[Transcriber's Note:This eBook was produced from _Weird Tales_, March 1951, pp. 26-36. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyrighton this publication was renewed. ] _Something of the wonder that must have come to menseeking magic in the sky in days long vanished. _ The Mississippi Saucer [Illustration] *Heading by Jon Arfstrom* _By Frank Belknap Long_ Jimmy watched the _Natchez Belle_ draw near, a shining eagerness in hisstare. He stood on the deck of the shantyboat, his toes sticking out ofhis socks, his heart knocking against his ribs. Straight down the riverthe big packet boat came, purpling the water with its shadow, itssmokestacks belching soot. Jimmy had a wild talent for collecting things. He knew exactly how toinfuriate the captains without sticking out his neck. Up and down theFather of Waters, from the bayous of Louisiana to the Great Sandy otherlittle shantyboat boys envied Jimmy and tried hard to imitate him. But Jimmy had a very special gift, a genius for pantomime. He'd waituntil there was a glimmer of red flame on the river and small objectsstood out with a startling clarity. Then he'd go into his act. Nothing upset the captains quite so much as Jimmy's habit of holding abig, croaking bullfrog up by its legs as the riverboats went steamingpast. It was a surefire way of reminding the captains that men and frogswere brothers under the skin. The puffed-out throat of the frog told thecaptains exactly what Jimmy thought of their cheek. Jimmy refrained from making faces, or sticking out his tongue at thegrinning roustabouts. It was the frog that did the trick. In the still dawn things came sailing Jimmy's way, hurled by captainswith a twinkle of repressed merriment dancing in eyes that were kindlierand more tolerant than Jimmy dreamed. Just because shantyboat folk had no right to insult the riverboats Jimmyhad collected forty empty tobacco tins, a down-at-heels shoe, a SearsRoebuck catalogue and--more rolled up newspapers than Jimmy could everread. Jimmy could read, of course. No matter how badly Uncle Al needed a newpair of shoes, Jimmy's education came first. So Jimmy had spent sixwinters ashore in a first-class grammar school, his books paid for outof Uncle Al's "New Orleans" money. Uncle Al, blowing on a vinegar jug and making sweet music, the holes inhis socks much bigger than the holes in Jimmy's socks. Uncle Al shakinghis head and saying sadly, "Some day, young fella, I ain't gonna sithere harmonizing. No siree! I'm gonna buy myself a brand new store suit, trade in this here jig jug for a big round banjo, and hie myself off tothe Mardi Gras. Ain't too old thataway to git a little fun out of life, young fella!" Poor old Uncle Al. The money he'd saved up for the Mardi Gras neverseemed to stretch far enough. There was enough kindness in him tostretch like a rainbow over the bayous and the river forests of sweet, rustling pine for as far as the eye could see. Enough kindness to wrapall of Jimmy's life in a glow, and the life of Jimmy's sister as well. Jimmy's parents had died of winter pneumonia too soon to appreciateUncle Al. But up and down the river everyone knew that Uncle Al was agreat man. * * * * * Enemies? Well, sure, all great men made enemies, didn't they? The Harmon brothers were downright sinful about carrying their feudingmeanness right up to the doorstep of Uncle Al, if it could be said thata man living in a shantyboat had a doorstep. Uncle Al made big catches and the Harmon brothers never seemed to haveany luck. So, long before Jimmy was old enough to understand howcorrosive envy could be the Harmon brothers had started feuding withUncle Al. "Jimmy, here comes the _Natchez Belle_! Uncle Al says for you to get hima newspaper. The newspaper you got him yesterday he couldn't readno-ways. It was soaking wet!" Jimmy turned to glower at his sister. Up and down the river Pigtail Annewas known as a tomboy, but she wasn't--no-ways. She was Jimmy's littlesister. That meant Jimmy was the man in the family, and wore the pants, and nothing Pigtail said or did could change that for one minute. "Don't yell at me!" Jimmy complained. "How can I get Captain Simmons madif you get me mad first? Have a heart, will you?" But Pigtail Anne refused to budge. Even when the _Natchez Belle_ loomedso close to the shantyboat that it blotted out the sky she continued tocrowd her brother, preventing him from holding up the frog and makingCaptain Simmons squirm. But Jimmy got the newspaper anyway. Captain Simmons had a keen insightinto tomboy psychology, and from the bridge of the _Natchez Belle_ hecould