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 a