an a little too much to each other to be parted now.

* * * * *

Paul Meillard and Karl Dorver had considerable difficulty with Mom,
that afternoon. They wanted her to go with them and help trade for
cattle. Mom didn't want to; she was afraid. They had to do a lot of
play-acting, with half a dozen Marines pretending to guard her with
fixed bayonets from some of Dave Questell's Navy construction men
who had red bandannas on their heads to simulate combs before she
got the idea. Then she was afraid to get into the contragravity
lorry that was to carry the hoes and the wagon wheels. Sonny managed
to reassure her, and insisted on going along, and he insisted on
taking his ax with him. That meant doubling the guard, to make sure
Sonny didn't lose his self-control when he saw his former
persecutors within chopping distance.

It went off much better than either Paul Meillard or Luis Gofredo
expected. After the first shock of being air-borne had worn off,
Mom found that she liked contragravity-riding; Sonny was wildly
delighted with it from the start. The natives showed neither of them
any hostility. Mom's lavender bathrobe and Sonny's green coveralls
and big ax seemed to be symbols of a new and exalted status; even
the Lord Mayor was extremely polite to them.

The Lord Mayor and half a dozen others got a contragravity ride,
too, to the meadows to pick out cattle. A dozen animals, including
a pair of the two-ton draft beasts, were driven to the Terran camp.
A couple of lorry-loads of assorted vegetables were brought in, too.
Everybody seemed very happy about the deal, especially Bennet Fayon.
He wanted to slaughter one of the sheep-sized meat-and-milk animals
at once and get to work on it. Gofredo advised him to put it off
till the next morning. He wanted a large native audience to see
the animal being shot with a rifle.

The water tower was finished, and the big spherical tank hoisted on
top of it and made fast. A pump, and a filter-system were installed.
There was no water for hot showers that evening, though. They would
have to run a pipeline to the river, and that would entail a ditch
that would cut through several cultivated fields, which, in turn,
would provoke an uproar. Paul Meillard didn't want that happening
until he'd concluded the cattle-trade.

Charley Loughran and Willi Schallenmacher had gone up to the ship on
one of the landing craft; they accompanied the landing party that