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diff --git a/32833-h/32833-h.htm b/32833-h/32833-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91daaf5 --- /dev/null +++ b/32833-h/32833-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1755 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of A Woman's Place, by MARK CLIFTON. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Woman's Place, by Mark Irvin Clifton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Woman's Place + +Author: Mark Irvin Clifton + +Illustrator: EMSH + +Release Date: June 16, 2010 [EBook #32833] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WOMAN'S PLACE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h1>A Woman's Place</h1> + +<h2>By MARK CLIFTON</h2> + +<h3>Illustrated by EMSH</h3> + +<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction +May 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Home is where you hang up your spaceship—that is, if you +have any Miss Kitty along!</div> + + +<p>It was the speaking of Miss Kitty's name which half roused her from +sleep. She eased her angular body into a more comfortable position in +the sack. Still more asleep than awake, her mind reflected tartly that +in this lifeboat, hurtling away from their wrecked spaceship back to +Earth, the sleeping accommodation was quite appropriately named. On +another mental level, she tried to hear more of what was being said +about her. Naturally, hearing one's name spoken, one would.</p> + +<p>"We're going to have to tell Miss Kitty as soon as she wakes up." It was +Sam Eade talking to Lt. Harper—the two men who had escaped with her.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Sam," the lieutenant answered. "What we've suspected all along is +pretty definite now."</p> + +<p>Still drowsing, she wondered, without any real interest, what they felt +they must tell her. But the other level of her mind was more real. She +wondered how she looked to these two young men while she slept. Did she +sleep with her mouth open? Did her tiara slip while she snored?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Vividly, as in full dreaming, she slipped back into the remembered scene +which had given birth to the phrase. At some social gathering she had +been about to enter a room. She'd overheard her name spoken then, too.</p> + +<p>"Miss Kitty is probably a cute enough name when you're young," the catty +woman was saying. "But at her age!"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose you might say she's kept it for professional reasons," +the other woman had answered with a false tolerance. "A school teacher, +wanting to be cozy with her kiddies, just a big sister." The tolerance +was too thin, it broke away. "Kind of pathetic, I think. She's so plain, +so very typical of an old maid school teacher. She's just the kind to +keep a name like Miss Kitty."</p> + +<p>"What gets me," the first one scoffed, "is her pride in having such a +brilliant mind—if she really does have one. All those academic degrees. +She wears them on every occasion, like a tiara!"</p> + +<p>She had drawn back from the door. But in her instant and habitual +introspection, she realized she was less offended than perversely +pleased because, obviously, they were jealous of her intellectual +accomplishments, her ability to meet men on their own ground, +intellectually as good a man as any man.</p> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>The half dream drowsiness was sharply washed away by the belated impact +of Sam Eade's question to Lt. Harper. Reality flashed on, and she was +suddenly wide awake in the lifeboat heading back to Earth.</p> + +<p>"What is it you must tell me?" She spoke loudly and crisply to the men's +broad backs where they sat in front of the instrument panel. The +implication of the question, itself, that they had been holding +something back....</p> + +<p>Lt. Harper turned slowly around in his seat and looked at her with that +detested expression of amused tolerance which his kind of adult male +affected toward females. He was the dark, ruggedly handsome type, the +kind who took it for granted that women should fawn over him. The kind +who would speak the fatuous cliche that a woman's place was in the home, +not gallivanting off to teach colonists' children on the fourth planet +of Procyon. Still, perhaps she was unjust, she hardly knew the man.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you awake, Miss Kitty?" he asked easily. His tone, as always, was +diffident, respectful toward her. Odd, she resented that respect from +him, when she would have resented lack of it even more.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," she snapped. "What is it you must tell me?"</p> + +<p>"When you're dressed, freshened up a bit," he answered, not evasively, +but as if it could wait.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>She started to insist, but he had already turned back to the nose window +to study the starry sky and the huge misty green ball of Earth in front +of them. Sam Eade, the radioman, was intently twisting the dials on his +set with a puckered frown between his blond eyebrows. He was an entirely +different type, tall, blond, but just as fatuously masculine, as +arrogantly handsome. Probably neither one of them had an ounce of +brains—handsome people so seldom needed to develop mental ability.</p> + +<p>Sam, too, turned his face farther away from her. Both backs told her +plainly that she could dress, take care of her needs, with as much +privacy as the lifeboat could allow anybody.</p> + +<p>Not that it would take her long. She'd worn coveralls since the +catastrophe, saving the dress she'd had on for landing on Earth. They'd +had to leave most of her luggage behind. The lieutenant had insisted on +taking up most of the spare space in the lifeboat with that dismantled +space warper from the wreck of their ship.</p> + +<p>She combed her short graying hair back of her ears, and used a little +water sparingly to brush her teeth. Perhaps it had been a quixotic +thing, her giving up a secure teaching post on Earth to go out to +Procyon IV. Except that she'd dreamed about a new colony where the +rising generation, under her influence, would value intellect—with the +girls no different from the boys. Perhaps it had been even sillier to +take a cabin on a freighter, the only passenger with a crew of four men. +But men did not intimidate her, and on a regular passenger ship she'd +have been bored stiff by having to associate with the women.</p> + +<p>Two of the men....</p> + +<p>It wasn't quite clear to her, even yet, what had happened. They'd used +the normal drive to get clear of regular solar shipping lanes. The +warning bell had rung that they were about to warp into hyperspace, a +mechanism which canceled out distance and made the trip in apparent time +no more than an overnight jaunt to Mars. There was a grinding +shudder—then a twisted ship which looked as if some giant had taken a +wet rag and torqued it to squeeze out the water. Lt. Harper and Sam had +got her out of her cabin, and finally into the lifeboat which was only +partly crippled.</p> + +<p>The other two men of the crew....