_Illustrator_: H. Sharp
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories
April-May 1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
[Sidenote: _"Wanta know what's wrong with women these days? Spoiled! The
whole kit and kaboodle of 'em. They want to sing in nightclubs and hook
up with some millionaire and wear beautiful clothes. Housework is
something for gadgets to take care of, with maids to run the gadgets.
Afraid to get a few calluses on their dainty hands!_
"_We got a way to handle that on Deneb. A girl gets highfalutin up
there, the Doc puts her in the Ego Alter room. Thicken up her ankles a
little, take some of the sparkle out of her eyes and hair, and you get a
woman fit to pull a plow!_"
_Hold it, Madam! H. L. Gold said that; not us. Personally, we like
girls--not Percherons!_]
If there was one thing Dr. Kalmar hated, and there were many, it was
having a new assistant fresh from a medical school on Earth. They always
wanted to change things. They never realized that a planet develops its
own techniques to meet its own requirements, which are seldom similar to
those of any other world. Dr. Kalmar never got along with his assistants
and he didn't expect to get along with this young Dr. Hoyt who was
coming in on the transfer ship from Vega.
Dr. Kalmar had been trained on Earth himself, of course, but he
wistfully remembered how he had revered Dr. Lowell when he had been
Lowell's assistant. He'd known that his own green learning was no match
for Dr. Lowell's wisdom and experience after 30 years on Deneb, and he
had avidly accepted his lessons.
Why, he grumbled to himself on his way to the spaceport to meet the
unknown whippersnapper, why didn't Earth turn out young doctors the way
it used to? They ought to have the arrogance knocked out of them before
they left medical school. That's what must have happened to him, because
his attitude had certainly been humble when he landed.
The spaceport was jammed, naturally. Ship arrivals were infrequent
enough to bring everybody from all over the planet who was not on duty
at the farms, mines, factories, freight and passenger jets and all the
rest of the busy activities of this comparatively new colony. They
brought their lunches and families and stood around to watch. Dr. Kalmar
went to the platform.
The ship sat down on a mushroom of fire that swiftly became a flaming
pancake and then was squashed out of existence.
"I'm waiting for a shipment of livestock," enthused the man standing
next to Dr. Kalmar.
"You're lucky," the doctor said. "They can't talk back."