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wonderful simply in that they grew there at all.
    That was where the wonderfulness stopped. As a crop, the glass-headed mushrooms were hopeless. They had to have long taproots to get down to the little   frozen water under Mars's hard-crusted surface, and so much of their metabolic energy had to go into the work of sinking their roots and building their sunscreens that there was nothing to speak of that was worth harvesting.
    But that had all been Tinker Gorshak's fantasy, anyway. It certainly hadn't been Dekker's. As far as Dekker had thought about his grown-up career, which wasn't very far, he had leaned more toward what his father had done—even, maybe, going out into the Oort some day—than to following the career of the man who wanted to usurp his father's place.
    Tinker lifted the pot lid, sniffed, and then sat down, gazing at Dekker. "Tsumi says you've got his book," he said.
    Dekker was suddenly flustered, "Oh, that. The Huckleberry Finn . I guess I ought to give it back to him."
    "Have you read it?"
    Dekker debated with himself for a moment, but saw no reason to deny it. "Well, yes."
    Tinker nodded with an appearance of satisfaction, then got up to refill his glass. "I really wanted Tsumi to get something out of it, but the boy's not much of a reader. You are, though, Dek, aren't you?" Dekker nodded cautiously. "Tell me, then. What did you think of the Law of the Raft?"
    Dekker searched his memory. "The Law—?"
    "—of the Raft, right. What Huck says about getting along together, Dek. Didn't you get to that part?"
    "I'm not sure what part you mean."
    "It's when Huck and Jim are floating down the Mississippi River, and all these bad things are happening on the land—lynchings and thievery and so on. And Huck thinks about how people get along on the raft and he says—I think I remember the exact words—he says, 'What you want above all things on a raft, is for everybody to be satisfied, and feel right and kind toward the others.' Do you remember that?"
    "Oh, right," Dekker said, energized. "Then they go on down the river and they come to—"
    "No, that's not what I'm after, Dek. I didn't want to talk about the story itself. Just that one thing that Huck says. Do you see, that's what docility training is all about. Not just getting along, but wanting everybody to be satisfied, and to feel good about the other people. Not just on the raft, everywhere. On our planet, too. That's what we do here on Mars, while the Earthies are always grabbing whatever they can grab and competing with each other—"
    He stopped, laughing at himself. "Well," he said, "sometimes I don't remember the Law of the Raft myself, I guess. I suppose I should be more charitable to the Earthies. It's hard, though. Anyway, that's what I wanted Tsumi to understand. Do you follow me?"
    "I think so," Dekker said doubtfully.
    "I wish Tsumi did. That boy hangs out with a lot of the wrong people, I'm afraid, and his father—well, I shouldn't say anything against his father." He looked at his watch. "Anyway, Dekker, I'm going to finish up the cooking. If you want to read the book, go ahead. It's a fine story, isn't it?"
    Dekker nodded agreement, and did as he was told. But, although the novel was as interesting as ever, he was glad when his mother arrived, looking both amused and surprised. "I've got a message for you, Dekker," she told her son at once. "You're invited to a party."
    That startled Dekker. He blinked at his mother. Who in Sunpoint did he know well enough to invite him to anything? And the surprise was bigger still when his mother told him, "It's an Earth girl. Annetta Cauchy. She says her parents are having a preimpact dinner, and she wants you to come."
    Dekker opened his eyes wide in astonishment, but he was nowhere nearly as astonished as Tinker Gorshak. "You've been getting around in a hurry," the old man grumbled.
    "I'm glad you're making friends so fast," Gertrud said. She waited to see if her son was going to say something. When he