It surprised him to learn that Moul and the other larvae felt sorry for him. Sure, Moul didn’t have arms and legs, but he didn’t run into, things, either, or stick himself with thorns. That embarrassed Matthew and made him a little bit angry. Sometimes he thought of hitting Moul to show him what hands were good for.

But no matter what he said or how he said it, neither Moul nor his companions ever seemed to get mad. Pouty sometimes, but never mad. You couldn’t go around hitting someone like that. And when Moul explained things to him, Matthew lost a lot of his own mads, too. It was funny the things grown-ups got excited about.

Matthew had lots of friends back in school on Earth. A couple of them had also qualified for the trip. One was a bigger boy named Werner, and Matthew couldn’t understand how he’d made it He’d beaten Matthew up a couple of times.

Moul was sorry to hear that when Matthew told him about it.

“I betcha Werner wouldn’t try and beat you up,” he told Moul one day as they were sitting in what the grown-ups called the Interaction Room. “You’re too big.”

“For now,” Moul agreed, “but as he matures he’ll outgrow me, and after metamorphosis I’ll be slightly smaller than I am now.”

“That’s weird,” Matthew said. “Getting smaller as you become a grown-up. But getting a whole new body; that sounds neat. I wish I could metamorphose.” He added another magnetic span to the building he and Moul were designing. It was a curved one this time. Moul might not have any hands, but his suggestions were swell.

“Anyway,” Moul wondered aloud, “if Werner is bigger and stronger than you, then why does he feel the need to beat you up? If he’s bigger he ought to be smarter and realize how counterproductive such antisocial activity is.”

“Yeah, well,” Matthew muttered, “just once I’d like to pop him back a good one.” He brought one fist into an open palm to produce a smacking sound.

“But why would you want to do that?” the studious Moul asked.

“To get even with him.” Sometimes even Moul could say the dumbest things.

“For what?”

“For beating me up.” Matthew put his hands on his hips and then made the Thranx sign for mild exasperation. “Boy, you’re awfully smart most of the time, Moul; but now and then you’re awful stupid, too.”

“I’m sorry,” the larva replied. “I’m just ignorant of your ways. It all seems so silly to me. Wouldn’t it be better for the two of you to be friends?”

“Well, sure it would, I guess,” Matthew reluctantly admitted, “but Werner is a bully. He likes to beat people up.”

“Larvae who are smarter than he?”

“Well,” the boy thought a moment, “yeah, I think so.”