</p> + +<p>She zipped up the front of her coveralls with a crisp gesture, as if to +snap off the vision. She would show no weakness in front of these two +men. She had no weakness to show!</p> + +<p>"All right, gentlemen," she said incisively to their backs. "Now. What +is it I must be told?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Lt. Harper pointed to the ball of Earth so close ahead. It was huge, +almost filling the sky in front of them. The misty atmosphere blurred +outlines slightly, but she could make out the Eastern halves of North +and South America clearly. The Western portions were still in dim +darkness.</p> + +<p>"See anything wrong, Miss Kitty?" the lieutenant asked quietly.</p> + +<p>She looked more closely, sensing a possible trap in his question, a +revealment of her lack of knowledge.</p> + +<p>"I'm not an authority on celestial geography," she said cautiously, +academically. "But obviously the maps I've seen were not accurate in +showing the true continental proportions." She pointed to a small chart +hanging on the side wall. "This map shows Florida, for example, a much +longer peninsula than it actually is. A number of things like that. I +don't see anything else wrong, but, of course, it's not my field of +knowledge."</p> + +<p>Lt. Harper looked at her approvingly, the kind of look she gave a bright +pupil who'd been especially discerning.</p> + +<p>"Only it's not the map that's wrong, Miss Kitty," he said. "It is <i>my</i> +field of knowledge, and I've seen those continental outlines hundreds of +times. They always corresponded to the map ... before."</p> + +<p>She looked at him without comprehension.</p> + +<p>"Not only that," Sam Eade entered the conversation. "As soon as we were +clear of the wreck, Lt. Harper took a fix on stars and constellations. +He's an astrogator. He knows his business. And they were wrong, too. +Just a little wrong, here and there, but enough. And even more than +that. On a tight beam, I should have been able to make a connection with +Earth headquarters on this set. And I haven't yet got communication, and +we know there's nothing wrong with this set."</p> + +<p>"Sam knows his business, too, Miss Kitty," Lt. Harper said. "If he can't +get communication, it's because there isn't any."</p> + +<p>She looked wide-eyed from one to the other. For once, she was more +concerned with a problem than with concealing her ignorance about it.</p> + +<p>"It means," the lieutenant said, as if he were answering a question she +hadn't yet asked, "that the Earth we are returning to is not the Earth +we left."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand," she gasped.</p> + +<p>"There's a theory," Lt. Harper answered slowly. "Heretofore it has been +considered only a mathematical abstraction, and having no counterpart in +reality. The theory of multiple dimensions." She looked at him closely, +and in her habitual ambivalence of thought reflected that he sounded +much more intelligent than she had suspected.</p> + +<p>"I've read about that," she answered.</p> + +<p>He looked relieved, and threw a quick look at Sam. Apparently he had +underestimated her intelligence, too—in spite of all her degrees.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"We never thought it could be real," he emphasized. "But the theory was +that multiple universes lay side by side, perhaps each an instant's time +away from the other. The only thing I can see is that some flaw in the +space warper threw us out of our dimension into another one closely +adjacent—not far enough for things to be totally different, just +different enough that the duplication isn't identical. It's Earth, but +it's not our Earth. It's a New Earth, one we don't know anything about."</p> + +<p>"In another few hours, we'll be entering the atmosphere," Sam put in, +"and we don't know what we'll find. We thought you ought to know."</p> + +<p>She flared in exasperation at the simple assumption of male arrogance.</p> + +<p>"Of course I should know!" she snapped back. "I am not one of your +little bits of blonde, empty-headed fluff to be protected by strong +males! I should have been told immediately!"</p> + +<p>Lt. Harper looked at Sam with a broad grin. It was amusement, but it was +more—a confirmation that they could depend on her to take it in her +stride—an approval. Apparently, they had discussed more things about +her than she'd overheard, while she slept. He didn't turn off the grin +when he looked directly at her.</p> + +<p>"What could you have done about it, if we had told you, Miss Kitty?" he +asked mildly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was not the same Earth. The charts and maps had not been wrong. Her +tentative theory that perhaps there were vision flaws in the plastic +nose window which had not stood up.</p> + +<p>The continents, the lakes, the rivers—the topography really was +distorted. Now there was the Mississippi River, one spot swinging rather +too widely to the East. The Great Lakes were one huge inland sea. The +Gulf of Mexico swung high up into what had once been Alabama and +Georgia.</p> + +<p>There was no New Orleans, shipping center of the world, headquarters of +Space.</p> + +<p>There were no cities anywhere up and down the Mississippi. Where St. +Louis should have been, there was virgin forest. As they dropped down +into the upper reaches of atmosphere, experiencing the familiar and +sometimes nauseating reference shift from ahead to below, there had been +no New York to the East, no San Francisco to the West. There had been no +Boulder Dam, no Tennessee Valley project, no continuous hydroelectric +installations running the entire length of the Mississippi, where the +strength of the Father of the Waters had finally been harnessed for Man. +There were no thin lines of highways, no paint-brush strokes of smoke +against the canvas of the Gulf of Mexico to denote steamers, for atomic +power was still not available to all.</p> + +<p>On this New Earth, Man could not yet have reached a state of complex +technology.</p> + +<p>And as they dropped lower still, through their telescope sights, they +saw no canoes on the river or the feeder streams. They saw no huts along +the river shore, no thin streamers of wood smoke from huts hidden under +the trees along the bayous. New Earth was purple and blue, then shading +into green as they dropped lower. They sighted a deer drinking at the +edge of a pool.</p> + +<p>But there was no trace of Man.</p> + +<p>"If there are no scars, no defacements upon this forest primeval," Miss +Kitty said didactically, "then Man has not evolved on New Earth." Since +it was spoken in the tone of an axiom, and there was no evidence to +refute it, neither of the two men felt like arguing the matter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>They were low enough now that they were flying horizontally rather than +dropping vertically. They were still searching for traces of some kind +of artifacts. They were also searching, Lt. Harper advised them at last, +for a suitable place to land. They wanted a higher ground than the delta +country so they might be free of insect pests, assuming there were some +since deer could be seen throwing their heads back along their sides as +if to chase away flies. They wanted higher ground with a stream of water +going over falls to supplement their limited power in the lifeship. On +the chance there were fish, it would be nice to be handy to a lake. A +forest for game. A level ground for a permanent camp.