His wife looked up at him, her rose-red lips parted, her moss-gray eyes shining. "Oh, if only I could believe that, James!" "Anyhow, she doesn't know what the whole thing's about, poor kid!" "Poor _kid_!" "Phyllis, you know you're prettier than any tree." That was not literally true, but reason was useless; he had to make his point in terms she could understand. "And, remember, she's got a lot of rings--she must be centuries old--while you are only nineteen." "Twenty," Phyllis corrected. "I had a birthday on the ship." "Well, you certainly must allow me to wish you a happy birthday, darling." She was in his arms at last; he was about to kiss her, and the tree seemed very remote, when she drew back. "But are you sure she doesn't--she isn't--she can't be watching us?" "Darling, I swear it!" "_Lady, by yonder blessed moon I swear, that tips with silver all these fruit-tree tops_".... But he had sense enough not to say it, and Elysium had not one blessed moon, but three, and everything was all right. For a while anyway. * * * * * "I see your wife is developing a corm," the tree remarked, as James paused for a chat. He hadn't much time to be sociable those days, for there was such a lot of work to be done, so many preparations to be made, so many things to be requisitioned from Earth. The supply ships were beginning to come now, bringing necessities and an occasional luxury for those who could afford it. "She's pregnant," James explained. "Happened before I left Earth." "How do you mean?" "She's about to fruit. Didn't I read that zoology book to you?" "Yes, but--oh, James, it all seems so vulgar! To fruit without ever having bloomed--how squalid!" "It all depends on how you look at it," he said. "I--that is, we had hoped that when the baby came, you would be godmother to it. You know what that is, don't you?" "Of course I do. You read _Cinderella_ to me. I know it's a great honor. But I'm afraid I must decline." "Why? I thought you were my--our friend." "Jim, there is something I must confess: my feelings toward you are not merely those of a friend. Although Phyllis doesn't have too many rings of intellect, she is a female, so she knew all along." Magnolia's leaves rustled diffidently. "I feel toward you the way I never felt toward any intelligent life-form, but only toward the sun, the soil, the rain. I sense a tropism that seems to incline me toward you. In fact, I'm afraid, Jim, in your own terms, I love you." "But you're a tree! You can't love me in my own terms, because trees can't love in the way people can, and, of course, people can't love like trees. We belong to two entirely different species, Maggie. You can't have listened to that zoology book very attentively."