The eating men murmured agreement. There was a certain definite idea of
goodness--not virtue, but of things desirable--associated with what Burl
did and what he commanded. His tribe was gradually forming a habit of
obedience, though it was a very fragile habit up to now.
He led them exploring as soon as they had eaten. All of them, of course.
They straggled irregularly behind him. They came to a brook and regarded
it with amazement. There were no leeches. No greenish algae. No foaming
masses of scum. It was dear! Greatly daring, Burl tasted it. He drank
the first really potable water in a very long time for his race on this
planet. It was not fouled by drainage through moulds or rusts.
Dor drank after him. Jak. Cori tasted, and instantly bade her children
drink. Even old Tama drank suspiciously, and then raised her voice in
shrill complaint that Burl had not led them to this place sooner. Tet
and Dik became convinced that there were no deadly things lurking in it,
and splashed each other. Dik slipped and sat down hard on white stuff
that yielded and almost splashed. He got up and looked fearfully at what
he thought might be a deadly slime. Then he yelped shrilly.
He sat down on and crushed part of a bed of mushrooms. But they were
tiny, clean, and appetizing. They were miniatures of the edible
mushrooms the tribe fed on.
Burl smelled and finally tasted one. It was, of course, nothing more or
less than a perfectly normal edible mushroom, growing to the size that
mushrooms originally grew on Earth. It grew on a shaded place in
enormously rich soil. It had been protected from direct sunlight by
trees, but it had not had the means or the stimulus to become a monster.
Burl ate it. He carefully composed his features. Then he announced the
find to his followers. There was food here, he told them sternly, but in
this splendid world to which he had led them, food was small. There
would be no great enemies here, but the food would have to be sought in
small objects instead of great ones. They must look at this place and
seek others like it, in order to find food....
The tribesmen were doubtful. But they plucked mushrooms--whole
ones!--instead of merely breaking off parts of their tops. With deep
astonishment they recognized the miniature objects as familiar things
ensmalled. These mushrooms had the same savor, but they were not coarse
or stringy or tough like the giants. They melted in the mouth; Life in
this place to which Burl had led them was delectable! Truly the doings
of Burl were astonishing!
When the oldest of Cori's children found a beetle on a leaf, and they
recognized it, and instead of being bigger than a man and a thing to
flee from, it was less than an inch in size and helpless against them--.
They were entranced. From that moment onward they would really follow
Burl anywhere, in the happy conviction that he could only bring good to
everybody.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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