</p> + +<p>Since they were here, and it might be some time before they could figure +out a way to return to Old Earth, they may as well make the best of it.</p> + +<p>They found the kind of place they wanted, a little to the west of the +Mississippi. They grounded the lifeship at the edge of a natural +clearing beside a lake where a stream of sparkling water dropped from a +rock ledge.</p> + +<p>They settled the ship on the springy turf, then sat and looked at one +another as if they were suddenly all strangers. Wordlessly, Lt. Harper +got up and opened the door of the lifeship. He threw down the hinged +metal steps. He stood back. Miss Kitty went through the door first and +down the steps. The two men followed.</p> + +<p>They stood on the ground of New Earth, and looked at one another the way +they had in the ship. In the minds of each there was the thought that +some kind of a ceremonial speech should be made, but no one volunteered +it.</p> + +<p>"I suppose we should have a campfire," Miss Kitty said doubtfully.</p> + +<p>They did not realize it at the time, but it was the most effective +speech which could have been devised. It was a symbol. Man had +discovered and taken possession of New Earth. His instinctive thought +was to place his brand upon it, an artificial fire.</p> + +<p>All of them missed the significance of the fact that it was Miss Kitty +who had made the first move in the domestication of this New Earth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>In the weeks which followed, Miss Kitty began to be dimly aware of the +significance. At first they had lived a sort of Robinson Crusoe kind of +life, leaning pretty heavily upon the stores of the liferaft.</p> + +<p>It had been she who had converted it over into more of the Swiss Family +Robinson pattern of making use of the resources about them.</p> + +<p>The resources were abundant, bountiful. Yet the two men seemed little +interested, and appeared content to live off the stores within the +liferaft. They devoted almost all their time, except that little for +bringing up firewood and trapping game, to fiddling with that gadget +they called a warp motor. They were trying to hook it up to the radio +sets, they said.</p> + +<p>Miss Kitty detested women who nagged at men, but she felt compelled to +point out that this was the fall season upon New Earth, and winter would +soon be upon them. It should not be a severe winter at this latitude, +but they must be prepared for it with something more substantial than +her uncomfortable sleeping place in the liferaft; nor would the two of +them continue to enjoy sleeping out under the trees, if a blanket of +snow fell some night.</p> + +<p>"I was hoping we could be back home before winter sets in, Miss Kitty," +Lt. Harper apologized mildly.</p> + +<p>She had not nagged them. She had simply shut her lips and walked away.</p> + +<p>The next day they began cutting logs.</p> + +<p>It was odd, the basic pleasure she felt in seeing the sides of the cabin +start to take form. Certainly she was not domestic by nature. And this +could, in no sense, be considered a home. Still, she felt it might have +gone up faster, if the men had used their muscles—their brute +strength—rather than spend so much futile time trying to devise power +tools.</p> + +<p>They were also inclined to talk too much about warping radio wave bands +through cross sections of sinowaves, and to drop their work on the cabin +in favor of spending long hours trying new hookups.</p> + +<p>But Miss Kitty never nagged about it. She had even tried to follow some +of the theory, to share in their efforts to put such theory into +practice, to be just a third fellow. Instead she found her thoughts +wandering to how an oven could be constructed so she could bake and +roast meats instead of broiling and frying them over an open fire.</p> + +<p>Game was plentiful, fish seemed to be begging for the hook. Every day, +without going too far away from camp, she found new foods; watercress, +mustard greens, wild turnips, wild onions, occasionally a turkey nest +with eggs still edible, hollow trees where wild bees had stored honey, +persimmons still astringent, but promising incredibly sweet and +delicious flavor when frost struck them, chinquapin, a kind of chestnut, +black walnuts. There was no end to what the country provided. Yet the +men, instead of laying in winter stores, spent their time with the warp +motor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Without meaning to, Miss Kitty interrupted an explanation of Lt. +Harper's on how they were calibrating the torquing degrees. She told him +that he and Sam simply must help her harvest a hillside patch of wild +maise she had found, before the rains came and ruined all the grain with +mold, or the migrating birds ate it all.</p> + +<p>The cabin they were erecting would contain only two rooms—a large +general room for cooking, eating, visiting, such as an old-fashioned +farm kitchen had once been. A little room, opening off it, would be her +sleeping room. She raised her eyebrows questioningly, and Sam explained +they would build a small, separate bunkhouse for himself and Lt. Harper.</p> + +<p>She had a curious sense of displeasure at the arrangement. She knew she +should be pleased at their understanding of the need for privacy. There +was no point in becoming primitive savages. She should be grateful that +they shared her determination to preserve the civilized codes. She told +herself, rather severely, that the preservation of civilized mores was +extremely important. And she brought herself up short with a shocking +question, equal to a slap in the face.</p> + +<p><i>Why?</i></p> + +<p>She realized then she had intuitively known from the first that they +would never get back to Old Earth. Her instincts had been functioning, +insuring their lives, where intellect had failed them completely. She +tried to laugh scornfully at herself, in feminist tradition. Imagine! +Katheryn Kittredge, Career Woman, devoted to the intellectual +advancement of Man, thinking that mere cooking and cleaning and mending +was the supremely important thing.</p> + +<p>But she failed in her efforts to deride herself. The intellectual +discussions among the small groups of intelligent girls back on Old +Earth were far away and meaningless. She discovered she was a little +proud and strangely contented that she could prepare edible food. +Certainly the two men were not talented; and someone had to accept the +responsibility for a halfway decent domestic standard and comfort.</p> + +<p>As, for example, with the walls of the cabin halfway up, it was +necessary to point out that while they may be going to put the little +cookstove—welded together out of metal scrap—in the cabin, there was +no provision for a fireplace. How would they keep warm through the long +winter months this year, and in the years to come?