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diff --git a/31583-h/31583-h.htm b/31583-h/31583-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2dfe538 --- /dev/null +++ b/31583-h/31583-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1807 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Venus Trap, by Evelyn E. Smith. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .notes {background-color: #eeeeee; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .right {text-align: right;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 447px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="447" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>The Venus Trap</h1> + +<h2>By EVELYN E. SMITH</h2> + +<h3>Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS</h3> + +<p class="notes">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.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>One thing Man never counted on to take along into space with +him was the Eternal Triangle—especially a true-blue +triangle like this!</p></div> + + +<p>"What's the matter, darling?" James asked anxiously. "Don't you like the +planet?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I love the planet," Phyllis said. "It's beautiful."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 364px;"> +<img src="images/image1.jpg" width="364" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You do feel all right, don't you?" he asked. "The light gravity gets +some people at first."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I guess I'm all right. I'm still a little shaken, though, and you +know it's not the gravity."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose you did have a bit of a shock," he said lamely. +"Somehow, I thought I had told you in my 'grams."</p> + +<p>"You told me plenty in the 'grams, but not quite enough, it seems."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"How come the preliminary team didn't include—<i>it</i> in their report?" +she asked, avoiding his appreciative eye.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that must have been it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It remained for the scout team<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> to determine whether human beings would +<i>want</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +little different from the other unimaginative homes.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He just managed to keep his voice steady. "You don't like the house—is +that it?</p> + +<p>"But I <i>do</i> like it. Honestly I do." She touched his arm diffidently. +"Everything would be perfect if only—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is, it is! I'm mad about the curtains."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"If you want to know what <i>is</i> 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."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "Now where did you get a preposterous idea like that, Phyl? +You've been on the planet exactly twenty-four hours and—"</p> + +<p>"—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 <i>tree</i>!"</p> + +<p>"What are you talking about, honey? Magnolia and I—we're just friends."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"She's more like a sister to me," James tried to explain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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!"</p> + +<p>"Phyllis!" He wrested the axe from her grip. "That would be murder!"</p> + +<p>"'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!'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I understand, Jim," Magnolia told him, "and, remember, whatever +happens, you can always count on me."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> the principal room of the +cottage. "Insulting the very first native you meet!"</p> + +<p>"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—<i>she</i> could understand? Naturally I wouldn't dream of eating her +fruit now. It would probably taste nasty anyway. And how do you think +<i>I</i> felt when a <i>tree</i> 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<i>one</i> but some<i>thing</i>—!"</p> + +<p>"Phyllis," he said coldly, "I'll thank you to keep a civil tongue in +your head."</p> + +<p>Dropping into the overstuffed chair, his wife dabbed at her eyes with a +handkerchief. "She wasn't so very polite to me!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Are you trying to tell me she's old?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"How come she hasn't a mate? I didn't think trees were choosy."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's a great tragedy," he told her in a hushed tone. "There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's not that so much. It's that the male trees produce so little +pollen."</p> + +<p>"This would be a good place for people with hay fever then, wouldn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"And even when there is fruit, so much of it tends to be +parthenocarpous—no seeds." He sighed. "The entire race is dying out."</p> + +<p>"How is it you know so much about botany?" she asked suspiciously. "It's +not your field."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>her</i>!"</p> + +<p>"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. <i>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.</i></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"And will her—people let you farm?"</p> + +<p>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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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 <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Don't be idiotic," he protested. "That would be—" he attempted to +introduce a light note—"it would be miscegenation."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come on, Phyl!" He still was trying for a smile. "What would a tree +see in me?