row up to face. It made him feel futile. So he picked a pleasanter role
than realist."

Cochrane nodded.

"But his unrealism of last night put him into a very realistic mess that
he couldn't dodge! Will it change him?"

"Probably," said Holden without any expression at all in his voice.
"They used to put lunatics in snake-pits. When they were people who'd
taken to lunacy for escape from reality, it made them go back to reality
to escape from the snakes. Shock-treatments used to be used, later, for
the same effect. We're too soft to use either treatment now. But Johnny
gave himself the works. The odds are that from now on he will never want
to be alone even for an instant, and he will never again quite dare to
be angry with anybody or make anybody angry. You choked him and he ran
away, and it was bad! So from now on I'd guess that Johnny will be a
very well-behaved little boy in a grown man's body." He said very wryly
indeed, "Alicia will be very happy, taking care of him."

A moment later he added:

"I look at that set-up the way I look at the landscape yonder."

Cochrane said nothing. Holden liked Alicia. Too much. It would not make
any difference at all. After a moment, though, he changed the subject.

"I think this is a pretty good bet, this planet. You think it's no good.
I'm going to talk to the chlorella companies. They grow edible yeast in
tanks, and chlorella in vats, and they produce an important amount of
food. But they have to grow the stuff indoors and they have a ghastly
job keeping everything sterile. Here's a place where they can sow
chlorella in the oceans! They can grow yeast in lakes, out-of-doors!
Suppose they use this world to grow monstrous quantities of unattractive
but useful foodstuff--in a way--wild? It will be good return-cargo
material for ships taking colonists out to our other planets.--I
suppose," he added meditatively, "they'll ship it back in bulk, dried."

Holden blinked. He was jolted out of even his depression.

"Jed!" he said warmly. "Tell that to the world--prove that--and--people
will stop being afraid! They won't be afraid of starving before they can
get to the stars! Jed--Jed! This is the thing the world needs most of
all!"

But Cochrane grimaced.

"Maybe," he admitted it. "But I've tasted the stuff. I think it's foul!
Still, if people want it ..."

He went back down to the communicator to contact the chlorella companies
of Earth, to find out if there was any special