</p> + +<p>Lt. Harper had started to say something. Then he shrugged and a hopeless +look came over his face.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you are right, Miss Kitty," he said humbly. "It may be spring, +at that, before we can finish trying the more obvious combinations. +We're trying to...." He broke off, turned away, and began to mark off +the spot where they would saw down through the logs to fit in a +fireplace.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<div class="figleft"> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>Later that day, she overheard him tell Sam that, theoretically at least, +there could be millions of versions of the Earth, each removed an +infinitesimal point from the next. There was the chance the flaw in the +torque motor, which still eluded him, might not automatically take them +back to the right cross-section, even if he found it. They might have to +make an incredible number of trials, and then again they might hit it on +the very next combination.</p> + +<p>"And you might not!" she cut into the conversation, with perhaps more +acid in her voice than she intended. "It might not be your next, nor +tomorrow, nor next spring—nor ever!"</p> + +<p>Odd that she had felt an obscure satisfaction at the stricken looks on +their faces when she had said it. Yet they had it coming to them. It was +time someone shocked them into a sense of reality. It took a woman to be +a realist. She had already faced the possibility and was reconciled to +it. They were still living in an impossible dream.</p> + +<p>Still she was sorry. She was sorry in the way she had always regretted +having to make a bad boy in kindergarten go stand with his face to the +wall. She tried to make up for it that evening.</p> + +<p>"I understand," she said as they sat near the campfire outside the +half-finished cabin. "You alter the torque, then try the various radio +wave bands in the new position."</p> + +<p>They both looked at her, a little surprised.</p> + +<p>"It must be a slow and tedious procedure," she continued.</p> + +<p>"Very," Sam said with a groan.</p> + +<p>A shifting air current, carrying the sound of the waterfall, gave her an +idea.</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + + +<p>"Too bad you can't borrow the practice of Tibetan monks," she mused. +"They tie their prayers to a wheel, set it in a running stream. Every +turn of the wheel is a prayer sent up to their gods. That way they can +get their praying done for them while they go about the more urgent +matters of providing a living for themselves and their families."</p> + +<p>She hadn't meant it to be so pointed, implying that all they were doing +was sending up futile prayers to unheeding gods, implying they should be +giving more attention to setting in winter stores. But even so....</p> + +<p>"Miss Kitty," Sam said in a kind of awe. "You are a wonderful woman!"</p> + +<p>In spite of her sudden flush of pleasure, she was irritated. As pointed +as she had made it, he had missed it.</p> + +<p>He turned and began talking excitedly to Lt. Harper. Yes, of course, +they could rig up an automatic method instead of doing it by hand. It +could be done faster and more smoothly with electric motors, but the +idea was the same. If Lt. Harper could rig a trip to kick the warp over +another notch each time, they could run it night and day. Just let some +kind of alarm bell start ringing, if they hit anything at the other end!</p> + +<p>The two of them jumped to their feet then, grabbed her arms, squeezed +them, and rushed away to the little shed they'd constructed beside the +lifeship to hold some of their scattered equipment.</p> + +<p>She felt vaguely regretful that she had mentioned it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Still she gained a great deal. The men finished the cabin in a hurry +after that, and they put up their own bunkhouse in less than a week. +Both jobs were obviously not done by experts, and she had fussed at +them, although not unkindly, because she had had to chink such wide +cracks with a mixture of clay and dried grass.</p> + +<p>She moved into the larger cabin, discovered a dozen roof leaks during +the first hard rain they'd had; got them patched, began molding clay +into dishes and containers, started pressuring the boys to build her a +ceramics kiln, began to think about how their clothes would eventually +wear out and how she would have to find some way to weave cloth to +replace them. Day by day she was less irritable, as the boys settled +into a routine.</p> + +<p>"I do believe," she said to herself one day, "I would be disappointed if +they found a way back!" She straightened up and almost spilled the +container of wild rice she had been garnering from the swampy spot at +the upper reaches of the lake. "Why! The very idea of saying such a +thing, Katheryn Kittredge!" But her heart was not in the self chiding.</p> + +<p>But what reason, in heaven's name, would they have for staying here? +Three people, marooned, growing old, dying one by one. There was no +chance for Man's survival here. From the evidence about them, they had +come to the conclusion that on this New Earth, in the tree of evolution, +the bud to grow into a limb of primates had never formed.</p> + +<p>She turned and looked at the tall, straight pines ahead of her. She saw +the deciduous hardwoods, now gold and red, to one side of her. Behind +her the lake was teeming with fish. The spicy smell of fall was all +around her, and a stray breeze brought a scent of grapes she had +overlooked when she was gathering all she could find to make a wine to +pleasantly surprise the boys.</p> + +<p>She thought of the flock of wild chickens which had learned to hang +around the cabin for scraps of food, the grunting lazy pigs, grown quite +tame, begging her to find their acorns for them, the nanny goat with two +half-grown kids Lt. Harper had brought back from a solitary walk he had +taken.</p> + +<p>New Earth was truly a paradise—and all to be wasted if there were not +Man to appreciate it truly.</p> + +<p>A thought knocked at her mind, but she resolutely shut it out, refused +it even silent verbalization.</p> + +<p>Yet, while she stooped over again and busied her hands with stripping +the rice from the stalks without cutting them on the sharp dry leaves, +she found herself thinking about Mendelian law. Line breeding from +father to daughter, or brother to sister—in domestic animals, of +course—was all right in fixing desirable traits, providing certain +recessives in both the dam and the sire did not thus become dominant.</p> + +<p>"There, Katheryn Kittredge," she mumbled with satisfaction. "Assuming +the responsibilities of domesticity has not made you forget what you +learned."</p> + +<p>But the danger of fixing recessives into dominants through inbreeding +was even less with half-brothers and sisters. Now daughters by +one—er—sire could be bred to another sire to get only a quarter +relationship to a similar cross from the other father—er—sire. She +must work it out with a stylus in smooth clay. The boys had preempted +every scrap of paper for their pointless calculations. But she could +remember it, and it would be valuable in breeding up a desirable +barnyard stock.