see that Pigtail was making life miserable for Jimmy. True--Jimmy had no respect for packet boats and deserved a goodtrouncing. But what a scrapper the lad was! Never let it be said that ina struggle between the sexes the men of the river did not stand shoulderto shoulder. The paper came sailing over the shining brown water like a white-belliedbuffalo cat shot from a sling. Pigtail grabbed it before Jimmy could give her a shove. Calmly sheunwrapped it, her chin tilted in bellicose defiance. As the _Natchez Belle_ dwindled around a lazy, cypress-shadowed bendPigtail Anne became a superior being, wrapped in a cosmopolitan aura. Awide-eyed little girl on a swaying deck, the great outside world rushingstraight toward her from all directions. Pigtail could take that world in her stride. She liked the fashion pagebest, but she was not above clicking her tongue at everything in thepaper. "Kidnap plot linked to airliner crash killing fifty, " she read. "Red Soxblank Yanks! Congress sits today, vowing vengeance! Million dollarheiress elopes with a clerk! Court lets dog pick owner! Girl of eightkills her brother in accidental shooting!" "I ought to push your face right down in the mud, " Jimmy muttered. "Don't you dare! I've a right to see what's going on in the world!" "You said the paper was for Uncle Al!" "It is--when I get finished with it. " Jimmy started to take hold of his sister's wrist and pry the paper fromher clasp. Only started--for as Pigtail wriggled back sunlight fell on ashadowed part of the paper which drew Jimmy's gaze as sunlight drawsdew. _Exciting_ wasn't the word for the headline. It seemed to blaze out ofthe page at Jimmy as he stared, his chin nudging Pigtail's shoulder. NEW FLYING MONSTER REPORTED BLAZING GULF STATE SKIES Jimmy snatched the paper and backed away from Pigtail, his eyes glued tothe headline. * * * * * He was kind to his sister, however. He read the news item aloud, if anaccount so startling could be called an item. To Jimmy it seemed morelike a dazzling burst of light in the sky. "A New Orleans resident reported today that he saw a big bright object'roundish like a disk' flying north, against the wind. 'It was alllighted up from inside!' the observer stated. 'As far as I could tellthere were no signs of life aboard the thing. It was much bigger thanany of the flying saucers previously reported!'" "People keep seeing them!" Jimmy muttered, after a pause. "Nobody knowswhere they come from! Saucers flying through the sky, high up at night. In the daytime, too! Maybe we're being _watched_, Pigtail!" "Watched? Jimmy, what do you mean? What you talking about?" Jimmy stared at his sister, the paper jiggling in his clasp. "It's wayover your head, Pigtail!" he said sympathetically. "I'll prove it!What's a planet?" "A star in the sky, you dope!" Pigtail almost screamed. "Wait'll UncleAl hears what a meanie you are. If I wasn't your sister you wouldn'tdare grab a paper that doesn't belong to you. " Jimmy refused to be enraged. "A planet's not a star, Pigtail, " he saidpatiently. "A star's a big ball of fire like the sun. A planet is smalland cool, like the Earth. Some of the planets may even have people onthem. Not people like us, but people all the same. Maybe we're justfrogs to them!" "You're crazy, Jimmy! Crazy, crazy, you hear?" Jimmy started to reply, then shut his mouth tight. Big waves werenothing new in the wake of steamboats, but the shantyboat wasn't justriding a swell. It was swaying and rocking like a floating barrel in thekind of blow Shantyboaters dreaded worse than the thought of dying. Jimmy knew that a big blow could come up fast. Straight down from thesky in gusts, from all directions, banging against the boat like adrunken roustabout, slamming doors, tearing away mooring planks. * * * * * The river could rise fast too. Under the lashing of a hurricane blowingup from the gulf the river could lift a shantyboat right out of thewater, and smash it to smithereens against a tree. But now the blow was coming from just one part of the sky. A funnel ofwind was churning the river into a white froth and raising big swellsdirectly offshore. But the river wasn't rising and the sun was shiningin a clear sky. Jimmy knew a dangerous floodwater storm when he saw one. The sky had tobe dark with rain, and you had to feel scared, in fear of drowning. Jimmy was scared, all right. That part of it rang true. But a hollow, sick feeling in his chest couldn't mean anything by itself, he toldhimself fiercely. Pigtail Anne saw the disk before Jimmy did. She screamed and pointedskyward, her twin braids standing