?" asked Mr. Furnay. He pointed with his antennae to the
fluorescent hieroglyphs on the undersurface of the saucer-ship. "See,
in our _lingua galactica_ it reads: SKRRFF BROTHERS' INTERSTELLAR
CIRCUS, THE GALAXY'S GREATEST. It is the best on the circuit."

He indicated the circle of identical Bivinses. "These are the Skrrff
brothers, our owners. I, sir, am business manager."

"But not always a good one," one of the brothers said pointedly. "This
time he has bought an entire menagerie of such fierceness that our
trainers cannot exhibit it. It will have to be sold to some
frontier-planet zoo, and our loss will be staggering."

It was left for Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above to deal with the
problem, which she did with universal feminine practicality.

"Oliver made your bear well," she pointed out. "And he is afraid of
nothing--nothing! Could he not train his own fierce beasts as well as
I train my gentle ones?"

Oliver said, "Huh?"

The Skrrff brothers, of course, implored Oliver on the spot to join
them at any salary.

Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-above said demurely, in three octaves and for
all the world to hear: "And I'm _lonely_, Oliver!"

Oliver never had a chance.

* * * * *

Life in Landsdale goes quietly on, the ripples made by Oliver's
departure long since smoothed away by the years.

Miss Orella Simms has married the Methodist minister who was to have
married her to Oliver. Aunt Katisha and Glenna have resigned
themselves to Oliver's escape and have taken over the job of assisting
Orella to superintend her husband's career, an occupation eminently
satisfactory to all because the placid cleric never dreams troublesome
dreams of adventure, as Oliver did, to try their matriarchal patience.

... But life is never dull for Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Watts, whose
breathtaking performances currently electrify the thrill-hungry
cultures of a thousand worlds. They have traveled from Sirius to
Sagittarius, and at this writing have two children: a golden-haired
daughter of four named Perrl-high-C-trill-and-A-sharp-above, and a
tow-headed boy of two who has a cowlick like his father's and whose
name is Butch.

They are very happy and there has been no talk between them, though
they are wealthy enough in galactic credits by now to have bought half
a planet for a home, of settling down to the quiet life. They are
quite satisfied to leave such consequential decisions to those who
like chang