The tree homes were more and more intricately wrought with expert basketry for walls and floor and tight thatching above. They were well camouflaged from below, as I suggested. These little creatures delighted me more and more. For hours, I could watch the adults, both the males and females, playing with the children or teaching them to glide. I could sit all afternoon and watch them at work on a tree house. So one day my wife asked, "How _does_ the mighty hunter who now returns from the forest?" "Oh, fine. I've been enjoying the local animal life." "So has our daughter." "What do you mean?" "She has two of them up in her room." "Two what?" "I don't know. What do _you_ call them?" I went up the stairs three at a time and burst into my daughter's room. There she sat on her bed reading a book to two volplas. One of the volplas grinned and said in English, "Hello there, King Arthur." "What's going on here?" I demanded of all three. "Nothing, Daddy. We're just reading like we always do." "Like _always_? How long has this been going on?" "Oh, weeks and weeks. How long has it been since you came here that first time to visit me, Fuzzy?" The impolite volpla who had addressed me as King Arthur grinned at her and calculated. "Oh, weeks and weeks." "But you're teaching them to read English." "Of course. They're such good pupils and so grateful. Daddy, you won't make them go away, will you? We love each other, don't we?" Both volplas nodded vigorously. She turned back to me. "Daddy, did you know they can fly? They can fly right out of the window and way up in the sky." "Is that a fact?" I said testily. I looked coldly at the two volplas. "I'm going to speak to your chief." * * * * * Back downstairs again, I raved at my wife. "Why didn't you tell me a thing like this was going on? How could you let such an unusual thing go on and not discuss it with me?" My wife got a look on her face that I don't see very often. "Now you listen to me, mister. Your whole life is a secret from us. Just what makes you think your daughter can't have a little secret of her own?" She got right up close to me and her blue eyes snapped little sparks all over me. "The fact is that I was wrong to tell you at all. I promised her I wouldn't tell _anyone_. Look what happened when I did. You go leaping around the house like a raving maniac just because a little girl has a secret." "A fine secret!" I yelled. "Didn't it occur to you this might be dangerous? Those creatures are over-sexed and...." I stumbled into an awful silence while she gave me the dirtiest smile since the days of the Malatestas. "How did _you_ ... suddenly get to _be_ ... the palace eunuch? Those are sweet lovable little creatures without a harm in their furry little bodies. But don't think I don't realize what's been going on. You created them yourself. So, if they have any dirty ideas, I know where they got them."