haven't
+really tried. Oh, James, let us reverse the classical roles--let me be
+the Apollo to your Daphne! Don't let Phyllis stand in our way. The Greek
+gods never let a little thing like marriage interfere with their plans."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"But I love Phyllis," he said in confusion. "I love you, too," he added,
+"but in a different way."
+
+"Yes, I know. More like a sister. However, I have plenty of sisters and
+I don't need a brother."
+
+"We're starting a conservation program," he tried to comfort her. "We
+have every hope of getting some pollen from the other side of the planet
+once we have explained to the trees there how far we can make a little
+go, and you've got to accept it; you mustn't be silly about it."
+
+"It isn't the same thing, Jim, and you know it. One of the penalties of
+intelligence is a diffusiveness of the natural instincts. I would
+rather not fruit at all than--"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Magnolia, you just don't understand. No matter how much you--well,
+pursue me, I can never turn into a laurel tree."
+
+"I didn't--"
+
+"Or any kind of tree! Look, some more books were just sent over from
+Base."
+
+Magnolia gave a rueful rustle. "Just were sent? Didn't they come over a
+month ago?"
+
+James flushed. "I know I haven't had a chance to do much reading to you
+in the last few weeks, Maggie--or any at all, in fact--but I've been so
+busy. After the baby's born, things will be much less hectic and we'll
+be able to catch up."
+
+"Of course, James. I understand. Naturally your family comes first."
+
+"One of the books that came was an advanced zoology text that might make
+things a little clearer."
+
+"I should very much like to hear it. When you have the time to spare,
+that is."
+
+"Tell you what," he said. "I'll get the book and read you the chapter on
+the reproductive system in mammals. Won't take more than an hour or so."
+
+"If you're in a hurry, it can wait."
+
+"No," he told her. "This will make me feel a little less guilty about
+having neglected you."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Whereupon the umbilical cord is severed," he concluded, "and the human
+infant is ready to take its place in the world as a separate entity. Now
+do you understand, Magnolia?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"No," she said. "Where do the bees come in?"
+
+"I thought you were in such a hurry to get to Base, James," Phyllis
+remarked sweetly from the doorway, wiping her reddening hands on a dish
+towel.
+
+"I am, dear." He slipped the book behind his back; it was possible that,
+in her present state of mind--induced, of course, by her delicate
+condition--Phyllis might misunderstand his motive in reading that
+particular chapter of that particular book to that particular tree. "I
+just stopped for a chat with Magnolia. She's agreed to be godmother to
+the baby."
+
+"How very nice of her. Earth Government will be so pleased at such a
+_fine_ example of rapport with the natives. You might even get a medal.
+Wouldn't that be nice?... James," she hurried on, before he could speak,
+"you still haven't found any green-leafed plants on the planet, have
+you? Have you looked everywhere? Have you looked _hard_?"
+
+"Haven't I told you time and time again, Mrs. Haut," the tree said,
+"that there aren't any--that there can't be any? It's impossible to
+synthesize chlorophyll from the light rays given off by our sun--only
+cyanophyll. What do you want with a green-leafed plant, anyway?"
+
+Phyllis's voice broke. "I think I'd lose my mind if I was convinced that
+I'd never see a green leaf again. All this awful blue, blue, blue, all
+the time, and the leaves never fall, or, if they do, there are new ones
+right away to take their place. They're always there--always blue."
+
+"We're everblue," Magnolia explained. "Sorry, but that's the way it is."
+
+"Jim, I hate to hurt your feelings, but I just have to take down those
+curtains. The colors--I can't stand it!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Pregnant women sometimes get fanciful notions," James said to the tree.
+"It's part of the pregnancy syndrome. Try not to pay any attention."
+
+"Kindly don't explain me to a tree!" Phyllis cried. "I have a right to
+prefer green, don't I?"
