"You didn't have to sign up," Karl pointed out. "You could have applied for a wife from some different planet." "One's probably just as good as another. They'll all have to work the farms and raise families." Karl laughed and aimed a friendly blow at Hill. They finished saddling up and headed into the thick forest. * * * * * It was quiet as Karl guided his mount along the dimly marked trail and he caught himself thinking of the return trip he would be making that night. It would be nice to have somebody new to talk to. And it would be good to have somebody to help with the trapping and tanning, somebody who could tend the small vegetable garden at the rear of his shack and mend his socks and wash his clothes and cook his meals. And it was time, he thought soberly, that he started to raise a family. He was mid-twenty now, old enough to want a wife and children. "You going to raise a litter, Joe?" Hill started. Karl realized that he had probably been thinking of the same thing. "One of these days I'll need help around the sawmill," Hill answered defensively. "Need some kids to cut the trees, a couple more to pole them down the river, some to run the mill itself and maybe one to sell the lumber in Landing City. Can't do it all myself." He paused a moment, thinking over something that had just occurred to him. "I've been thinking of your plans for a garden, Karl. Maybe I ought to have one for my wife to take care of, too." Karl chuckled. "I don't think she'll have the time!" They left the leafy expanse of the forest and entered the grasslands that sloped toward Landing City. He could even see Landing City itself on the horizon, a smudge of rusting, corrugated steel shacks, muddy streets, and the small rocket port--a scorched thirty acres or so fenced off with barbed wire. Karl looked out of the corner of his eye at Hill and felt a vague wave of uneasiness. Hill was a big, thick man wearing the soiled clothes and bristly stubble of a man who was used to living alone and who liked it. But once he took a wife, he would probably have to keep himself in clean clothes and shave every few days. It was even possible that the woman might object to Hill letting his yllumph share the hut. The path was getting crowded, more of the colonists coming onto the main path from the small side trails. Hill broke the silence first. "I wonder what they'll be like." Karl looked wise and nodded knowingly. "They're Earthwomen, Joe. _Earth!_"