tinue their cycle. I'm told that a man can be
practically covered with the varmints and his nitrogen balance won't
be disturbed enough to bother him."

"Then why worry about them?" I asked as he paused a moment.

He didn't seem to hear me. "Those puffs would be just another
annoyance except for the fact that those little rootlets evidently
work on the nerve endings of the body just enough so they don't hurt
but itch instead and, brother, how they do itch! Makes you wish you
had four more hands and someone else to help scratch."

He squirmed in remembrance. "I understand some of the earlier men dug
out divots of flesh to get rid of the intolerable itch and to keep
from going crazy. It's that bad. Good thing, though, that the spores
can't live inside the body. Can you imagine having an itch like that
in your lungs?"

* * * * *

Another sip and then he continued. "You'll forgive me if I seem to
wander from La Prunella, but you have to understand the powder puffs
to know why she left our bed and board so suddenly.

"Of course, it's true all of the old-timers on Xenon had been puffed
at one time or another, but just to prevent a repeat performance, we
all, including Prunella, wore that protective goo you people sent out
to us a few years ago. Works pretty well. You build up a considerable
immunity after the first attack of puffs and more after each
succeeding one, but that's the hard way. The goo is easier." His voice
trailed off as, with a surprised look, he noticed his glass, was again
empty. This time he brought the bottle back with him. "But to get back
to Pruny. Well, the men were getting pretty fed up with Prunella's
arbitrary ways and her morning inspections, but the last straw was
when she shot Johnny, the station's pet Me-too bird that we had raised
from almost an egg. Same as humans, Johnny had his little faults and
foibles, but we loved him in spite of them.

"One of those faults was the reason Johnny lived outside the dome
instead of inside with the rest of us, as he would have liked. We
never let him stay inside for any length of time because he was never
able to understand why floors should be clean and kept that way. So
Johnny's nest was on top of the ultra-wave tower and that's where he
spent most of his time when he wasn't lazily riding around on the
shoulders of one of us or pan-handling Joe, the cook, for something
extra to eat.

"He was in his nest when Prunella go