Laughing, Nancy rose. "It's Shandy." She glanced at Holman. "Be nice to him." Holman watched Shandy approach and didn't answer. The teddy bear sat down, like a dropped rag doll, next to Nancy. He rubbed his fuzzy brown paws over his black nose and blinked his button eyes at her. "Nice old Shandy," said Nancy, pulling one of Shandy's round ears. She smiled at Holman. "This is what he was being when dad and I first found him." Holman, tilting forward, flipped a flat stone into the fire and scattered sparks. "That's a coincidence." "I was just, you know, about ten," Nancy said, patting Shandy's head. "What had happened was I'd been playing in the woods. And, anyway, I left my own teddy bear out there. Lost it. And I told dad, because it was almost night when I remembered. Well, he found it and right beside it there was big old Shandy. Dad and I both decided after looking at him for awhile that his name should be Shandy." Shandy blinked his eyes and clapped his paws. Holman's left heel jammed hard against the ground as he shot up. "God damn, Nancy, will you knock off all this maudlin, banal, boy and his dog stuff. We're not taking that monster away anywhere." "I know, I know, Ken. Don't talk about it now." She kept patting the teddy bear gently. "Nice Shandy." "And you, Shandy," Holman shouted. "I'm doing the courting around here. Go hibernate or something, dammit." Shandy's eyes stopped blinking. Nancy's hand slipped from his head and trailed down his woolly back as he rolled over and away. Without turning Shandy started off for the ship, slowly, on all fours. Finally Nancy looked at Holman. "That wasn't nice, Ken." Holman knew that. He could find nothing to say back to Nancy. He frowned and went into his tent, slamming the flap behind him. * * * * * After closing the storeroom door, Holman carried the two old suitcases down the bright corridor to Nancy's kitchen. Nancy smiled at him and then at the brown, scuffed luggage. "Oh, sure, those will do," she said. "I guess the movers will be able to take care of the heavy stuff." Holman agreed and picked up his half-finished cup of coffee. "And we can leave lots of the stuff here. If we're going to use this as sort of a summer place. I don't think we'll have to worry about vandals." From the doorway Nancy said, "Not many girls bring a spaceship as a dowry." Holman took her shoulders and turned her back into the room. "We can make Shandy sort of a watch-dog." "If he ever comes back." "It's only little more than a day he's been gone." "You were unkind to him." "I know. I'm sorry." Nancy edged around him and went to stand by the stove. "More coffee?" "Okay." Holman was halfway to her when the knock sounded on the spaceship door. "Maybe it's Shandy," Nancy said, partly surprised, partly relieved. "Maybe. I'll get it."