+
+"There is, as your proverb says, no accounting for strange tastes," the
+tree murmured. "However--"
+
+"We're going to have a formal christening," James interrupted, for the
+sake of the peace. "We thought we should, since ours will be the first
+baby born on the planet. Everybody on Elysium will come--that is, all
+the human beings. Only because they _can_ come, you know; we'd love to
+have the trees if they were capable of locomotor movement. You'll get to
+widen your social contacts, Maggie. Dr. Lakin and Dr. Cutler will
+probably be here; I know you'll be glad to see Dr. Lakin again, and
+you've been anxious to meet Dr. Cutler. They've been asking after you,
+too. I think Dr. Lakin is planning to write a monograph on you for the
+_Journal of the American Association of Professors of English
+Literature_--with your permission, of course."
+
+"Christening--that's one of your native festivals, isn't it? It should
+be most interesting."
+
+"That's right," Phyllis murmured. "It will be Christmas soon. I'd almost
+forgotten. It'll be the first Christmas I've ever spent away from home.
+And there won't be any snow or--or anything." She started to guttate--to
+cry again.
+
+"Cheer up, honey," Jim said. "It won't be as bad as you think, because I
+didn't forget Christmas was coming. There's something specially nice for
+you on its way from Earth; I only hope it gets here on time." Phyllis
+sniffled. "Maybe we'll have a Christmas party, too. Would you like
+that?" But she remained unresponsive.
+
+He turned to the tree. "Christening's entirely different, though," he
+explained. "It's--I guess naming the fruit would be the best way to
+describe it."
+
+"Is that so?" Magnolia said. "What kind of fruit do you expect to have,
+Mrs. Haut? Oranges? Bananas? As your good St. Luke says, the tree is
+known by its fruit. You look as if yours might be a watermelon."
+
+"Why, the--idea!" Phyllis choked. "Are you going to stand there, James,
+and let that _vegetable_ insult me?"
+
+"I'm sure she didn't mean to," he protested. "She got confused by--that
+zoology book I read her."
+
+The door slammed behind his weeping wife.
+
+"I don't think you quite understand, Maggie," he said. "In fact,
+sometimes I almost think you, too, don't want to understand."
+
+"I know what kind of fruit it's going to be," the tree concluded
+triumphantly. "Sour apples."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Ouch," exclaimed Magnolia, "that tickles! There's more to acting as a
+Christmas tree than I had anticipated from your glowing descriptions,
+Jim."
+
+"Here, dear," Phyllis said, "maybe you'd better let me put the
+decorations on her."
+
+"You can't get on the ladder in your condition," he said, apprehensive
+not only for her welfare but for the tree's. Phyllis had not taken
+kindly to the idea of having Magnolia as official Christmas tree,
+suggesting that, if she must participate in the ceremonies, it might be
+better in the capacity of Yule log. However, Jim knew Magnolia would be
+offended if any other tree were chosen to be decorated.
+
+"I'll manage all right," he assured his wife. "If you want to be useful,
+you might put on some coffee and make sandwiches or something. The
+bachelors are coming over from Base with that equipment that arrived
+yesterday, and they'll probably be glad of a snack before turning in."
+
+"The coffee's already on and the canapes made," Phyllis smiled. "And
+I've baked cookies, too, and whipped up a batch of penuche. What kind of
+a Christmas party do you think it would be without refreshments?"
+
+"Very efficient, isn't she?" Magnolia remarked, as the battery-powered
+lights that James had affixed to her began to wink on, for the deep
+red-violet dusk had already fallen and the first moon was rising. "Have
+you thought, Mrs. Haut, that if you fruit today, it will save the
+expense of another festival?"
+
+"I don't expect to fruit for another two months," Phyllis said coldly,
+"and why shouldn't we have another festival? We can afford it and I like
+parties. I haven't been to one since the day I landed."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Is the life out here getting a little quiet for you, petiole?" the tree
+asked solicitously. "It must be hard when one has no intellectual
+resources upon which to draw."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Phyllis held her peace for ten seconds; then, "I wonder where those boys
+can be," she said. "I hope they bring some pickles along. I asked to
+have some sent, but I'm accustomed to having no attention paid to what I
+want."
+
+"There's a surprise coming for you, Phyllis," James could not help
+telling her again, hoping to arouse some semblance of interest.
+"Something I know you'll love.... And for you, too," he said courteously
+to Magnolia.
+
+"You mean the same surprise for both, or a surprise apiece?" the tree
+asked.
+
+"Oh, one for each, of course."
