ooks like."

He looked at her and grinned. She was cute as a pixie, and there were no
two ways about that. He wondered for a moment what kind of a wife she'd
make. And then shuddered inwardly. Life would be one big contradiction of
anything he'd managed to get out of his trap.

He strolled idly along what was little more than a country path and it
came to him that there were probably few worlds in the whole UP where he'd
have been prone to do this within the first few hours he'd been on the
planet. He would have been afraid, elsewhere, of anything from footpads to
police, from unknown vehicles to unknown traffic laws. There was something
bewildering about being an Earthling and being set down suddenly in New
Delos or on Avalon.

Here, somehow, he already had a feeling of peace.

Evidently, although Bakunin was supposedly a city, its populace tilled
their fields and provided themselves with their own food. He could see no
signs of stores or warehouses. And the UP building, which was no great
edifice itself, was the only thing in town which looked even remotely like
a governmental building.

Bakunin was neat. Clean as a pin, as the expression went. Ronny was
vaguely reminded of a historical Tri-Di romance he'd once seen. It had
been laid in ancient times in a community of the Amish in old
Pennsylvania.

He approached one of the wooden houses. The things would have been
priceless on Earth as an antique to be erected as a museum in some crowded
park. For that matter it would have been priceless for the wood it
contained. Evidently, the planet Kropotkin still had considerable virgin
forest.

An old-timer smoking a pipe, sat on the cottage's front step. He nodded
politely.

Ronny stopped. He might as well try to get a little of the feel of the
place. He said courteously, "A pleasant evening."

The old-timer nodded. "As evenings should be after a fruitful day's toil.
Sit down, comrade. You must be from the United Planets. Have you ever seen
Earth?"

Ronny accepted the invitation and felt a soothing calm descend upon him
almost immediately. An almost disturbingly pleasant calm. He said, "I was
born on Earth."

"Ai?" the old man said. "Tell me. The books say that Kropotkin is an Earth
type planet within what they call a few degrees. But is it? Is Kropotkin
truly like the mother planet?"

Ronny looked about him. He'd seen some of this world as the shuttle rocket
had brought them down from the passing liner. The fo