any of you ever told about it?" Julia turned to the others. "Think
carefully! This is important."

"I never have told," Peachy said wearily. "But about Angela--."

"Have you, Chiquita?" Julia interrupted with a strange insistence.

"I have never thought of it from that day to this," Chiquita answered.

"Nor I," replied Clara. "I'm not sure that I could go to it now. Could
you, Julia?"

"Oh, yes," Julia answered eagerly, "I've--." She stopped abruptly. "But
now I want to talk to you, and I want you to listen carefully. I am
going to tell you why I think we should learn to walk. It is, in brief,
for Angela's sake and for the sake of every girl-child that is born on
this island. For a long time, you will think that I am talking about
other things. But you must be patient. I have seen this situation coming
ever since Angela's wings began to grow. I could not hurry it--but I
knew it must come. Many nights I have lain awake, planning what I should
say to you when the time came. The time has come--and I am going to say
it. It is a long, long speech that I shall deliver; and I am going to
speak very plainly. But you must not get angry--for you know how much I
love you and how much I love your children.

"I'm going back to our young girlhood, to the time when our people were
debating the Great Flight. We thought that we were different from them
all, we five, that we were more original and able and courageous. And
we were different. For when our people decided to go south to the
Snowlands, the courage of rebellion grew in us and we deserted in the
night. Do you remember the wonderful sense of freedom that came to us,
and how the further north we flew, the stronger it became? When we
found these islands, it seemed to us that they must have been created
especially for us. Here, we said, we would live always, free from
earth-ties--five incorruptible air-women.

"Then the men came. I won't go into all that. We've gone over it
hundreds and hundreds of times, just as we did this afternoon, playing
the most pathetic game we know--the do-you-remember game. But after they
came, we found that we were not free from earth-ties. For the Great Doom
overtook us and we fell in love. Then came the capture. And we lost our
wings."

She paused a moment.

"Do you remember that awful day at the Clubhouse, how Chiquita,
comforted us? I--I failed you then; I fainted; I felt myself to blame
for your betrayal. But Chiquita kept saying, 'Don't