</p> + +<p>Yet it was odd that she assumed two males and only one female!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Then and there, standing ankle deep in the bog of wild rice, muddy to +her knees in her torn coveralls, slapping at persistent mosquitoes, she +came to terms with herself. In the back of her mind she had known it all +the time. All this was without meaning unless there was Man—and a +continuity of Man. Even so little as this gathering of wild rice, before +the migrating ducks got it, was without meaning, if it were merely to +stave off death from a purposeless existence. If there were no other +fate for them than eventually to die, without posterity, then they might +as well die tomorrow, today, now.</p> + +<p>The men were still living in a dream of getting back. No doubt their +lusting appetites were driving them to get back to their brazen, +heavy-breasted, languorous-eyed hussies who pandered to all comers +without shame! Miss Kitty was astonished at her sudden vehemence, the +red wave of fury which swept over her.</p> + +<p>But of course she was right. That was their urgent drive. "A male human +is nothing more than a sex machine!" Wasn't that what her roommate at +college had once said? Or was it her maiden aunt who had dominated her +widowed mother and herself through all the years she was growing up? +What did it matter who said it? She knew it was true. No wonder they +were so anxious to get back to Old Earth! Her lip lifted in cynical +scorn.</p> + +<p>"You don't dare leave a young girl alone with a boy for five minutes," +her aunt had once complained bitterly. "All they ever think about +is...." her voice had dropped to a whisper and she had given that +significant look to Katheryn's mother. But Katheryn had known what she +meant, of course.</p> + +<p>And it was true of all men.</p> + +<p>Women, back on Old Earth, had looked at her with pity and a little +contempt, because she had never, she had never.... But you didn't have +to have first hand experience to know. She had authoritative knowledge +gleaned from reading between the lines of the very best text books on +abnormal psychology. She hadn't had to read between the lines of sundry +surveys and reports. And if there had been no organized study at all, +the movies, the TV, the published better fiction—all of it centered +around that one theme—that one, alone, romanticize it or obscure it +though they might.</p> + +<p>It was all men ever thought about. And many women pandered to it—those +sultry, shameless, undulating....</p> + +<p>But Sam and Lt. Harper? It had been almost two months now since they had +left Earth and those vile blondes. How had they restrained themselves +during all this time!</p> + +<p>Her fuming anger was suddenly overwhelmed by a warm rush of gratitude, a +sympathy which brought a gush of tears into her eyes to stream down her +cheeks. How blind she had been. Of course! They were still bound by +their gentleman's Word of Honor, given to her on that first night in the +lifeship.</p> + +<p>What splendid men! All right, so they had their faults; a little +impractical, dreamers all, but with such nobility of character, truly +they were fit to be the fathers of a proud and noble race. And, in time, +with herself to shape and guide them....</p> + +<p>She straightened her aching back from bending over the rice reeds, +thrust out her scrawny chest, and breathed deeply. She lifted her chin +resolutely.</p> + +<p>"Katheryn Kittredge," she said firmly. "A woman's place is more than +merely cooking and cleaning and mending!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Supper, that evening, was a dinner, a special dinner. She set before the +two men a whole roast young tom turkey, with a touch of frosted +persimmons mixed with wild honey to enliven the light meat. There was a +dressing of boiled maise and wild rice, seasoned with wild onion and +thyme. There were little red tomatoes, tough but tasty. There were baked +yams. There was a custard of goat milk and turkey eggs sweetened with +honey.</p> + +<p>Instead of the usual sassafras tea to which their digestion had finally +adjusted, there was grape wine in their cups. It wasn't a very good +wine, still green and sharp, but the occasion called for it.</p> + +<p>Both of them looked at her with wonder, when they came in at her call +and saw the table. But they didn't ask any questions. They just started +eating and, for once, they forgot to talk about warp theory.</p> + +<p>She, herself, ate little. She was content to look at them. The +lieutenant, tall and strong, big-boned, dark-complexioned, square-faced, +white even teeth. Sam, smalled-boned, fair-complexioned, hair bleached +straw from the outdoor sun. He had been inclined to be a little stout +when she first saw him, but now he had that muscular wiriness which +comes with hard physical work—and clean living. His daughters would be +delicate, lovely, yet strong. The lieutenant's sons....</p> + +<p>She watched, in a kind of rapture, the ripple of muscles beneath their +shirts, the way the pillar of the neck arose from strong shoulders to +support a well-shaped head, the way the muscles of jaws rippled under +their lean cheeks as they chewed. The way their intelligent eyes flashed +appreciation at each savory mouthful.</p> + +<p>"It occurs to me, Sam," Lt. Harper said as he washed down some turkey +with a healthy quaff of wine. "We could give a little more attention to +scraping up food for Miss Kitty to cook. Now you take this brown rice, +for example, we could rig up a polishing mill so she'd have white +rice...."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," Miss Kitty said firmly. "All the proper food value lies in +the brown covering. I will not have the children's eating habits spoiled +from the beginning...."</p> + +<p>Appalled, she realized what she had said. Both men stopped chewing and +stared at her.</p> + +<p>"What children, Miss Kitty?" Lt. Harper asked, and he was looking at her +intently.</p> + +<p>She dropped her eyes to her plate. She felt the red flush arising around +her neck, up into her face. She couldn't face him. Yet, it had to be +done. It must be made quite clear to him, both of them, that....</p> + +<p>"<i>Our</i> children," she said distinctly, and felt their eyes boring into +the top of her head. "And I wish you both would stop calling me Miss +Kitty, as if—as if you were kindergarten children and I was the old +maid school teacher! All three of us are adults, men and a woman. In +spite of what you may think, I am not a great deal older than either of +you. There will be children! If it works out the way I plan, I believe I +do have time for at least six sons and daughters before I reach ... +before my barren years."</p> + +<p>She heard Sam's fork clatter down on the table top as he dropped it. She +heard Lt. Harper's feet scrape, as if he had been about to leap to his +feet. Without seeing it, she almost felt them look at one another.</p> + +<p>Well, she had made it plain enough.</p> + +<p>But they didn't say anything.