+
+"I see the lights of the 'copter now!" Phyllis cried and, running out
+into the middle of the lawn, began waving her handkerchief. He hadn't
+seen her so pleasantly excited for a long time.
+
+"I don't suppose I'll need to turn on the landing lights," he said to
+Magnolia. "You should do the trick."
+
+"Am I all finished?" she rustled anxiously. "I do wish I could see
+myself. How do I look?"
+
+[Illustration]
+
+"Splendid. I've never had as beautiful a Christmas tree as you, Maggie,"
+he told her with complete honesty. "Not even on Earth."
+
+"I'm glad, Jim, but I still wish I could be more to you than just a
+Christmas tree."
+
+"Shh. The others might hear."
+
+For the helicopter had landed and the visitors were pouring out, with
+shouts of admiration. Not only the bachelors had come--and in full
+force--but some of the older men from Base, who apparently felt they
+could manage to do without their wives for twelve hours, even if those
+hours included Christmas Eve. He wondered where he and Phyllis could put
+them all, but some could sleep outside, if need be, for it was never
+cold on Elysium. The winds were gentle and the rains light and fragrant.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While the visitors were crowding around Phyllis and the tree, James
+rooted eagerly through the packages they had brought, until he found
+what he wanted. Then he rushed over to the group. "I know I should wait
+until tomorrow, but I want to give the girls their presents now." The
+other men smiled sympathetically, almost as joyful as he. "Merry
+Christmas, Magnolia!" He hoped Phyllis would understand that it was
+etiquette which dictated that the alien life-form should get her gift
+first.
+
+"Thank you," the tree said. "I am deeply touched. I don't believe anyone
+ever gave me a present before. What is it?"
+
+"Liquid plant food--vitamins and minerals, you know. For you to drink."
+
+"What fun!" she exclaimed in pretty excitement. "Pour some over me right
+now!"
+
+"Not so fast, Jim, boy!" Dr. Cutler, the biologist, snatched the jug
+from James' hand. "First you-all better let me take a sample of this
+here stuff back to Base to test on a lower life-form, so's I can make
+sure it won't do anything bad to Miss Magnolia. Might have iron in it
+and I have a theory that iron may not be beneficial for the local
+vegetation."
+
+"Oh, thank you!" the tree rustled. "It's so very thoughtful of you,
+Doctor, but I'm sure Jim would never give me anything that would injure
+me."
+
+"I'm sure he isn't fixing to do a thing like that, ma'am, but he's no
+botanist."
+
+"And for you, Phyllis...." James handed his wife the awkward bundle to
+unwrap for herself.
+
+She tore the papers off slowly. "Oh, Jim, darling, it's--it's--"
+
+"You wanted a bit of green, so I ordered a plant from Earth. You like
+it? I hope you do."
+
+"Oh, _Jim_!" She embraced him and the pot simultaneously. "More than
+_anything_!"
+
+"It won't stay green," Magnolia observed. "Either it'll turn blue or
+it'll die. Puny-looking specimen, isn't it?"
+
+"Well," said James, "it's only a youngster. I guess this Christmas is
+too early, but next Christmas there ought to be berries. It's a holly
+plant, Phyl."
+
+"Holly," she repeated, her voice shaking a little. "_Holly._" She and
+Dr. Cutler exchanged glances.
+
+"I told you, Miz Phyllis, ma'am--he may know the first thing about
+botany, but he doesn't know anything after that."
+
+"Jim," Phyllis said, linking her free arm through his, "I misjudged you.
+Dr. Cutler is right. You don't know so very much about botany, after
+all."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He looked at her blankly. Her voice was trembling, and not with tears
+this time. "I love this little plant; it's just what I wanted ... but
+there aren't ever going to be any berries, because, to have berries, you
+have to have two plants. And the right two. Holly's di--dio--it's just
+like us."
+
+"Oh," James said, feeling thoroughly inadequate. "I'm sorry."
+
+"But you mustn't be sorry. I'm going to plant it here on Elysium, and I
+hope it will stay green in spite of what she says, and it'll have
+blossoms anyway ... and it was very, very sweet of you, dear."
+
+She kissed his cheek.