straight out in the wind like theropes on a bale of cotton, when smokestacks collapse and a savagehowling sends the river ghosts scurrying for cover. Straight down out of the sky the disk swooped, a huge, spinning shapeas flat as a buckwheat cake swimming in a golden haze of butterfat. But the disk didn't remind Jimmy of a buckwheat cake. It made him thinkinstead of a slowly turning wheel in the pilot house of a rotting oldriverboat, a big, ghostly wheel manned by a steersman a century dead, his eye sockets filled with flickering swamp lights. It made Jimmy want to run and hide. Almost it made him want to cling tohis sister, content to let her wear the pants if only he could be sparedthe horror. For there was something so chilling about the downsweeping disk thatJimmy's heart began leaping like a vinegar jug bobbing about in the wakeof a capsizing fishboat. Lower and lower the disk swept, trailing plumes of white smoke, lashingthe water with a fearful blow. Straight down over the cypress wildernessthat fringed the opposite bank, and then out across the river with along-drawn whistling sound, louder than the air-sucking death gasps of athousand buffalo cats. Jimmy didn't see the disk strike the shining broad shoulders of theFather of Waters, for the bend around which the _Natchez Belle_ hadsteamed so proudly hid the sky monster from view. But Jimmy did see thewaterspout, spiraling skyward like the atom bomb explosion he'd goggledat in the pages of an old _Life_ magazine, all smudged now with oilythumbprints. Just a roaring for an instant--and a big white mushroom shootingstraight up into the sky. Then, slowly, the mushroom decayed and fellback, and an awful stillness settled down over the river. * * * * * The stillness was broken by a shrill cry from Pigtail Anne. "It was aflying saucer! Jimmy, we've seen one! We've seen one! We've--" "Shut your mouth, Pigtail!" Jimmy shaded his eyes and stared out across the river, his chest athrobbing ache. He was still staring when a door creaked behind him. Jimmy trembled. A tingling fear went through him, for he found it hardto realize that the disk had swept around the bend out of sight. To hisoverheated imagination it continued to fill all of the sky above him, overshadowing the shantyboat, making every sound a threat. Sucking the still air deep into his lungs, Jimmy swung about. Uncle Al was standing on the deck in a little pool of sunlight, hisgaunt, hollow-cheeked face set in harsh lines. Uncle Al was shading hiseyes too. But he was staring up the river, not down. "Trouble, young fella, " he grunted. "Sure as I'm a-standin' here. Abarrelful o' trouble--headin' straight for us!" Jimmy gulped and gestured wildly toward the bend. "It came down _overthere_, Uncle Al!" he got out. "Pigtail saw it, too! A big, flying--" "The Harmons are a-comin', young fella, " Uncle Al drawled, silencingJimmy with a wave of his hand. "Yesterday I rowed over a Harmon jug linewithout meanin' to. Now Jed Harmon's tellin' everybody I stole hisfish!" Very calmly Uncle Al cut himself a slice of the strongest tobacco on theriver and packed it carefully in his pipe, wadding it down with histhumb. He started to put the pipe between his teeth, then thought better of it. "I can bone-feel the Harmon boat a-comin', young fella, " he said, usingthe pipe to gesture with. "Smooth and quiet over the river like amoccasin snake. " Jimmy turned pale. He forgot about the disk and the mushrooming waterspout. When he shut his eyes he saw only a red haze overhanging theriver, and a shantyboat nosing out of the cypresses, its windowsspitting death. * * * * * Jimmy knew that the Harmons had waited a long time for an excuse. TheHarmons were law-respecting river rats with sharp teeth. Feuding wasn'tlawful, but murder could be made lawful by whittling down a lie until itlooked as sharp as the truth. The Harmon brothers would do their whittling down with double-barreledshotguns. It was easy enough to make murder look like a lawful crime ifyou could point to a body covered by a blanket and say, "We caught himstealing our fish! He was a-goin' to kill us--so we got him first. " No one would think of lifting the blanket and asking Uncle Al about it. A man lying stiff and still under a blanket could no more make himselfheard than a river cat frozen in the ice. "Git inside, young 'uns. _Here they come!