Human-alien encounters -- Fiction; Science fiction; Space travelers -- Fiction
Drawers had seen how these golden people had volunteered for heavy
physical labor even before his introduction of the labor-saving pulley
wheel, wagon and beast of burden, and the manner in which they had
performed, without complaining, this toilsome labor. He had seen how
other men were willing to spend hours over hot forges shaping trinkets
for the gratification of any women who happened to ask for them.
These people seemed to sense when their services were required and were
always willing to do what was desired.
The women seemed willing to perform almost any of the regular household
duties of cooking, sweeping, remodeling and washing at any time. It
seemed to make little difference if they had to assume the extra burden
of cooking and washing and cleaning for any of the golden men who
were still unmarried or were so unfortunate as to have suffered the
loss of their mates. They performed these tasks cheerfully, as their
contribution to the welfare of the community.
All essentials were provided free, as were available luxuries. All
worked under an eminently successful cooperative plan that did away
with all of the ills of complicated economic systems.
The Raciv was really nothing more than a coordinator of the various
scientists and constructors, helping to lay out the plans for the
proper performance of their experiments and buildings, coping with any
problem that might arise.
This race had many bewildering aspects. Drawers had listened, only
half comprehending, to their learned men outline a gigantic theory of
the universe and its reason for being, a theory that seemed flawlessly
logical to his untrained mind. He had watched the golden men take
over the manufacture of wheels, wagons, pulleys and trinkets he had
introduced and improve upon them at a great rate. He had seen daring
members of this delicate golden race emulate his action in capturing
a Griff with astounding preciseness. Their adaptability, their gift
of learning and improving upon new ideas seemed infinite. But their
inability to grasp and utilize the simplest ideas on their own
initiative was confounding. There was some quality lacking in their
make-up that seemed to prohibit this. Why this was so he did not know.
Perhaps it was the result of thousands of centuries of living easily
in the forests, working and creating in the mind alone, that, through
the ages had made the creative urge in them dormant. It was the only
logical explanation to be found.
But once set upon the proper path that long dead ability might, by
degrees, begin to restore itself, and then there would be no limit to
the greatness this simple civilization might attain.
He had gotten probably his greatest kick in introducing amusements for
the children. For two weeks he had labored, with several of the golden
men assigned to him, in one of the larger working rooms in the city. By
the end of that time he had constructed the very first Merry-Go-Round
this world had ever known!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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