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she could stand it no longer. Slowly, in dignity, she arose to +her feet and without looking at them she walked, head down, to her door. +Then she realized she had perhaps been too crisp, too businesslike about +it all. A vision of the kind of women they must have known, the kind +which would arouse their passion, the kind which would make it all +unmistakable....</p> + +<p>She had a flashing memory of a girl back in college, one smitten with a +football hero, trying to captivate the hero, draw him to her. On +impulse, Miss Kitty imitated that girl now, and a little tableau she +remembered.</p> + +<p>At her doorway she turned, and looked at them over her shoulder. She +lifted her shoulder so that it touched her chin. She drooped her eyes +half shut.</p> + +<p>"My name is Katheryn," she said, and she tried to make her voice husky +instead of tremulous and frightened. "Call me Kathy, call me Kate, call +me Kay."</p> + +<p>Both men were staring at her with wide eyes and open mouths as she +closed her door. She made sure there was no sound of a latch turning to +discourage them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>She undressed herself slowly, and, for the first time other than for +bathing, completely. She felt grateful for the time they were giving +her. No doubt they were talking it over, man to man, in the way of +civilized, educated.... She crawled in between the blankets, fresh and +smelling of sunshine from being washed in the clear water of the lake. +She was a little regretful she had no perfume; that was something they +didn't put into lifeboats.</p> + +<p>She waited.</p> + +<p>She heard the low rumble of male voices in the other room. They were +undoubtedly discussing it. She felt grateful relief that their voices +had not risen. They were not quarreling over her—not yet. She did hope +they would continue to be sensible.</p> + +<p>She heard one of the stools scrape on the rough split log floor. She +caught her breath in a gasp, found her hands were clutching the covers +and pulling them tightly up to her chin. She willed her hands to relax. +She willed the tenseness out of her rigid body.</p> + +<p>She heard the other stool scrape. Surely they were not both....</p> + +<p>She heard their feet walking across the floor, the heavy steps of the +lieutenant, the lighter, springier steps of Sam. She gritted her teeth +and clenched her eyes tight shut.</p> + +<p>And then she heard the outer door close softly.</p> + +<p>Which one? Which had remained behind?</p> + +<p>She waited.</p> + +<p>Then she heard footsteps outside. She tried to identify, by sound, which +man was making the noise, but the shuffling of leaves was confusing, as +if more than one person were walking outside. And where was the other +man? Why had he made no sound in the outer room? Was he quietly drinking +up the wine—first? Then, distinctly, she recognized two pairs of feet +outside, going farther away, in the direction of the men's bunkhouse.</p> + +<p>She could not bear the suspense. She sprang out of bed clutching one of +the blankets about her. Slowly, soundlessly, she opened her door a +crack. She could see no one in the flickering firelight of the room. +They had turned out the lights. Or—he had. She opened the door wide.</p> + +<p>It had been they, not he. Both men had gone.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Inadvertently something between a sob and a hiccough rattled her throat. +She choked back another. She would not give way to ... rage? ... +frustration? ... relief? ... <i>fear?</i></p> + +<p>Fear!</p> + +<p>She had seen the movies, she had read the stories, she had overheard +boys. "I'll fix you when we get outside! You meet me in the alley and +I'll show you!"</p> + +<p>These two men. Were they going off into the darkness to settle a +conflict which they had not been able to resolve through sensible +agreement? There, under the trees in the moonlight, would they, denying +all the progress of the sacred centuries, would they revert to the +primitive, the savage; and like two rutting male animals rend and tear +and battle with one another for the only female?</p> + +<p>Oh, no! No, they must not! There was no doubt that the lieutenant with +his great, massive strength.... But the human race of New Earth must +have the fine sensitivity, the lithe grace of Sam's kind, also!</p> + +<p>She tugged the blanket around her shoulders and ran toward the door. She +must reach them, step in between them, even at the cost of receiving +some of the blows upon herself, make them realize....</p> + +<p>She felt herself shivering as she opened the door, shivering as if with +an ague. She felt her face burning, as if with a fever. Her teeth were +chattering in anguish. She tried to still the noise of her teeth, to +listen for those horrible sounds of silent men in a death conflict +somewhere out there in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>Then she saw a chink of light through a crack in the wall of the +bunkhouse, where the clay had dried and fallen away from the logs.</p> + +<p>In there? What were they doing in there?</p> + +<p>Instead of their fists and crushing arms, were they stalking one another +with knives? She remembered scenes from Western movies, the overturned +tables, the crash of things thrown. Had some sense of chivalry still +remained in the lieutenant, and he, knowing Sam wouldn't stand a chance +in hand to hand conflict, devised some contest which would be more fair?</p> + +<p>There need be no contest. If only they would be sensible, work out an +equitable schedule....</p> + +<p>Barefooted, she ran across the ground toward the bunkhouse. She had +visions of herself throwing open the door, shocking them to stillness in +a tableau of violence. She was close now. She should be able to hear the +crashing of their table and chairs.</p> + +<p>She could hear nothing at all. Was she too late? Even now, was one of +them standing above the other, holding a dripping knife? What horrors +might she run into, even precipitate, if she threw open the door? +Caution, Katheryn!</p> + +<p>Instead, she crept up to the crack in the wall. Her teeth were +chattering so hard, she had difficulty in holding her head still enough +to peer through the slit of light. With her free hand, her shoulders +were shaking so hard she had difficulty in clutching the blanket about +her with the other, she grabbed her jaw and held on, to still her +shaking. Her eyes focused on the scene inside the room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>She had a three-quarter vision of each man and the table between them. +They were dealing a greasy pack of cards! Were they going to gamble for +her? Relief and shame intermingled in her reaction. She would have +preferred they settle it with more elemental.... It would have made it +less.... Yet, this way neither would be killed. Sons and daughters from +both....</p> + +<p>"How are we going to tell her now?" Sam asked, as he picked up his +cards. His voice came distinctly through the wall crack.</p> + +<p>"We should have told her about our wives and families right at the +start," Harper answered morosely. "I don't know why we didn't. Except +that, well, none of us have talked about things back home. She didn't, +and so we didn't either."