pable of
believing."

He stood looking at her with his mouth open.

"Now ladies," I said, and started closing the door. "If you'll excuse
me for two minutes I'll dress and we'll go see what Mr. McCabe wants
to show us."

The door clicked on my last words, and I hastily doffed the robe and
slid into pants and a shirt. Oddly enough, I knew what he was going to
show us. I just knew. I slipped on some shoes without bothering about
socks.

"All right," I said. "I'm ready."

They had started down the hall, and we quickly overtook them. Johnny
went ahead, led us out of the hotel, around its side, and when we came
around the corner of the outbuilding which obscured the view, there
before us, through the bubble wall, we saw what I had expected.

As far as the eye could see, dotted here and there like poppies on
snow, the natives lay in the early sun, each dressed in flaring cloth
like that Aunt Mattie had designed the night before.

"You see?" Johnny cried out. "It's the same as with the lighter. One
liked it, so they all have it!"

By now we were up against the plastic barrier. The two subordinates
were gasping such words as "Fantastic, amazing, astounding,
incredible, wondrous, weird".

Aunt Mattie took it all in, and her face lit into a beatific smile.

"You see, young man," she said to Johnny. "They needed only to be
shown right from wrong. Let this be a lesson to you."

"But how did they do it?" Mrs. Waddle gasped.

"Give them some credit for diligence and ingenuity," Aunt Mattie
almost snapped at her assistant. "I always say we underrate the
intelligence and ingenuity of the lesser orders, and that it saps
their strengths if we are overprotective. I admire self-reliance, and
these have shown they have it. So we will not have to do the sewing
after all. Come girls, we must pack and be on our way back to Earth.
Our mission here is accomplished."

The two ladies obeyed their leader without question. The three of
them, in their sturdy walking shoes and their tweed suits, crunched
off across the salt back to their rooms to start packing.

Johnny and I walked along more slowly behind.

"The incredible Matthewa H. Tombs!" he breathed. "She's a legend, you
know, Hap. But I never believed it before." Then, in a complete and
sudden change of mood he snickered. Or, at least, it was the nearest
thing to a small boy snicker I'd heard since prep school. The snicker
turned into a roar of laughter, a grown man's laught