_" Jimmy's heart skipped a beat. Down the river in the sunlight ashantyboat was drifting. Jimmy could see the Harmon brothers crouchingon the deck, their faces livid with hate, sunlight glinting on theirarm-cradled shotguns. The Harmon brothers were not in the least alike. Jed Harmon was tall andgaunt, his right cheek puckered by a knife scar, his cruel, thin-lippedmouth snagged by his teeth. Joe Harmon was small and stout, a littleround man with bushy eyebrows and the flabby face of a cottonmouthsnake. "Go inside, Pigtail, " Jimmy said, calmly. "I'm a-going to stay andfight!" * * * * * Uncle Al grabbed Jimmy's arm and swung him around. "You heard what Isaid, young fella. Now git!" "I want to stay here and fight with you, Uncle Al, " Jimmy said. "Have you got a gun? Do you want to be blown apart, young fella?" "I'm not scared, Uncle Al, " Jimmy pleaded. "You might get wounded. Iknow how to shoot straight, Uncle Al. If you get hurt I'll go right onfighting!" "No you won't, young fella! Take Pigtail inside. You hear me? You wantme to take you across my knee and beat the livin' stuffings out of you?" Silence. Deep in his uncle's face Jimmy saw an anger he couldn't buck. GrabbingPigtail Anne by the arm, he propelled her across the deck and into thedismal front room of the shantyboat. The instant he released her she glared at him and stamped her foot. "IfUncle Al gets shot it'll be your fault, " she said cruelly. ThenPigtail's anger really flared up. "The Harmons wouldn't dare shoot us 'cause we're children!" For an instant brief as a dropped heartbeat Jimmy stared at his sisterwith unconcealed admiration. "You can be right smart when you've got nothing else on your mind, Pigtail, " he said. "If they kill me they'll hang sure as shooting!" Jimmy was out in the sunlight again before Pigtail could make a grab forhim. Out on the deck and running along the deck toward Uncle Al. He was stillrunning when the first blast came. * * * * * It didn't sound like a shotgun blast. The deck shook and a big swirl ofsmoke floated straight toward Jimmy, half blinding him and blottingUncle Al from view. When the smoke cleared Jimmy could see the Harmon shantyboat. It wasless than thirty feet away now, drifting straight past and rocking withthe tide like a topheavy flatbarge. On the deck Jed Harmon was crouching down, his gaunt face split in atriumphant smirk. Beside him Joe Harmon stood quivering like a mound ofjelly, a stick of dynamite in his hand, his flabby face looking almostgentle in the slanting sunlight. There was a little square box at Jed Harmon's feet. As Joe pitched Jedreached into the box for another dynamite stick. Jed was passing thesticks along to his brother, depending on wad dynamite to silence UncleAl forever. Wildly Jimmy told himself that the guns had been just a trick to mixUncle Al up, and keep him from shooting until they had him where theywanted him. Uncle Al was shooting now, his face as grim as death. His big heavy gunwas leaping about like mad, almost hurling him to the deck. Jimmy saw the second dynamite stick spinning through the air, but henever saw it come down. All he could see was the smoke and theshantyboat rocking, and another terrible splintering crash as he wentplunging into the river from the end of a rising plank, a sob stranglingin his throat. Jimmy struggled up from the river with the long leg-thrusts of aterrified bullfrog, his head a throbbing ache. As he swam shoreward hecould see the cypresses on the opposite bank, dark against the sun, andsomething that looked like the roof of a house with water washing overit. Then, with mud sucking at his heels, Jimmy was clinging to a slipperybank and staring out across the river, shading his eyes against theglare. Jimmy thought, "I'm dreaming! I'll wake up and see Uncle Joe blowing ona vinegar jug. I'll see Pigtail, too. Uncle Al will be sitting on thedeck, taking it easy!" But Uncle Al wasn't sitting on the deck. There was no deck for Uncle Alto sit upon. Just the top of the shantyboat, sinking lower and lower, and Uncle Al swimming. Uncle Al had his arm around Pigtail, and Jimmy could see Pigtail's whiteface bobbing up and down as Uncle Al breasted the tide with his strongright arm. Closer to the bend was the Harmon shantyboat. The Harmons were usingtheir shotguns now, blasting fiercely away at Uncle Al and Pigtail. Jimmy could see the smoke curling up from the leaping guns and the waterjumping up and down in little spurts all about Uncle Al. There was an awful hollow agony in Jimmy's chest as he stared, a fearthat was partly a soundless screaming and partly a vision of Uncle Alsinking down through the dark water and turning it red. It was strange, though. Something was happening to Jimmy, nibbling awayat the outer edges of the fear like a big, hungry river cat. Making thefear