was judging me as old and weak and unable to stand
the trip. He couldn't know why I was trembling.

"Please," I whispered. "It wouldn't matter if it hurt us. It's just
that we want to see Earth again. It's been so long...."

"How long have you been here, Mr. Farwell?" It was merely politeness.
There wasn't any promise in his voice.

"Sixty-five years." I looked up at him. "Isn't there some way--"

"Sixty-five years? But that means you must have come here on the first
colonizing ship."

"Yes," I said. "We did."

"I can't believe it," he said slowly. "I can't believe I'm actually
looking at one of the pioneers." He shook his head. "I didn't even
know any of them were still on Mars."

"We're the last ones," I said. "That's the main reason we want to go
back. It's awfully hard staying on when your friends are dead."

* * * * *

Duane got up and crossed the room to the window and looked out over
the rocket field.

"But what good would it do to go back, Mr. Farwell?" he asked. "Earth
has changed very much in the last sixty-five years."

He was trying to soften the disappointment. But nothing could. If only
I could make him realize that.

"I know it's changed," I said. "But it's _home_. Don't you see? We're
Earthmen still. I guess that never changes. And now that we're old,
we're aliens here."

"We're all aliens here, Mr. Farwell."

"No," I said desperately. "Maybe you are. Maybe a lot of the city
people are. But our neighbors were born on Mars. To them Earth is a
legend. A place where their ancestors once lived. It's not real to
them...."

He turned and crossed the room and came back to me. His smile was
pitying. "If you went back," he said, "you'd find you were a Martian,
too."

I couldn't reach him. He was friendly and pleasant and he was trying
to make things easier, and it wasn't any use talking. I bent my head
and choked back the sobs I could feel rising in my throat.

"You've lived a full life," Duane said. "You were one of the pioneers.
I remember reading about your ship when I was a boy, and wishing I'd
been born sooner so that I could have been on it."

Slowly I raised my head and looked up at him.

"Please," I said. "I know that. I'm glad we came here. If we had our
lives to live over, we'd come again. We'd go through all the
hardships of those first few years, and enjoy them just as much. We'd
be just as thrilled over proving that it's possible to farm a world