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A little different I wouldn't mind," she said sulkily, "but they're a +lot different without being nearly alien enough."</p> + +<p>"Look, Phyllis—<i>dear</i>—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."</p> + +<p>"That's a fine idea!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He beamed. "I knew you'd understand after I had explained it to you."</p> + +<p>"We provide the brains and they provide the furniture."</p> + +<p>"Phyllis! What a thing to say!"</p> + +<p>"I've heard of man-eating trees before. I suppose there could be +man-loving ones, too."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What a perfectly disgusting idea!"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. Trees can be idealistic—"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You'd better not, or it won't be her who'll have the stigmata."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean now?"</p> + +<p>"That tree would know everything that goes on. She's telepathic."</p> + +<p>"Where did you get a ridiculous idea like that? What kind of rubbish +have you been reading?"</p> + +<p>"All right, tell me: how else did she learn to speak such good English?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Give her time," the tree advised later, as James came out on the lawn +to talk to his only friend on the planet.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>"I suppose so," he said, kicking at a root. "Oh, I'm sorry, Maggie; I +didn't think."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," Magnolia said bravely. "It didn't really hurt. That +female has got you all upset, you poor boy."</p> + +<p>James muttered a feeble defense of his wife.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course she is!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"They're—she suits me," James said doggedly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Unfortunately, the same, James knew, could hardly be said of his wife. +"Phyllis did bring some books," he told Magnolia.</p> + +<p>"For you, no doubt. That was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> 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...."</p> + +<p>"Of course not, Maggie. After all—" he laughed bitterly—"I do know you +better than I know her."</p> + +<p>"We <i>have</i> 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.'"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"That wasn't guttation," James said heavily. "It was tears. It means +she's unhappy."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"She'll be happy here," James vowed. "I'll <i>make</i> her happy."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I'll never be too busy to read to you, Magnolia."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"So would I," he said. "But there won't be any need to. Phyllis will +understand."</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"And such a charming tune to go with it, too," Magnolia went on. "We +have always sung the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> 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?"</p> + +<p>"They're a kind of bird," he said drearily.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Blue grass," Phyllis exclaimed. "I'm sick of blue grass. I want green +grass."</p> + +<p>"However, these trees have conscious control of their <i>pulvini</i>, whereas +the Earth's plants don't, and so they can do a lot of things that Earth +plants can't."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It sounds like a dirty word to me."</p> + +<p>"<i>Pulvini</i> merely means motor organs."</p> + +<p>"Oh."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"That's exactly what I <i>am</i> doing. And I'm quite sure she thinks of you +as a tree who happens to look like a human being."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why do you call her Magnolia? She isn't a lot like one."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"They <i>do</i> have a language of their own then?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I don't think that's so clever."</p> + +<p>"I merely said ... oh, what's the use of trying to explain everything to +you? You just don't want to understand."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>Preposterous! The tree had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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....</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>His wife looked up at him, her rose-red lips parted, her moss-gray eyes +shining. "Oh, if only I could believe that, James!"</p> + +<p>"Anyhow, she doesn't know what the whole thing's about, poor kid!"</p> + +<p>"Poor <i>kid</i>!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Twenty," Phyllis corrected. "I had a birthday on the ship."</p> + +<p>"Well, you certainly must allow me to wish you a happy birthday, +darling."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>"Darling, I swear it!" "<i>Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips +with silver all these fruit-tree tops</i>".... But he had sense enough not +to say it, and Elysium had not one blessed moon, but three, and +everything was all right.</p> + +<p>For a while anyway.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"She's pregnant," James explained.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> "Happened before I left Earth."</p> + +<p>"How do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"She's about to fruit. Didn't I read that zoology book to you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—oh, James, it all seems so vulgar! To fruit without ever +having bloomed—how squalid!"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I do. You read <i>Cinderella</i> to me. I know it's a great honor. +But I'm afraid I must decline."</p> + +<p>"Why? I thought you were my—our friend."