</p> + +<p>"But I never dreamed Miss Kitty would start getting ideas," Sam said in +a heartsick voice. "I just never dreamed she...."</p> + +<p>"We're going to have to tell her," Harper said resolutely. "We'll just +have to tell her that, well, there's still hope and as long as there's +hope...."</p> + +<p>Blindly, in an anguish of shame such as she had never known, Miss Kitty +crept away from the bunkhouse, and stumbled back to the cabin. Now she +was shivering so violently she could hardly walk. The exposure to the +night air, the nervous tension, overwrought emotions....</p> + +<p>She could not remember getting back into the cabin, crawling into bed. +She knew only that a little later she was in bed, still shaking +violently with a chill, burning with fever.</p> + +<p>She was awakened in the morning with the sound of the axe chopping on +wood. She dragged herself out of bed, forlorn, sick, filled with shame. +Her head spun so wildly that she sank to her knees and lay it on the +bed. Then her pride and her will forced her to her feet, and she drove +herself to dress, to go into the big room, dig out glowing coals from +beneath ashes, put them in the little cook stove, pile fine slivers of +resin-rich kindling on top of them, blow on them.</p> + +<p>Between painful breaths, she heard herself sobbing. Her teeth started +chattering again, and there was a ringing in her ears. She heard the +blows of the axe falling on the wood, and each blow transferred itself +to the base of her skull. The ringing in her ears grew louder and +louder.</p> + +<div class="figright"> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<p>She heard one of the men shout. It sounded like Sam. Had he hurt himself +with the axe, gashed his leg or something? She'd always been afraid of +that axe! She'd told them and told them to be careful!</p> + +<p>She pulled herself up from her knees there at the stove where she had +been blowing on the coals. She must get out there, help him! That +terrible buzzing in her head, that ringing in her ears. No matter, she +must get out there to help him.</p> + +<p>She threw open the door and saw Sam running toward the lifeship. Had he +lost his mind? The bandages were here. She had them here! She saw Lt. +Harper come to the door of the bunkhouse. He was still pulling on his +pants. He started running toward the lifeship, too, cinching his belt as +he ran.</p> + +<p>Then she realized that at least part of the ringing in her ears came +from the lifeship. At first it had no meaning for her, then she +remembered them talking about fixing up some kind of alarm, so that if +they got a signal through....</p> + +<p>She started running toward the lifeship. She stumbled, fell, got up, +felt as light as a feather, as heavy as mercury. She crawled up the +steps of the lifeship, she clutched at the door. She heard Sam speaking +very slowly, carefully.</p> + +<p>"Do you read me? <i>Is this Earth?</i>"</p> + +<p>She saw his face. She knew the answer.</p> + +<p>And that was the last she knew.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Consciousness came back in little dribbles like a montage—half reality +and half nightmare of the insomniac. Lt. Harper's voice shouting at her +with a roar like a waterfall, "My God, Miss Kitty, are you sick?" +Blackness. More shouting, Sam calling the lieutenant, something about a +red flare in the sky. A lucid moment, when Sam was explaining to her +that Earth had been given the warp coordinates, and had sent a red flare +to see if they could get through. Then another gap. A heavy trampling of +feet, a great many feet. Some kind of memory of a woman in white, +sticking a thermometer in her mouth. The prick of a needle in her arm. +The sense of being carried. A memory of knowing she was in a ship. A +flash that was more felt than seen.</p> + +<p>Nightmares! All nightmares! She would wake up in a moment. She would get +up, dress, go out and start a fire to heat water on the cookstove. She +had planned to have coffee, a special treat from their almost exhausted +store. She would have coffee. The men would come in sheepish, evading +her glance.</p> + +<p>Very well, she would simply tell them that she had misunderstood, save +them the embarrassment of telling her. She would not be the woman +scorned.</p> + +<p>She moved her hands to throw back her blankets, and froze. Her fingers +had not touched blankets, they had touched cool, slick sheets! Her eyes +popped open.</p> + +<p>It had not been a nightmare, a wish fulfillment of escape. She was in a +hospital room. A nurse was standing beside her bed, looking down at her. +A comfortably motherly-looking sort of woman was speaking to her.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Miss Kittredge, that's much better!" the woman said. "So you +will go gather wild rice in the swamp and get your bloodstream full of +bugs!" But it was a professional kind of chiding, the same way she had +talked to her kindergarten children when they'd got themselves into +trouble.</p> + +<p>"Still," the nurse chatted, "it's made our pathologists mighty happy. +They've been having themselves a ball analyzing the bugs you three +managed to pick up. You got something close to malaria. The two men, +healthy oxen, didn't get anything at all. We had to let 'em out of +quarantine in three days."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Miss Kitty just looked at her in a sort of unthinking lassitude. She was +still trying to make the reality seem real. The nurse helped a little. +She turned to her cart and produced a white enamel, flat container. She +slid it under the top sheet.</p> + +<p>"Upsy-daisy now, Miss Kittredge," she said firmly. "It's time you +started cooperating a little."</p> + +<p>Yes, that brought her back to reality. But she still didn't say +anything.</p> + +<p>"Although we might as well not have let 'em out of quarantine," the +nurse grumbled. "They've just been living out there in the waiting room +for a solid week, buttonholing everybody from doctors down to orderlies +asking about you."</p> + +<p>She gave a soft wolf whistle.</p> + +<p>"Whew, imagine having not just one guy but two of 'em, absolutely crazy +about you. Just begging to see you, hold your hand a little. Two +beautiful men like that! You ready to see them soon?"</p> + +<p>Miss Kitty felt a rush of shame again. In the cabin she would have been +forced to face them, but not now.</p> + +<p>"No," she said firmly. "I <i>never</i> want to see them again."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, let me tell you something, Miss Kittredge," the nurse said, +and this time there was a note of seriousness. "One of the symptoms of +this sickness you picked up is that it makes you talk. Gal, you have +talked a blue streak for the last week. We know everything, everything +that happened, everything you thought about. The doctor understood how +you might feel about things. So he told the lieutenant and Mr. Eade that +you had got bitten about the time you were up in the rice swamp, and +that you hadn't been responsible for anything you'd said for the last +three days back there on New Earth."</p> + +<p>Miss Kitty felt a flood of relief.</p> + +<p>"Did they believe the doctor?" she asked hesitantly.