+
+"Is this one a boy or a girl?" Magnolia asked.
+
+"You-all can't tell till it blooms, Miss Magnolia, ma'am," Dr. Cutler
+informed her.
+
+"Maybe I can. Hand it up here, please."
+
+Phyllis paused for an irresolute moment, then, smiling nervously at her
+guests, obliged.
+
+"It's a boy," Magnolia announced, after a minute. "A boy." She gave back
+the pot reluctantly. "Phyllis," she said, "you and I have never been
+friends and I admit that it's been my fault just as much as yours."
+
+"As much as mine?" Phyllis echoed. "I like that--" and was going to go
+on when she obviously recollected that they had company, and stopped.
+
+"So I know it's presumptuous of me to ask you a favor."
+
+"Yes, Magnolia?" Phyllis said, her fine cornsilk eyebrows arched a
+trifle. "What is this favor?"
+
+"When you plant the little fellow--you said you were going to,
+anyhow--would you plant him near me?"
+
+Phyllis looked down at the plant she held cradled in her arms and then
+up at the tree. "Of course, Magnolia," she said, frowning slightly. "I
+didn't realize...." Her voice began to tremble. "I _have_ been pretty
+rotten, haven't I?" She looked toward James, but he turned his glance
+away.
+
+"Just because you were a plant," Phyllis continued, "didn't mean I had
+to be a b-b-beast. It must have been awful for you, seeing me like this,
+practically crowing over you, and knowing that you yourself would never
+have the chance to be a m-m-m-mother."
+
+"'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,'" Magnolia said sadly,
+"'and waste its sweetness on the desert air.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Phyllis was crying unashamedly now. "I'll plant him right next to
+you--Maggie. I want you to have him. He can be your baby."
+
+"Thank you, Phyl," Maggie said softly. "That's very ... blue of you."
+
+"Although I think that's a jim-dandy idea," the biologist said, "and I
+sure wouldn't want to do anything to discourage it, being real
+interested in the results of an experiment like that my own self, I
+don't think you ought to feel so mean about it, Miz Phyllis. If all she
+wanted--begging your pardon, Miss Magnolia, ma'am--was a baby, why
+didn't she take an interest in the holly until she found out it was a
+male? Why wouldn't a little old girl holly have done as well?"
+
+"Why--why, you scheming vegetable!" Phyllis exploded at Magnolia,
+clutching the holly plant to her protective bosom. "He's much too young
+for you, and I'm going to plant him far away, where he can't possibly
+fall into your clutches."
+
+"Now, Miss Phyllis, we-all mustn't look at things out of their proper
+perspective."
+
+"Then why did you take your hat off when you were introduced to Miss
+Magnolia, Cutler?" Dr. Lakin asked interestedly.
+
+"Sir, where I come from, we respect femininity, whether it be animal,
+vegetable or mineral. Nonetheless, we-all got to remember, though Miss
+Magnolia is unquestionably a lady, she is not a woman."
+
+Phyllis began to laugh hysterically. "You're right!" she gasped. "I had
+almost forgotten _she_ was only a tree. And that _it_ is only a little
+Christmas holly plant that's probably going to die, anyway--they almost
+always do."
+
+"That's cruel, Phyllis," James said, "and you know it is."
+
+"Do you really think I'm cruel? Are you going to tell the Society for
+the Prevention of Cruelty to Vegetables on me? But why am I cruel? I'm
+giving her the holly. That's what she wants, isn't it? Do you hear that,
+Miss Magnolia, ma'am? _He_'s all yours. We'll plant _him_ next to
+you--right away. And I hope _he_ doesn't die. I hope _he_ grows up to
+make you a good husband."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"She's really quite remarkable," Dr. Lakin said to James later that same
+evening, after the planting ceremonies were over and the rest of the
+party had gone into the cottage for fresh coffee and more sandwiches and
+cookies and penuche. "Quite remarkable. You're a lucky man, Haut."
+
+"Thank you, sir," James replied abstractedly. "I'm sure Phyllis will be
+pleased to--"
+
+"_Phyllis!_ Oh, Mrs. Haut is a very remarkable woman, of course. A
+handsome, strong girl; she'll make a splendid mother, I'm sure. But I
+was referring to Miss Magnolia. She's a credit to you, my boy. If for no
+other reason, your name will go down in the history of our colony as
+that of the guide and mentor of Miss Magnolia. That's quite a tree you
+have there."
