"Come on, let's get going! What are you doing?" Merril demanded while Gavving and Jiovan bound her to the bark. "Or, listen, I've got a wonderful idea. Let's go back. We've got what we want. We'll kill another nose-arm and we, we'll grow fan fungus in the tuft. Then set up another tribe here. Claaave!" she bellowed as dave and Alfin climbed down into earshot. "How would I do as Chairman of a colony?"

"You'd be terrific. Citizens, we'll be here for a while. Moor yourselves. Don't do any flying."

"I never thought it could be this good," Merril told them. "My parents-when I was little, they were just waiting for me to die. But they

wouldn't feed me to the treemouth. I thought about it too, but I never did. I'm glad. Sometimes I thought of me as an example, something

people need to be happy. Happy they have legs. Even one leg," she

whispered hoarsely to Jiovan. "Legs! So what?"

Jiovan asked Clave, "How long do we have to put up with this?"

"You don't. Take, ah, take the Grad and find us a better place to sleep."

Jiovan looked about him. "Like what?"

"A cave, a crack or a bulge in the bark . . . anything that's better than hanging ourselves here like smoking meat."

"I'll go too," Alfin said.

"You stay."

"dave, you do not have to treat me like a baby! I only ate from the middle of the thing. I feel fine!"

"So does Merril."

"What?"

"Never mind. You feel grouchy, and that's fine. Merril feels fine, and that's-"

"Alfin, I am so glad you didn't stop me from coming." Merril smiled radiantly at him. In that moment Gavving thought her beautiful.

"Thank you for trying, though. Feel sleepy," Merril said and went to sleep.

Alfin saw questioning eyes. He spoke reluctantly. "I, I thought I could talk the Chairman out of this idiocy. Sending a, a legless woman up the tree! Clave, I do feel fine. Wide-awake. Hungry. I'd like to try some more."

dave removed a fan from his pack. He tore away some of the scarlet fringe, then offered Alfin a hand-sized piece of the white interior. If Alfin flinched, it was for too short a time to measure. He ate the whole chunk with a theatrical relish that had Clave grinning. Clave broke off the rest of the red fringe and pouched it separately.

Jiovan and the Grad returned. They had found a rQ mark overgrown with fungus like a field of gray hair. "Infected. We'll have to burn it out," the Grad said.

"Suppose it keeps on burning? We don't have any water," Clave said. "Never mind. Let's have a look. Jayan, Jinny, stay with Merril. One of you come get me if she wakes up."

They examined the fungus patch dubiously. Scraping out all that gray hair would be a dull job. Clave pulled up a wad and set fire to it. It burned slowly, sullenly.