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"But I love Phyllis," he said in confusion. "I love you, too," he added, +"but in a different way."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. More like a sister. However, I have plenty of sisters and +I don't need a brother."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It isn't the same thing, Jim, and you know it. One of the penalties of +intelligence is a diffusiveness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> of the natural instincts. I would +rather not fruit at all than—"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 197px;"> +<img src="images/image2.jpg" width="197" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Magnolia, you just don't understand. No matter how much you—well, +pursue me, I can never turn into a laurel tree."</p> + +<p>"I didn't—"</p> + +<p>"Or any kind of tree! Look, some more books were just sent over from +Base."</p> + +<p>Magnolia gave a rueful rustle. "Just were sent? Didn't they come over a +month ago?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Of course, James. I understand. Naturally your family comes first."</p> + +<p>"One of the books that came was an advanced zoology text that might make +things a little clearer."</p> + +<p>"I should very much like to hear it. When you have the time to spare, +that is."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"If you're in a hurry, it can wait."</p> + +<p>"No," he told her. "This will<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> make me feel a little less guilty about +having neglected you."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<div class="figright" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/image3.jpg" width="200" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"No," she said. "Where do the bees come in?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"How very nice of her. Earth Government will be so pleased at such a +<i>fine</i> 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 <i>hard</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Haven't I told you time and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> 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?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"We're everblue," Magnolia explained. "Sorry, but that's the way it is."</p> + +<p>"Jim, I hate to hurt your feelings, but I just have to take down those +curtains. The colors—I can't stand it!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Pregnant women sometimes get fanciful notions," James said to the tree. +"It's part of the pregnancy syndrome. Try not to pay any attention."</p> + +<p>"Kindly don't explain me to a tree!" Phyllis cried. "I have a right to +prefer green, don't I?"</p> + +<p>"There is, as your proverb says, no accounting for strange tastes," the +tree murmured. "However—"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>can</i> 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 +<i>Journal of the American Association of Professors of English +Literature</i>—with your permission, of course."</p> + +<p>"Christening—that's one of your native festivals, isn't it? It should +be most interesting."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> But she remained unresponsive.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why, the—idea!" Phyllis choked. "Are you going to stand there, James, +and let that <i>vegetable</i> insult me?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure she didn't mean to," he protested. "She got confused by—that +zoology book I read her."</p> + +<p>The door slammed behind his weeping wife.</p> + +<p>"I don't think you quite understand, Maggie," he said. "In fact, +sometimes I almost think you, too, don't want to understand."</p> + +<p>"I know what kind of fruit it's going to be," the tree concluded +triumphantly. "Sour apples."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Ouch," exclaimed Magnolia, "that tickles! There's more to acting as a +Christmas tree than I had anticipated from your glowing descriptions, +Jim."</p> + +<p>"Here, dear," Phyllis said, "maybe you'd better let me put the +decorations on her."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I don't expect to fruit for another two months," Phyllis said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image4.jpg" width="500" height="278" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You mean the same surprise for both, or a surprise apiece?" the tree +asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, one for each, of course."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose I'll need to turn on the landing lights," he said to +Magnolia. "You should do the trick."</p> + +<p>"Am I all finished?" she rustled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> anxiously. "I do wish I could see +myself. How do I look?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image5.jpg" width="500" height="278" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Splendid. I've never had as beautiful a Christmas tree as you, Maggie," +he told her with complete honesty. "Not even on Earth."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad, Jim, but I still wish I could be more to you than just a +Christmas tree."</p> + +<p>"Shh. The others might hear."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> dictated that the alien life-form should get her gift +first.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," the tree said. "I am deeply touched. I don't believe anyone +ever gave me a present before. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"Liquid plant food—vitamins and minerals, you know. For you to drink."</p> + +<p>"What fun!" she exclaimed in pretty excitement. "Pour some over me right +now!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he isn't fixing to do a thing like that, ma'am, but he's no +botanist."</p> + +<p>"And for you, Phyllis...." James handed his wife the awkward bundle to +unwrap for herself.