My grandfather's was one of these--or rather, my great-grandfather's. When Arch first brought his stock certificates my grandfather was a little fellow everybody called Ham, maybe seven years old. He had a sister named Annie who was five. He's given me a mental picture of the two of them standing close together for reassurance, and from an open doorway shyly watching the old man eat and listening to him talk. When my great-grandfather bought a ten dollar stock certificate in my grandfather's name, my grandfather took it as a promise. And his little sister Annie was so jealous that the next time Old Arch came around my great-grandfather had to buy a share for her. * * * * * As they grew to be nine, ten, eleven, twelve, every winter when Old Arch would come around, my grandfather and his sister Annie would ask, "When are you going to take us to see the sky, Arch?" And he would say, "When you're older. When your folks say you can go." And, "When it's summer, and not too cold for these old bones." But when my grandfather was fourteen he followed Old Arch out and down the stairs after the old man had paid his annual call, and he stopped him on a landing to ask, "Arch, have you ever taken anyone Outside?" "No," Arch said, sighing. "People won't go." "I'll go," said my grandfather, "and so will my sister Annie." Arch looked at him and put a hand on him and said, "I don't want to come between any boy and his parents." "Well," said my grandfather, "you sold them a share of sky for each of us. Do you really want us to have that, or do you just want to talk about it?" "Of course I want you to. But I can't take you Outside, boy." My grandfather was disgusted. "There isn't any sky," he said sadly. "It's all talk. The certificates were just for begging." "No," said Arch. "It's not all talk and I'm not a beggar. I'm a guide. But it's hard to see the sky right now because it's winter, and there are clouds all over." "Let's see the clouds, then," my grandfather said stubbornly. "I've never seen a cloud." The old man sat down on the stairs to consider the matter. "I can't do this thing to your parents," he said at last. "But you can do it to me and my sister," my grandfather charged wildly. "You can come to the house year after year after year, and tell us about the sky and the wind and the moon and the dew and the grass and the sun. You can even take money for our share of them. But when it comes time to produce--when we're old enough to go where these things are supposed to be--you think of excuses. "I don't believe there are any such things," he shouted. "I think you're a liar. I think you ought to be arrested for gypping my dad on the stock deal, and I'm going to turn you in." "Don't do that, boy," Arch said mildly. "Then take us Outside--today!" "It's winter, my boy. We'd freeze." "You've said it's pretty in winter! You took the money for the certificate."