interrupted, "Aren't you talking a bit above the child's
understanding, Drake?"

"No, mama," said Zoe. "I understand what papa explained. Now, don't
interrupt."

"So, Knowall," continued Drake, "filled the An-vils with human feelings
such as Love, Hate, Ambition, Jealousy, Malice, Envy, Despair, Hope,
Fear, Shame and so on. Very soon the An-vils were acting like humans,
and in ten days, terrible civil wars wiped out the An-vils' population
by two-thirds."

"Then, papa, the An-vils finally killed off each other?"

"Almost, until among them a being named Zalibar, full of saintliness and
persuasion, preached the brotherhood of all An-vils. The invaders,
quickly converted, quit their quarrels, and the Earth-lings were even
more enslaved."

"Oh, papa, weren't Knowall and his followers in Greenland awfully sad
the way things had turned out?"

"For a while. Then Knowall came up with the final pay-off."

"Is that slang, papa? Pay-off?"

"Yes. The coup-de-grace. The ace in the hole that he'd saved, if all
else failed."

"I understand, papa. The idea that would out-trump anything the other
side had to offer. What was it, father? What did they have?"

"Knowall imbued the An-vils with nostalgia."

"What is nostalgia?"

"Home sickness."

"Oh, papa, wasn't Knowall smart? That meant, the An-vils were all filled
with the desire to fly back to the star from where they had started."

"Exactly. So, one day, all the An-vils, an immense army, flapping their
great green wings, assembled in the Black Hills of North America, and,
at a given signal, they all rose up from Earth and all the humans
chanted, 'Glory, glory, the day of our deliverance!'"

"So then, father, all the An-vils flew away from Earth?"

"Not all. There were two child An-vils, one male and one female, aged
two years, who had been born on Earth, and they started off with all the
other An-vils and flew up into the sky. But when they reached the upper
limits of the strato-sphere, they hesitated, turned tail and fluttered
back to Earth where they had been born. Their names were Zizzo and
Zizza."

"And what happened to Zizzo and Zizza, papa?"

"Well, like all the An-vils, they were great mathematicians. So, they
multiplied."

"Oh, papa," laughed Zoe, flapping her wings excitedly, "that was a very
nice story!"

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ Oct.-Nov. 1953.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidenc