  “Isn’t he the cutest thing!” exclaimed Jill, as she saw the red-white-and-blue creature. “I thought we were rid of him,” Dr. Kenton groaned. He brought the boat to the end of the waterway and tied it up. The children leaped out and ran to the bear, who climbed to his chubby feet to greet them. He licked the suits of Ted and Randy but merely stared at Jill and Dr. Kenton. “It looks like we just can’t get rid of him,” Ted said, renewing his hope for possession of the animal. “Oh, Father, can’t we keep him?” Jill pleaded, stroking the color bear. Randy patted the little round head, and the bear made a sort of purring, contented sound as the children fondled him. Dr. Kenton threw up his hands helplessly. “I guess I know when I’m licked!” he burst out. “If Mother agrees, we’ll try and keep him. But you kids will have to attend to him yourselves, and mind you keep him out of the sand bog, or you won’t have him long.” “We will!” Jill said. Now that she had made friends with the bear, he seemed ready to accept her and licked her suit as a sign of friendship. Randy stayed outside with the bear while the other children went inside to talk persuasively with their mother. She objected at first, but finally yielded to their persistence. “We’ll have to make out a requisition for plastic material for his outdoor house,” Dr. Kenton said. “Are you children willing to chip in part of your allowance to pay for it?” They nodded. “We’ll order it the same time as we do supplies for the garden,” the scientist said. “We’re going to have a garden?” Jill burst out. “I thought we’d try it,” her father said. “That’s the only way we can get fresh vegetables.” When Dr. Kenton went to the study to make out the requisition slip, Ted asked his mother, “Why didn’t Dad want to keep the bear? It seems to me that he doesn’t like those little guys, or is afraid of them, or something.” “As a matter of fact, he is a little shy of them, I believe,” she answered. “He accidentally hurt a baby one badly in one of his explorations a few years ago, when he crushed its forepaw under his boot and it ran off crying. Your father’s so tender-hearted he’s probably reminded of that painful incident every time he sees one of the animals.” “Maybe he’ll change after the bear has been around for a while,” Jill put in. The air-lock door opened, and Randy stuck his head in. “We’d forgotten all about you, Randy!” Jill exclaimed. “Are we going to keep him?” Randy asked anxiously. “We sure are!” Jill piped. “Bring him in and let’s introduce him to Mother.” Randy let the color bear inside. When he began staggering about, Mrs. Kenton exclaimed with horror: “He’s dying, the poor little fellow.” Randy assured her he wasn’t really—that he behaved like this because of the extra oxygen in the air. Randy said that before long the bear would be able to go in and out without any bad effects at all. Ted brought the animal over to his mother. She gingerly patted his blue furry head. In response he licked her dress. “Now we’re friends,” Mrs. Kenton said. “We’ve got to give him a name,” Jill said. “What’ll we call him?” “How about Fuzzy?” suggested Mrs. Kenton. “No. Teddy!” Jill said. Ted wrinkled his nose. “Then you’d get him mixed up with me. I think he ought to have a patriotic name because of his colors.” “How about Yank, then?” Mrs. Kenton said. “That’s a good one!” Jill agreed. “Yeah, that’s swell!” Ted said. “What do you think, Randy?” He shrugged and grinned. “It sounds all right to me, but I don’t know what it means.” Ted explained the word as being sort of a nickname for America and Americans. Randy had learned quite a bit about the United States flag, but the word Yankee was a new one to him. After he learned its meaning, he agreed that Yank was a perfect name for the color bear. When Dr. Kenton returned, Ted felt that the final introduction to the newest member of their family should be made. “Yank, meet Dr. Kenton,” Ted said formally. Ted’s father smiled and approached the little animal. “Hi, Yank,” he said. His hand went out to pat the round head, but to everyone’s surprise, Yank drew back with a cry of fright. Dr. Kenton’s face went red as if he had been snubbed by a human being. Ted felt sorry for his father. Did the bear unconsciously know what the scientist had done to another member of his kind? “Don’t worry, John,” Mrs. Kenton said soothingly. “He’ll come around to you before long.” Her husband quickly changed the subject. “I’ve made out the requisitions. I’ll send them over to headquarters now on the video-sender.” (uncaptioned) The children watched interestedly as he went to the video-sender, which was connected to the radiophone. He fastened the slips face down on a glass plate and held open a switch for several seconds. About a minute later, a buzz came over the radiophone. “That means it’s been received,” Dr. Kenton said. “I asked to have it sent to us tomorrow.” “Why couldn’t you just phone it in?” Ted asked. “This way there doesn’t have to be anyone on the other end,” his father explained. “The requisition was handled by an automatic machine.” Yank was given temporary quarters in the basement. Dr. Kenton said he could not live indefinitely inside like this—that an outside shelter was absolutely necessary. The next afternoon after school, Dr. Kenton brought the children home. Sitting outside the house on the ground were two pieces of specially formed plastic. “Here are the things we ordered,” Dr. Kenton said. “The manufacturers shaped them on molds they already have on hand.” The color bear’s house was a rounded dome resembling an Eskimo igloo. The garden shelter was oval and about twenty-five feet long. “How are we going to lift those things?” Ted asked. “They must be awfully heavy!” “On the contrary, they’re quite light,” Dr. Kenton said. “Each of you grab a handle on the side of the garden top and I’ll show you.” They discovered they could lift the large object with ease. They carried it around the house, and Dr. Kenton showed how it would fit close to the wall. The entrance would be by way of the back door. “The dome is double-walled!” Ted said. “Of course, it is,” Dr. Kenton answered. “So is our house—and all the buildings on Mars.” “Why?” Ted asked. “For insulation against the cold,” was the reply. “The outer wall gets almost as cold as the temperature outside, but the vacuum between it and the inner wall keeps the inside nice and warm.” “The walls are so clear in the house, I never noticed they were double,” Ted said. “Shall we get started on the garden?” Dr. Kenton asked. “The sooner we get it in shape, the sooner we can grow tomatoes and beans and dwarf fruit trees.” They first went into the house, where Mrs. Kenton showed them a large pile of supplies that had been sent along with the shelter tops. “Here’s a foam-rubber mattress for Yank,” the scientist said, pulling out two bundles, “and a supply of food for him. Everything else is for the garden.” The first thing the four of them did outside was set up Yank’s house, close to the front door, and lay out his sleeping mat. When this was done, the little animal walked cautiously inside and sniffed all around. Then he curled up on the soft cushion and closed his eyes. “He seems satisfied with it,” said Jill. First work on the garden was to air-seal it to the rear of the house. This was done with a strange-looking gun that shot a thick gluey liquid out along the seams between the plastic cover and the house. The rest of the work had to be done under the dome itself. The workers went back indoors and hauled all the equipment under the garden shelter. “First we bring the warm house atmosphere into here, so that we can remove our space gear,” Dr. Kenton said. When this was done, and with their space suits off, the workers could move about more efficiently. “After supper we’ll prepare the ground, and tomorrow we can plant seeds,” Dr. Kenton said. Ted thumped the hard, cold ground with his shoe. “How can we work this?” he asked. “It’s hard as stone, and it must be awfully cold.” His father pulled some long steel spikes out of the mass of equipment. Then he took out a sledge hammer. He hammered the spikes at intervals in the ground along the sides of the dome. Then he attached an electrical circuit to each of them and the whole to a generator. As the generator purred in operation, he said, “Infrared heat rays are being sent out by the spikes into the ground, warming it. After supper the ground will be thawed out so that we can till it.” When they returned to the garden area after their last meal of the day, they found that the ground could be worked easily. Electric tools made the job quick and efficient. Fertilizer and soil conditioner were worked into the ground after the surface had been loosened up for several feet down. “Did you say we could plant seeds tomorrow?” Jill asked, when they were through. “That’s right,” her father replied. “The chemicals we have put in the ground are almost miraculous in the speed with which they work in the soil. They can literally do the job overnight.” Jill and Ted went to bed tired and untroubled that night. But not Randy. Before Ted dropped off, he heard Randy tossing restlessly in the bunk below. Ted caught some of the words muttered by the boy: “Father ... miss you ... ever come back to me?” They had been kept so busy during those first days in their new home that Ted had almost forgotten that Randy wasn’t his brother. Randy seemed to have taken to the family very well, Ted thought, but he realized no foster parents could take the place of his real father. As Ted fell asleep, he was thinking what an unhappy day it was going to be for all of them when Randy found out that his father was never going to return. |
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