Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net The Vilbar Party By EVELYN E. SMITH Illustrated by KOSSIN [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction January 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [Sidenote: _"Nuts to you!" was what Narli knew Earthmen would tell him ... only it was frismil nuts!_] "The Perzils are giving a vilbar party tomorrow night," Professor Slood said cajolingly. "You _will_ come this time, won't you, Narli?" Narli Gzann rubbed his forehead fretfully. "You know how I feel about parties, Karn." He took a frismil nut out of the tray on his desk and nibbled it in annoyance. "But this is in your honor, Narli--a farewell party. You must go. It would be--it would be unthinkable if you didn't." Karn Slood's eyes were pleading. He could not possibly be held responsible for his friend's anti-social behavior and yet, Narli knew, he would somehow feel at fault. Narli sighed. He supposed he would have to conform to public sentiment in this particular instance, but he was damned if he would give in gracefully. "After all, what's so special about the occasion? I'm just leaving to take another teaching job, that's all." He took another nut. "That's _all_!" Slood's face swelled with emotion. "You can't really be that indifferent." "Another job, that's all it is to me," Narli persisted. "At an exceptionally high salary, of course, or I wouldn't dream of accepting a position so inconveniently located." Slood was baffled and hurt and outraged. "You have been honored by being the first of our people to be offered an exchange professorship on another planet," he said stiffly, "and you call it 'just another job.' Why, I would have given my right antenna to get it!" Narli realized that he had again overstepped the invisible boundary between candor and tactlessness. He poked at the nuts with a stylus. "Honored by being the first of our species to be offered a guinea-pigship," he murmured. He had not considered this aspect of the matter before, but now that it occurred to him, he was probably right. "Oh, I don't mind, really." He waved away the other's sudden commiseration. "You know I like being alone most of the time, so I won't find that uncomfortable. Students are students, whether they're Terrestrials or Saturnians. I suppose they'll laugh at me behind my back, but then even here, my students always did that." He gave a hollow laugh and unobtrusively put out one of his hands for a nut. "At least on Earth I'll know why they're laughing."