（外文电子版资料）Lafferty, R A - Among the Hairy Earthmen.pdfVIP

gaze ac on ose severa un re years an as : as a ourselves who behaved so? Well, no, as a matter of fact, it wasnt. It was beings of another sort who visited us briefly and who acted so gloriously and abominably. This is the way it was: The Children had a Long Afternoon free. They could go to any of a dozen wonderful places, but they were already in one. Seven of them - full to the craw of wonderful places decided to go to Eretz. Children are attracted to the oddest and most shambling things, said the Mothers. Why should they want to go to Eretz? Let them go, said the Fathers. Let them see - before they be gone - one of the few simple peoples left. We ourselves have become a contrived and compromised people. Let the Children be children for half a day. Eretz was the Planet of the Offense, and therefore it was to be (perhaps it recently had been) the Planet of the Restitution also. But in no other way was it distinguished. The Children had received the tradition of Eretz as children receive all traditions - like lightning. Hobble, Michael Goodgrind, Ralpha, Lonnie, Laurie, Bea and Joan they called themselves as they came down on Eretz for these were their idea of Eretzi names. But they could have as many names as they wished in their games. An anomalous intrusion of great heat and force! The rocks ran like water where they came down, and there was formed a scarp- pebble enclave. It was all shanty country and shanty towns on Eretz clumsy hills, badly done plains and piedmonts, ragged fields, uncleansed rivers, whole weedpatches of provinces - not at all like Home. And the Towns! Firenze, Praha, Venezia, Londra, Colonia, Gant, Roma - why, they were nothing but towns made out of stone and wood! And a ey were cous ns or re ren. Lonnie