said, "if we don't get a
crop?"

"We have to make believe Earth doesn't exist, Roddy," said Jorden. "We
couldn't even let them know we need help, we're so far away." He gripped
the boy's shoulders solidly in his big hands and drew him close. "We
aren't going to need any help from Earth. We're going to make it on our
own. After all, what would they do on Earth if they couldn't make it?
Where would they go for outside help?"

"I know," said the boy, "but there are so many of them they can't fail.
Here, there's only the few of us."

Jorden patted his shoulder gently again as they started moving toward
the rough houses a half mile away. "That makes it all the easier for
us," he said. "We don't have to worry about the ones who won't
cooperate. We can't lose with the setup we've got."

It was harder for Roddy. He remembered Earth, although he had been only
four when they left. He still remembered the cities and the oceans and
the forests he had known so briefly, and was cursed with the human
nostalgia for a past that seemed more desirable than an unknown, fearful
future.

Of the other children, Alice had been a baby when they left, and Jerry
had been born during the trip. They knew only Serrengia and loved its
wild, uncompromising rigor. They spent their abandoned wildness of
childhood in the nearby hills and forests. But with Roddy it was
different. Childhood seemed to have slipped by him. He was moody, and
moved carefully in constant fear of this world he would never willingly
call home. Jorden's heart ached with longing to instill some kind of joy
into him.

"That looks like Mr. Tibbets," said Roddy suddenly, his eyes on the new
log house.

"I believe you're right," said Jorden. "It looks like Roberts and
Adamson with him. Quite a delegation. I wonder what they want."

The colony consisted of about a hundred families, each averaging five
members. Originally they had settled on a broad plateau at some distance
from the river. It was a good location overlooking hundreds of miles of
desert and forest land. Its soil was fertile and the river water was
lifted easily through the abundant power of the community atomic energy
plant which had been brought from Earth.

Three months ago, however, the power plant had been destroyed in a
disastrous explosion that killed almost a score of the colonists. Crops
for their next season's food supply were half matured and could not be
saved by any means available.

The community