ventional primness. And it brought her answer.

"Here I am, Mommie! Look-at!"

He was in a tree! He was fifteen feet off the ground, high in the
branches of a tree-thing, swaying--

For an instant, dread flowed through Naomi as if in her bloodstream and
something was cutting off her breath. Then, as the hands over mouth and
throat withdrew, she saw they were Ted's. She let him drag her into the
cabin and close the broken door.

"Better not scare Richard," he said quietly, shoving her gently into a
chair. "He might fall."

Dumbly she caught her breath, waiting for the bawling out she'd earned.

But Ted said, "Richard keeps us safe. So long as we fear for him, and
not ourselves--"

That was easy to do. Outside, she heard a piping call: "Look at me now,
Mommie!"

"Showing off!" she gasped. In a flashing vision, Richard was half boy,
half vulture, flapping to the ground with a broken wing.

"Here," said Ted, picking up a notebook that had been on the table.
"Here's Cappy's present. A homemade picture book. Bait."

"Let _me_ use it!" she said. "Richard may have seen I was scared just
now."

Outside again, under the tree, she called, "Here's Cappy's present,
Richard. He's gone away and left it for you."

Would he notice how her voice had gone up half an octave, become flat
and shrill?

"I'm coming down," Richard said. "Let me down, tree."

He seemed to be struggling. The branches were cagelike. He was caught!

Naomi's struggle was with her voice. "How did you _ever_ get up there?"
she called.

"The tree let me up, Mommie," Richard explained solemnly, "but he won't
let me down!" He whimpered a little.

He must _not_ become frightened! "You tell that tree you've got to come
right down this instant!" she ordered.

She leaned against the cabin for support. Ted came out and slipped his
arm around her.

"Break off a few leaves, Richard," he suggested. "That'll show your tree
who's boss!"

Standing close against her husband, Naomi tried to stop shaking. But she
lacked firm support, for Ted shook, too.

His advice to Richard was sound, though. What had been a trap became,
through grudging movement of the branches, a ladder. Richard climbed
down, scolding at the tree like an angry squirrel.

* * * * *

Naomi thought she'd succeeded in shutting her mind. But when her little
boy slid down the final bit of trunk and came for his present, Naomi
broke. Like a startled animal, sh