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Show But Needlesmith Hall was duplicated more or less in all One Hundred and One Commendiums-the geographical districts of civilized BauerWorlde. It was an impressive sight for first-time BauerWorlde visitors, coming upon these piles while traveling through the country. The cottages roundabout, they were charming too, thatched as they were. The thatch-BauerWorlde reed-was treated with silicon preservative and attached firmly over an insulated and weatherproof grid. But other than that, it was completely authentic Olde Worlde Earthski thatch. Visitors from the EarthColonySystem were positively captivated by the cottages and might have swooned with nostalgia if it weren't for the constant comings and goings of aircars and airvans overhead and the NorthSouth Planetran streaking up and down the plains at six hundred kilometers an hour. They served to balance things. It was the twenty-fourth century, after all. Dr'Anya flexed the fingers of one hand idly and frowned. Bedamned stiffness! After years of traveling on foot and JackPony in Provincial disguise through the Tartars and in the wild Four Kingdoms beyond to Gather Data for her monumental History of BauerWorlde, she was now feeding the analyzed data into the Governor, had been, in fact, since the young Janni had gone to Earth for her last three TwelveMonths of study. She'd worked diligently to gather all the History material before she was too far into her fifties so that she would be at her desk when the thrice bedeviling disease struck. And marry, it had struck-in full measure and fair in her feet. Now her fingers were stiffening. 21 |