From time to time he found himself thinking, instead of practical matters, of the astonishing sturdiness of spirit Babs displayed.

When she waked, well after daybreak, and sat up blinking, he said: 

“Er—­Babs.  We’re in this together.  From now on, if you want to tell me something for my own good, go ahead!  Right?”

She rubbed her eyes on her knuckles and said,

“I’d have done that anyhow.  For both our good.  Don’t you think we’d better try to find a place where we can get a drink of water?  Water has to be right to drink!”

They set off, Cochrane carrying the weapon he’d brought from the ship.  It was Babs who pointed out that a stream should almost certainly be found where rain would descend, downhill.  Babs, too, spotted one of the small, foot-high furry bipeds feasting gluttonously on small round objects that grew from the base of a small tree instead of on its branches.  The tree, evidently, depended on four-footed rather than on flying creatures to scatter its seeds.  They gathered samples of the fruit.  Cochrane peeled a sliver of the meat from one of the round objects and put it under his watchstrap.

They found a stream.  They found other fruits, and Cochrane prepared the same test for them as for the first.  One of the samples turned his skin red and angry almost immediately.  He discarded it and all the fruits of the kind from which it came.

At midday they tasted the first-gathered fruit.  The flesh was red and juicy.  There was a texture it was satisfying to chew on.  The taste was indeterminate save for a very mild flavor of maple and peppermint mixed together.

They had no symptoms of distress afterward.  Other fruits were less satisfactory.  Of the samples which the skin-test said were non-poisonous, one was acrid and astringent, and two others had no taste except that of greenness—­practically the taste of any leaf one might chew.

“I suppose,” said Cochrane wryly, as they headed back toward the ash-clearing at nightfall, “we’ve got to find out if the animals can be eaten.”

Babs nodded matter-of-factly.

“Yes.  Tonight I’m taking part of the watch.  As you remarked this morning, we’re in this together.”

He looked at her sharply, and she flushed.

“I mean it!” she said doggedly.  “I’m watching part of the night!”

He was desperately tired.  His muscles were not yet back to normal after the low gravity on the moon.  She’d had more rest than he.  He had to let her help.  But there was embarrassment between them because it looked as if they would have to spend the rest of their lives together, and they had not made the decision.  It had been made for them.  And they had not acknowledged it yet.

When they reached the clearing, Cochrane began to drag new logs toward the central place where much of last night’s supply of fuel remained.  Matter-of-factly, Babs began to haul stuff with him.  He said vexedly: