Blind Man's Lantern

by Allen Kim Lang

Transcriber's note.
This etext was produced from Analog December 1962. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

Blind Man's Lantern

Successful colonies among the stars require interstellar ships—but they require, also, a very special kind of man. A kind you might not think to look for....

by

Allen Kim Lang

Illustrated by Schelling

Walking home in the dark from an evening spent in mischief, a young man spied coming toward him down the road a person with a lamp. When the wayfarers drew abreast, the play-boy saw that the other traveler was the Blind Man from his village. "Blind Man," the youngster shouted across the road, "what a fool you be! Why, old No-Eyes, do you bear a lantern, you whose midnight is no darker than his noonday?" The Blind Man lifted his lamp. "It is not as a light for myself that I carry this, Boy," he said, "it is to warn off you fools with eyes."

—Hausa proverb