"Now you must forget again, Jimmy! Forget as Uncle Al will forget—until we come for you. Be a little shantyboat boy! You are safe on the wide bosom of the Father of Waters. Your parents planted you in a rich and kindly loam, and in all the finite universes you will find no cosier nook, for life flows here with a diversity that is infinite and—Pigtail! She gets on your nerves at times, doesn't she, Jimmy?"
"She sure does," Jimmy admitted.
"Be patient with her, Jimmy. She's the only human sister you'll ever have on Earth."
"I—I'll try!" Jimmy muttered.
Uncle Al and Pigtail came out of the disk in an amazingly simple way. They just seemed to float out, in the glimmering web. Then, suddenly, there wasn't any disk on the river at all—just a dull flickering where the sky had opened like a great, blazing furnace to swallow it up.
"I was just swimmin' along with Pigtail, not worryin' too much, 'cause there's no sense in worryin' when death is starin' you in the face," Uncle Al muttered, a few minutes later.
Uncle Al sat on the riverbank beside Jimmy, staring down at his palm, his vision misted a little by a furious blinking.
"It's gold, Uncle Al!" Pigtail shrilled. "A big lump of solid gold—"
"I just felt my hand get heavy and there it was, young fella, nestling there in my palm!"