seem less swollen and awful, shredding it away in little flakes. There was a white core of anger in Jimmy which seemed suddenly to blazeup. He shut his eyes tight. In his mind's gaze Jimmy saw himself holding the Harmon brothers up bytheir long, mottled legs. The Harmon brothers were frogs. Not friendly, good natured frogs like Uncle Al, but snake frogs. Cottonmouth frogs. All flannel red were their mouths, and they had long evil fangs whichdripped poison in the sunlight. But Jimmy wasn't afraid of them no-ways. Not any more. He had too firm a grip on their legs. "Don't let anything happen to Uncle Al and Pigtail!" Jimmy whispered, asthough he were talking to himself. No--not exactly to himself. Tosomeone like himself, only larger. Very close to Jimmy, but larger, morepowerful. "Catch them before they harm Uncle Al! Hurry! _Hurry!_" There was a strange lifting sensation in Jimmy's chest now. As though hecould shake the river if he tried hard enough, tilt it, send it swirlingin great thunderous white surges clear down to Lake Pontchartrain. * * * * * But Jimmy didn't want to tilt the river. Not with Uncle Al on it andPigtail, and all those people in New Orleans who would disappear rightoff the streets. They were frogs too, maybe, but good frogs. Not likethe Harmon brothers. Jimmy had a funny picture of himself much younger than he was. Jimmy sawhimself as a great husky baby, standing in the middle of the river andblowing on it with all his might. The waves rose and rose, and Jimmy'scheeks swelled out and the river kept getting angrier. No--he must fight that. "Save Uncle Al!" he whispered fiercely. "Just save him--and Pigtail!" It began to happen the instant Jimmy opened his eyes. Around the bend inthe sunlight came a great spinning disk, wrapped in a fiery glow. Straight toward the Harmon shantyboat the disk swept, water spurting upall about it, its bottom fifty feet wide. There was no collision. Only abrightness for one awful instant where the shantyboat was twisting andturning in the current, a brightness that outshone the rising sun. Just like a camera flashbulb going off, but bigger, brighter. So big andbright that Jimmy could see the faces of the Harmon brothers fifty timesas large as life, shriveling and disappearing in a magnifying burst offlame high above the cypress trees. Just as though a giant in the skyhad trained a big burning glass on the Harmon brothers and whipped itback quick. Whipped it straight up, so that the faces would grow huge beforedissolving as a warning to all snakes. There was an evil anguish in thedissolving faces which made Jimmy's blood run cold. Then the disk wasalone in the middle of the river, spinning around and around, theshantyboat swallowed up. And Uncle Al was still swimming, fearfully close to it. The net came swirling out of the disk over Uncle Al like a great, dew-drenched gossamer web. It enmeshed him as he swam, so gently that hehardly seemed to struggle or even to be aware of what was happening tohim. Pigtail didn't resist, either. She simply stopped thrashing in UncleAl's arms, as though a great wonder had come upon her. Slowly Uncle Al and Pigtail were drawn into the disk. Jimmy could seeUncle Al reclining in the web, with Pigtail in the crook of his arm, hislong, angular body as quiet as a butterfly in its deep winter sleepinside a swaying glass cocoon. Uncle Al and Pigtail, being drawn together into the disk as Jimmystared, a dull pounding in his chest. After a moment the poundingsubsided and a silence settled down over the river. Jimmy sucked in his breath. The voices began quietly, as though they hadbeen waiting for a long time to speak to Jimmy deep inside his head, anddidn't want to frighten him in any way. "Take it easy, Jimmy! Stay where you are. We're just going to have afriendly little talk with Uncle Al. " "A t-talk?" Jimmy heard himself stammering. "We knew we'd find you where life flows simply and serenely, Jimmy. Your parents took care of that before they left you with Uncle Al. "You see, Jimmy, we wanted you to study the Earth people on a great, wide flowing river, far from the cruel, twisted places. To grow up withthem, Jimmy--and to understand them. Especially the Uncle Als. For UncleAl is unspoiled, Jimmy. If there's any hope at all for Earth as we guideand watch it, that hope burns most brightly in the Uncle Als!" The voice paused, then went on quickly. "You see, Jimmy, you're nothuman in the same way that your sister is human--or Uncle Al. But you'restill young enough to feel human, and we want you to feel human, Jimmy. " "W--Who are you?" Jimmy