ountry; that where there was severe economic pressure the lowest
classes of course felt it the worst, and that among the poorest of all
the women were driven into the labor market by necessity.

They listened closely, with the usual note-taking.

"About one-third, then, belong to the poorest class," observed Moadine
gravely. "And two-thirds are the ones who are--how was it you so
beautifully put it?--'loved, honored, kept in the home to care for the
children.' This inferior one-third have no children, I suppose?"

Jeff--he was getting as bad as they were--solemnly replied that, on the
contrary, the poorer they were, the more children they had. That too, he
explained, was a law of nature: "Reproduction is in inverse proportion
to individuation."

"These 'laws of nature,'" Zava gently asked, "are they all the laws you
have?"

"I should say not!" protested Terry. "We have systems of law that go
back thousands and thousands of years--just as you do, no doubt," he
finished politely.

"Oh no," Moadine told him. "We have no laws over a hundred years old,
and most of them are under twenty. In a few weeks more," she continued,
"we are going to have the pleasure of showing you over our little land
and explaining everything you care to know about. We want you to see our
people."

"And I assure you," Somel added, "that our people want to see you."

Terry brightened up immensely at this news, and reconciled himself to
the renewed demands upon our capacity as teachers. It was lucky that we
knew so little, really, and had no books to refer to, else, I fancy we
might all be there yet, teaching those eager-minded women about the rest
of the world.

As to geography, they had the tradition of the Great Sea, beyond the
mountains; and they could see for themselves the endless thick-forested
plains below them--that was all. But from the few records of their
ancient condition--not "before the flood" with them, but before that
mighty quake which had cut them off so completely--they were aware that
there were other peoples and other countries.

In geology they were quite ignorant.

As to anthropology, they had those same remnants of information about
other peoples, and the knowledge of the savagery of the occupants of
those dim forests below. Nevertheless, they had inferred (marvelously
keen on inference and deduction their minds were!) the existence and
development of civilization in other places, much as we infer it on
other pla