</p> + +<p>She tore the papers off slowly. "Oh, Jim, darling, it's—it's—"</p> + +<p>"You wanted a bit of green, so I ordered a plant from Earth. You like +it? I hope you do."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>Jim</i>!" She embraced him and the pot simultaneously. "More than +<i>anything</i>!"</p> + +<p>"It won't stay green," Magnolia observed. "Either it'll turn blue or +it'll die. Puny-looking specimen, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Holly," she repeated, her voice shaking a little. "<i>Holly.</i>" She and +Dr. Cutler exchanged glances.</p> + +<p>"I told you, Miz Phyllis, ma'am—he may know the first thing about +botany, but he doesn't know anything after that."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Oh," James said, feeling thoroughly inadequate. "I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>"But you mustn't be sorry. I'm going to plant it here on Elysium,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>She kissed his cheek.</p> + +<p>"Is this one a boy or a girl?" Magnolia asked.</p> + +<p>"You-all can't tell till it blooms, Miss Magnolia, ma'am," Dr. Cutler +informed her.</p> + +<p>"Maybe I can. Hand it up here, please."</p> + +<p>Phyllis paused for an irresolute moment, then, smiling nervously at her +guests, obliged.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"So I know it's presumptuous of me to ask you a favor."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Magnolia?" Phyllis said, her fine cornsilk eyebrows arched a +trifle. "What is this favor?"</p> + +<p>"When you plant the little fellow—you said you were going to, +anyhow—would you plant him near me?"</p> + +<p>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 <i>have</i> been pretty +rotten, haven't I?" She looked toward James, but he turned his glance +away.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,'" Magnolia said sadly, +"'and waste its sweetness on the desert air.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Phyl," Maggie said softly. "That's very ... blue of you."</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> 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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Phyllis, we-all mustn't look at things out of their proper +perspective."</p> + +<p>"Then why did you take your hat off when you were introduced to Miss +Magnolia, Cutler?" Dr. Lakin asked interestedly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Phyllis began to laugh hysterically. "You're right!" she gasped. "I had +almost forgotten <i>she</i> was only a tree. And that <i>it</i> is only a little +Christmas holly plant that's probably going to die, anyway—they almost +always do."</p> + +<p>"That's cruel, Phyllis," James said, "and you know it is."</p> + +<p>"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? <i>He</i>'s all yours. We'll plant <i>him</i> next to +you—right away. And I hope <i>he</i> doesn't die. I hope <i>he</i> grows up to +make you a good husband."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," James replied abstractedly. "I'm sure Phyllis will be +pleased to—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Phyllis!</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're fortunate to be her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> neighbor ... and her friend."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am."</p> + +<p>"Well, I expect I'd better join the rest. Are you coming on in, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"In a little while, sir. I thought I'd—I wanted to have a word with +Magnolia. I won't be long."</p> + +<p>"Of course, of course. I'm delighted to see that there is such an +excellent relationship between you.... Good night, Miss Magnolia!" he +called.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>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 <i>just</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jim. Don't you think his silhouette is so graceful there in the +moonlight? He isn't really puny—just frail."</p> + +<p>"Maggie, you're not serious about this holly?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" And still he didn't have her full attention. Would +he ever have it again?</p> + +<p>"Serious about raising him to be your—your—"</p> + +<p>"Why not, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"It's impossible."</p> + +<p>"Is it? It certainly is far more possible with him, isn't it? That much +I understood from your zoology books."</p> + +<p>"I suppose so."</p> + +<p>"Besides, I have nothing to lose, have I?"</p> + +<p>"But even if it were possible, wouldn't it be humiliating for you? The +creature's mindless!"</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>But she couldn't compare Phyllis to a holly plant! It was unreasonable.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> myrtle +are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime...?' That land isn't +Earth, Jim, so it might just possibly be Elysium."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Again he didn't say anything. What he wanted to say, he had no right to +say, so he kept silent.</p> + +<p>"It'll be a chance for me, too, Jim. At least we're both plants, he and +I. That gives us a headstart."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose it does."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "I hope so, too."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + +<p class="right">—EVELYN E. SMITH</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Venus Trap, by Evelyn E. Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VENUS TRAP *** + +***** This file should be named 31583-h.htm or 31583-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/5/8/31583/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Josephine Paolucci and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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