+
+James looked at the dark form of the tree--for the lights had been
+turned out--silhouetted against the three pale moons and the violet
+night. "Yes, she is," he said.
+
+"You're fortunate to be her neighbor ... and her friend."
+
+"Yes, I am."
+
+"Well, I expect I'd better join the rest. Are you coming on in, Jim?"
+
+"In a little while, sir. I thought I'd--I wanted to have a word with
+Magnolia. I won't be long."
+
+"Of course, of course. I'm delighted to see that there is such an
+excellent relationship between you.... Good night, Miss Magnolia!" he
+called.
+
+"Good night, Dr. Lakin," the tree replied, politely enough, but it was
+obvious that she was preoccupied with her new charge, who stood as close
+to her as it was possible to plant him and yet allow room for him to
+grow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The door closed. James walked across the lawn until he was quite near
+Magnolia. "Maggie," he whispered, reaching out to touch her
+trunk--smooth it was, and hard, but he could feel the vibrant life
+pulsing inside it. Certainly she was not a plant, not _just_ a plant,
+even though she was a tree. She was a native of Elysium, neither animal
+nor vegetable, unique unto the planet, unique unto herself. "Maggie."
+
+"Yes, Jim. Don't you think his silhouette is so graceful there in the
+moonlight? He isn't really puny--just frail."
+
+"Maggie, you're not serious about this holly?"
+
+"What do you mean?" And still he didn't have her full attention. Would
+he ever have it again?
+
+"Serious about raising him to be your--your--"
+
+"Why not, Jim?"
+
+"It's impossible."
+
+"Is it? It certainly is far more possible with him, isn't it? That much
+I understood from your zoology books."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"Besides, I have nothing to lose, have I?"
+
+"But even if it were possible, wouldn't it be humiliating for you? The
+creature's mindless!"
+
+Magnolia's leaves rustled in the darkness. She was laughing--a little
+bitterly. "Your Phyllis isn't your intellectual equal, Jim, and yet you
+say you love her and I suppose you do. Am I not entitled to my follies
+also?"
+
+But she couldn't compare Phyllis to a holly plant! It was unreasonable.
+
+"He may die, of course," Magnolia said. "I've got to be prepared for
+that. The soil is different, the air is different, the sun is different.
+But the chances are, if he survives, he'll turn blue. And if he turns
+blue, who knows what other changes might be brought about? Maybe the
+plants on your Earth aren't inherently mindless, Jim. Maybe they just
+didn't have a chance. 'Know ye the land where the cypress and myrtle
+are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime...?' That land isn't
+Earth, Jim, so it might just possibly be Elysium."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Again he didn't say anything. What he wanted to say, he had no right to
+say, so he kept silent.
+
+"It'll be a chance for me, too, Jim. At least we're both plants, he and
+I. That gives us a headstart."
+
+"Yes, I suppose it does."
+
+"Intellect doesn't count for much in the propagation of the species.
+Life goes on without regard for reason, and that's mainly what we're
+here for, to make sure that life goes on--if we're here for anything at
+all. Thanks to your kind, Jim, life will continue on this planet; it
+will certainly be your kind of life--and I hope it can be ours as well."
+
+"Yes," he said. "I hope so, too."
+
+And he did, but he wished it didn't have to continue in quite that way.
+Perhaps it was a trick of the three moons, but the holly plant's leaves
+seemed to have changed color.. They were no longer green, but almost
+blue--powder blue.
+
+"You'd best be getting on to your party, Jim," Magnolia said. "You
+wouldn't want to be remiss in your duties as host. And please close the
+door gently when you go inside. The little holly plant's asleep."
+
+As he closed the door carefully behind him, he heard a burst of laughter
+coming from the kitchen, where the guests apparently had
+assembled--raucous animal laughter--and, rising shrill and noisy above
+it, Phyllis's company laugh.
+
+
+--EVELYN E. SMITH
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Venus Trap, by Evelyn E. Smith
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