. More and more, as he
understood the ship, he was amazed at the courage of the ancients who
had blithely leaped into hyperspace in these flying coffins with no more
motivation than to see what was beyond the nearest star. And in ships
more primitive than this men had swept through the star systems nearest
Earth in the outward expansion of the First Millennium.

He sighed. The breed of man must have been tough in the old days--and
he'd soon be finding out if any of that ancient toughness remained.

He opened the door to his quarters.

Copper was sitting in his favorite chair, a pile of completed assemblies
neatly stacked beside her, and a disorderly file of crumpled cloth at
her feet. Her face was sullen as she looked up at him. "I've had about
all of this I'm going to take," she said mutinously as she stirred the
heap of cloth with a bare foot. "Not even you are going to make me wear
those--things!"

Kennon sighed. It was the same old story. For months he had been trying
patiently to indoctrinate Copper with a minimum of civilized habits, but
she was quite literally a savage. In her entire lifetime she had never
worn clothing, and to encase her body in hose, kilts, blouse, and
sandals was a form of torture. She scratched, wiggled, and twisted at
the garments until she looked as bad as she felt, and would usually
finish a session by tearing off the offending clothes and sulking. She
was doing it now.

"You must act like a civilized human being," Kennon said mildly. "You're
simply going to have to learn to wear these clothes properly."

"Why? I'm more comfortable as I am."

"That's not the point. You are going to be living in human society and
you must act human. The only planet where you could get away with nudity
is Santos, and we're not going there."

"Why not?"

"I've explained it time and again. We'll have to go to Beta. That's the
only place I know where you'll have a fair hearing. And on Beta people
wear clothes. They have to. It's cold, even in summer, and in the
wintertime, there's snow."

"What's snow?"

"Ice crystals that fall like rain, but I've told you this before."

"And I still don't believe it."

"Believe it or not you're going to wear those things. Now put them on!"

She looked at him with mutiny on her face. "All right, slave driver,"
she muttered as she picked up the clothing, "but I hope you'll itch
someday and be unable to scratch."

"And try to wear those garments more gracefully