</p> + +<p>"Sure they believed him," the nurse answered. "Sure they did. But you +wanna know something? I've talked to those two men. And I've just got +myself an idea that it wouldn't have made a particle of difference in +the way they feel about you even if they didn't believe it. You're tops +with those two guys, lady. Absolutely tip-top tops. The way you pitched +in there, carried your share of things...."</p> + +<p>She slipped the pan out from under the sheets, and put it into a +compartment of the cart.</p> + +<p>"You wanna know something else? I don't think you were out of your head +at all when you propositioned those two guys. I think you were showing +some good female sense, maybe for the first time in your life. And I +think they know you were.</p> + +<p>"You think it over, Miss Kittredge. If I know you—and I ought to after +listening to you rave day after day—you've got what it takes. You want +my advice? You go right on being a normal female. Don't you be silly +enough to get back into that warped, twisted, frustrated kind of a +man-hater you always thought you were.</p> + +<p>"I gotta go now. You think it over. But not too long. Those two guys are +going to be mighty, mighty hurt if they find out you're conscious and +won't see them."</p> + +<p>She went out the door, pushing her cart in front of her.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Miss Kitty relaxed her neck, willed the tenseness out of her body, and +just lay for a while thinking of nothing. A gust, a rattle of raindrops, +called her attention to the window. They had put her on the ground +floor. She was able to see through the window to the street outside. The +rain was pelting down, like that first rain they'd had there on New +Earth. How chagrined the boys had looked when the roof started leaking +in a dozen places!</p> + +<p>She felt a warm sense of relief, of gratitude, that she could remember +them without shame. The nurse had been right, of course. Probably the +doctors had planted that particular nurse in her room, anticipating her +return to consciousness, anticipating the necessity for a little mental +therapy.</p> + +<p><i>Good female sense.</i> With such a semantic difference from good male +sense! The mind of a man and a woman was not the same. She knew that +now. And she realized that deeply, hidden from her own admittance, she +had always known it. And the nurse's good earthy +expression—"propositioning those two guys"—approval that it had been +natural and right. And another expression, "the way you pitched in +there, carried your share of things."</p> + +<p>Carried your share of things! That meant more than just cooking, +mending, cleaning. More than just seeing that the race continued, too; +although it somehow tied in with all these things.</p> + +<p>She lay in her bed, watching the rain through the window, getting +comfort from the soft, drumming sound. Along the street she could see +people sloshing through the film of water underfoot. She watched the +scene of turned-up collars, pulled-down hatbrims, bobbing umbrellas, as +if it were something apart from her, and yet a part of her. She began to +get a sense of rare vision, an understanding which she knew was more +complete than any intellectual abstraction she had ever managed. She +began to get a woman's sense of purpose, completely distinct from that +of a man.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>She recalled once reading of an incident where an Oklahoma oil +millionaire had built a huge mansion; then, because his squaw did not +know how to make a home within it, they pitched their tepee in the front +grounds, to live there, unable to feel at home in anything else.</p> + +<p>Yes, too often the mansions of science came in for a similar treatment. +The vast rooms of ideas, the great halls of expansion, the limitless +ceilings of challenge, the wide expanses of speculation; all these +things which would exalt Man into a truly great existence were denied, +put to no use beyond mere gadgetry. And the mass of human beings still +huddled in their cramped and grimy little tepees of ancient syndromes, +only there feeling at home.</p> + +<p>It was the fault of the women. They had not kept up with the men. Those +who attempted it tried to be men, to prove themselves as good a man as +any man, the way she had done.</p> + +<p>They had missed the real point entirely, every single bit of it.</p> + +<p>The male was still functioning in the way males always had. There was no +essential difference between the cave man who climbed a new mountain and +explored a new valley and brought back a speared deer to throw down at +the entrance of his home cave; no difference between him and the modern +explorer of science who, under similar hardships, brought back a bright +and rich new knowledge.</p> + +<p>But the ancient cave woman had not failed. She had known what to do with +the deer to strengthen and secure the future of the race.</p> + +<p>And what about New Earth?</p> + +<p>Lt. Harper and Sam had talked about the possibility of millions of +Earths, each infinitesimally removed from the other, and if they could +bridge the gap to one, they might bridge it to an uncountable number. +Perhaps there were millions of others, but for her there was only one +New Earth.</p> + +<p>Would the processions of colonists going there spoil it? Would the women +going there see in it a great mansion? Or, instead, would they simply go +there to escape here—escape from exhaustion, failure, anguish, +bitterness—and, as always, take these things along with them? Would +they still live in grimy little syndromes of endless antagonism, +bickering in their foolish frustrations, because they had no wisdom +about what to do with this newly speared deer?</p> + +<p><i>Oh, not on New Earth!</i></p> + +<p>Suddenly Miss Kitty knew what she must do. If that one particular +mansion needed someone to make it into a home, why not herself? And who +had a better right?</p> + +<p>Somewhere, there, perhaps that very one striding along under the eaves +of that building across the street, with his hatbrim pulled down, +leaning against the rain, somewhere, close, there must be a man who +could share her resolution and her dream. A man of the same breed as the +lieutenant and Sam, a man who carried his head high, his shoulders back, +who had keen, intelligent eyes, and laughter.</p> + +<p>Yes, now she wanted to see the two men after all, and meet their lucky +wives, and see their children, the kind of children she might have had.</p> + +<p>Might <i>yet</i> have!</p> + +<p>At a flash of memory, she smiled a little ruefully, and yet with an +inner peace.</p> + +<p>"I am not so old," she repeated in a whisper. "I still have time for at +least a half dozen sons and daughters before—before my barren years."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Woman's Place, by Mark Irvin Clifton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WOMAN'S PLACE *** + +***** This file should be named 32833-h.htm or 32833-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/3/32833/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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