A few hours should test them."
Babs said without intonation:
"And we can watch what the animals eat."
Cochrane nodded gravely. Animals on Earth can live on things that--to
put it mildly--humans do not find satisfying. Grass, for example. But it
was good for Babs to think of cheering things right now. There would be
plenty of discouragement to contemplate later.
There was a flicker of brightness in the sky. Presently the earth
quivered. Something made a plaintive, "_waa-waa-waaaaa!_" sound off in
the night. Something else made a noise like the tinkling of bells. There
was an abstracted hooting presently, which now was nearby and now was
far away, and once they heard something which was exactly like the noise
of water running into a pool. But the source of that particular burbling
moved through the dark wood beyond the clearing.
It was not wholly dark where they were, even aside from their own small
fire. The burning trees in the departing ship's rocket-trail sent up a
column of white which remaining flames illuminated. The remarkably
primitive camp Cochrane had made looked like a camp on a tiny
snow-field, because of the ashes.
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