gasped. "We are the Shining Ones, Jimmy! For wide wastes of years we havecruised Earth's skies, almost unnoticed by the Earth people. Whendarkness wraps the Earth in a great, spinning shroud we hide our shipsclose to the cities, and glide through the silent streets in search ofour young. You see, Jimmy, we must watch and protect the young of ourrace until sturdiness comes upon them, and they are ready for the GreatChange. " * * * * * For an instant there was a strange, humming sound deep inside Jimmy'shead, like the drowsy murmur of bees in a dew-drenched clover patch. Then the voice droned on. "The Earth people are frightened by our shipsnow, for their cruel wars have put a great fear of death in theirhearts. They watch the skies with sharper eyes, and their minds havegroped closer to the truth. "To the Earth people our ships are no longer the fireballs of mysteriouslegend, haunted will-o'-the-wisps, marsh flickerings and the even moreillusive distortions of the sick in mind. It is a long bold step fromfireballs to flying saucers, Jimmy. A day will come when the Earthpeople will be wise enough to put aside fear. Then we can show ourselvesto them as we really are, and help them openly. " The voice seemed to take more complete possession of Jimmy's thoughtsthen, growing louder and more eager, echoing through his mind with thepersuasiveness of muted chimes. "Jimmy, close your eyes tight. We're going to take you across wide gulfsof space to the bright and shining land of your birth. " Jimmy obeyed. It was a city, and yet it wasn't like New York or Chicago or any of theother cities Jimmy had seen illustrations of in the newspapers andpicture magazines. The buildings were white and domed and shining, and they seemed to towerstraight up into the sky. There were streets, too, weaving in and outbetween the domes like rainbow-colored spider webs in a forest ofmushrooms. * * * * * There were no people in the city, but down the aerial streets shiningobjects swirled with the swift easy gliding of flat stones skimming anedge of running water. Then as Jimmy stared into the depths of the strange glow behind hiseyelids the city dwindled and fell away, and he saw a huge circular disklooming in a wilderness of shadows. Straight toward the disk a shiningobject moved, bearing aloft on filaments of flame a much smaller objectthat struggled and mewed and reached out little white arms. Closer and closer the shining object came, until Jimmy could see that itwas carrying a human infant that stared straight at Jimmy out of wide, dark eyes. But before he could get a really good look at the shiningobject it pierced the shadows and passed into the disk. There was a sudden, blinding burst of light, and the disk was gone. Jimmy opened his eyes. "You were once like that baby, Jimmy!" the voice said. "You were carriedby your parents into a waiting ship, and then out across wide gulfs ofspace to Earth. "You see, Jimmy, our race was once entirely human. But as we grew tomaturity we left the warm little worlds where our infancy was spent, and boldly sought the stars, shedding our humanness as sunlight shedsthe dew, or a bright, soaring moth of the night its ugly pupa case. "We grew great and wise, Jimmy, but not quite wise enough to shed ourhuman heritage of love and joy and heartbreak. In our childhood we mustreturn to the scenes of our past, to take root again in familiar soil, to grow in power and wisdom slowly and sturdily, like a seed droppedback into the loam which nourished the great flowering mother plant. "Or like the eel of Earth's seas, Jimmy, that must be spawned in thedepths of the great cold ocean, and swim slowly back to the brighthighlands and the shining rivers of Earth. Young eels do not resembletheir parents, Jimmy. They're white and thin and transparent and have tostruggle hard to survive and grow up. "Jimmy, you were planted here by your parents to grow wise and strong. Deep in your mind you knew that we had come to seek you out, for we areall born human, and are bound one to another by that knowledge, and thatsecret trust. "You knew that we would watch over you and see that no harm would cometo you. You called out to us, Jimmy, with all the strength of your mindand heart. Your Uncle Al was in danger and you sensed our nearness. "It was partly your knowledge that saved him, Jimmy. But it took couragetoo, and a willingness to believe that you were more than human, andarmed with the great proud strength and wisdom of the Shining Ones. " * * * * * The voice grew suddenly gentle, like a caressing wind. "You're not old enough yet to go