"They've just grown up, Mr. C.—but we have some pretty wonderful men in their place." Her eyes shone. "It was pretty hard, at first, after you got hurt and they had to take charge of everything, to realize that they had grown away from us. But I soon found that they hadn't, really," she continued hastily as the boys gave cries of dismay. "They have matured wonderfully, but we have not lost our boys at all."
"Well I should say not!" Jak cried hotly.
"We're still kids, not men," Jon declared. "Why, there's still so much to learn—and experience to gain—we've barely started growing up."
"You can keep learning back on Terra," their mother said. "As for me, I'm glad we're going to be there a year or more. I want to live in a house again, on land I know."
"Then we'd all better get to bed," their father said with his old-time roguish smile. "Otherwise we'll all be too fagged out to take off for home tomorrow."
As soon as breakfast was finished the next morning the Carvers all assembled in the control room for the start back to Terra.
Jon had already made the astrogational calculations for their trip, having worked on them off and on during many evenings of the past several weeks.
But just as they were all strapping down, his father stopped Jon with a sudden exclamation. "Wait, Son! I think we'd better go back close enough to all the planets and the sun to make sure all the signals are working right. That's one of the most important things the Colonial Board will check."
"Oh, I'm sure they're OK, Pop. We listened to each one after we'd placed it."