as brilliant as Russett College Cultural
Engineering Class this is really no disgrace.

I am not worried that way so much, I cannot remember what I wrote
anyway and I can think of one or two people I am pretty sure will come
bottomer than me--or B either.

I would prefer to think it is just Finals cause me to feel miserable
but it is not.

In Psychology they taught us The mind has the faculty of concealing
any motive it is ashamed of, especially from itself; seems
unfortunately mine does not have this gadget supplied.

I never wanted to come to Earth. I was sent to Russett against my will
and counting the days till I could get back to Home, Father and
Excensus 23, but the sad truth is that now the longed-for moment is
nearly on top of me I do not want to go.

Dad's farm was a fine place to grow up, but now I had four years on
Earth the thought of going back there makes me feel like a
three-weeks' chicken got to get back in its shell.

B and I are on an island in the Pacific. Her parents are on Caratacus
researching on local art forms, so she and I came here to be miserable
in company and away from the rest.

It took me years on Earth to get used to all this water around, it
seemed unnatural and dangerous to have it all lying loose that way,
but now I shall miss even the Sea.

The reason we have this long suspense over Finals is that they will
not use Reading Machines to mark the papers for fear of cutting down
critical judgement; so each paper has to be read word by word by three
Examiners and there are forty-three of us and we wrote six papers
each.

What I think is I am sorry for the Examiners, but B says they were the
ones who set the papers and it serves them perfectly right.

I express surprise because D. J. M'Clare our Professor is one of them,
but B says He is one of the greatest men in the galaxy, of course, but
she gave up thinking him perfect _years_ ago.

One of the main attractions on this Island is swimming under water,
especially by moonlight. Dad sent me a fish-boat as a birthday present
two years back, but I never used it yet on account of my
above-mentioned attitude to water. Now I got this feeling of Carpe
Diem, make the most of Earth while I am on it because probably I shall
not pass this way again.

The fourth day on the Island it is full moon at ten o'clock, so I
pluck up courage to wriggle into the boat and go out under the Sea. B
says Fish parading in and out of reefs just remind h