home, Jimmy! Or wise enough. We'll takeyou home when the time comes. Now we just want to have a talk with UncleAl, to find out how you're getting along. " Jimmy looked down into the river and then up into the sky. Deep downunder the dark, swirling water he could see life taking shape in athousand forms. Caddis flies building bright, shining new nests, anddragonfly nymphs crawling up toward the sunlight, and pollywogs growingsturdy hindlimbs to conquer the land. But there were cottonmouths down there too, with death behind theirfangs, and no love for the life that was crawling upward. When Jimmylooked up into the sky he could see all the blazing stars of space, withcottonmouths on every planet of every sun. Uncle Al was like a bright caddis fly building a fine new nest, thatchedwith kindness, denying himself bright little Mardi Gras pleasures sothat Jimmy could go to school and grow wiser than Uncle Al. "That's right, Jimmy. You're growing up--we can see that! Uncle Al sayshe told you to bide from the cottonmouths. But you were ready to giveyour life for your sister and Uncle Al. " "Shucks, it was nothing!" Jimmy heard himself protesting. "Uncle Al doesn't think so. And neither do we!" * * * * * A long silence while the river mists seemed to weave a bright cocoon ofradiance about Jimmy clinging to the bank, and the great circular diskthat had swallowed up Uncle Al. Then the voices began again. "No reason why Uncle Al shouldn't have alittle fun out of life, Jimmy. Gold's easy to make and we'll make someright now. A big lump of gold in Uncle Al's hand won't hurt him in anyway. " "Whenever he gets any spending money he gives it away!" Jimmy gulped. "I know, Jimmy. But he'll listen to you. Tell him you want to go to NewOrleans, too!" Jimmy looked up quickly then. In his heart was something of the wonderhe'd felt when he'd seen his first riverboat and waited for he knew notwhat. Something of the wonder that must have come to men seeking magicin the sky, the rainmakers of ancient tribes and of days long vanished. Only to Jimmy the wonder came now with a white burst of remembrance andrecognition. It was as though he could sense something of himself in the two toweringspheres that rose straight up out of the water behind the disk. Stilland white and beautiful they were, like bubbles floating on a rainbowsea with all the stars of space behind them. Staring at them, Jimmy saw himself as he would be, and knew himself forwhat he was. It was not a glory to be long endured. "Now you must forget again, Jimmy! Forget as Uncle Al will forget--untilwe come for you. Be a little shantyboat boy! You are safe on the widebosom of the Father of Waters. Your parents planted you in a rich andkindly loam, and in all the finite universes you will find no cosiernook, for life flows here with a diversity that is infiniteand--_Pigtail_! She gets on your nerves at times, doesn't she, Jimmy?" "She sure does, " Jimmy admitted. "Be patient with her, Jimmy. She's the only human sister you'll everhave on Earth. " "I--I'll try!" Jimmy muttered. * * * * * Uncle Al and Pigtail came out of the disk in an amazingly simple way. They just seemed to float out, in the glimmering web. Then, suddenly, there wasn't any disk on the river at all--just a dull flickering wherethe sky had opened like a great, blazing furnace to swallow it up. "I was just swimmin' along with Pigtail, not worryin' too much, 'causethere's no sense in worryin' when death is starin' you in the face, "Uncle Al muttered, a few minutes later. Uncle Al sat on the riverbank beside Jimmy, staring down at his palm, his vision misted a little by a furious blinking. "It's gold, Uncle Al!" Pigtail shrilled. "A big lump of solid gold--" "I just felt my hand get heavy and there it was, young fella, nestlingthere in my palm!" Jimmy didn't seem to be able to say anything. "High school books don't cost no more than grammar school books, youngfella, " Uncle Al said, his face a sudden shining. "Next winter you'll bea-goin' to high school, sure as I'm a-sittin' here!" For a moment the sunlight seemed to blaze so brightly about Uncle Althat Jimmy couldn't even see the holes in his socks. Then Uncle Al made a wry face. "Someday, young fella, when your booksare all paid for, I'm gonna buy myself a brand new store suit, and hiemyself off to the Mardi Gras. Ain't too old thataway to git a little funout of life, young fella!" * * * * * Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors in the originaltext have been corrected in this eBook: Page 31: "sunilght" changed to "sunlight" Page 32: "tie" changed to "tide"