The immigrants seated before him answered with delighted laughter which merged into a wave of handclapping. When the noise died down, Colonel Baker said, in a low voice, "That's all I want to hear."
He nodded, looking thoughtful. "This is the moment I always wait for—the moment when the settlers get off the ship and verify for themselves all the things I told them. You see, my friends, when I go on my lecture tours around the Earth, the scepticism I run into makes me feel like a very lonely man. I tell my story—about a place where things grow five to seven times as big as anything Earth ever saw in her best days, a place where one gets three or four harvests in what would be a single growing season on Earth—I tell the story and find that quite a lot of people don't believe it. But fortunately, here and there I meet people who can respond to a vision—people brave enough to rip up their stakes and take a journey across the oceans of space. And what I wait for is to see their faces and hear their voices when they reach these shores and learn that everything is true—everything—just as I told it."
There was another burst of handclapping. Red Brace put two fingers to his lips and produced a deafening whistle, prolonging it until his wife yanked his hand away from his mouth.
"You can imagine," Colonel Baker went on in his mellow, vibrant voice—"you can imagine, my friends, what my feelings were when I stepped out of the spaceship Explorer and set foot on this incredible planet for the first time." His eyes fixed themselves on a distant point above the heads of his audience. "Here, I said to myself—here is Paradise. The blight on Earth was already becoming acute—and here suddenly I was in a land richer than anything man has ever seen since he left the Garden of Eden. I still remember the thrill I felt when I squeezed this magic loam between my fingers. I could scarcely wait out the return trip to Earth so I could bring back here the seeds and cuttings of our edible plants. What happened after that is history. Peaches, pears, apples, all producing abundantly in their first season. Oranges the size of melons. Vegetables big enough for giants.... Of course, it wasn't economically feasible to send this produce to Earth—although one of these days I think it will be. As the blight gets worse people will get so sick of subsisting on dehydrated plankton they will be willing to pay the enormous transportation costs to get our fruits and vegetables. But meanwhile, by the greatest good fortune, an economic base for our agriculture did develop with the discovery of radioactive minerals on our neighboring planet. It's a perfect arrangement: we feed the miners, and they pay us with the earnings from their mines. Two planets, floating side by side in space, each supplying what the other needs—it seems too perfect to be a mere coincidence. You feel there must be some providence, some mysterious intellect that planned it this way." He paused. A smile softened his face. "I guess I've talked long enough. I'm delighted to see you all here, safe and happy. You are the twenty-third group to arrive since we opened this planet. Soon the ship will leave for the long voyage to Earth to pick up the twenty-fourth contingent, most of whom are already signed up. My associate, Mr. Carsing, will take over now and fill you in on some of the things you'll want to know. Meanwhile, I want to say: Welcome to Paradise. If you ever have any problems of any kind, let me hear from you. Good luck!"
Applause rolled after him as he walked slowly off stage. Almost immediately, a tall, thin man in a gray suit walked to the center of the stage. He carried a sheaf of papers. His movements were quick and nervous. His scalp was naked except for ragged patches of hair above his ears. His skin shone sallowly in the light from the windows. "I will now read the assignment of subdivisions," he said. "Please listen carefully and make a note of your location." His voice had a harsh edge of shrillness.
Ruth looked at Harvey and wrinkled her nose. "I don't like him as much as Colonel Baker," she said.
Carsing read off the names, designating a number and letter for each. Harvey and Ruth Flanders were assigned to area 189D. The numbers for the Luries and the Schweitzers followed closely, but the Braces weren't reached until the 200's. "Hey," growled Red Brace, "don't take me away from my buddies."
"All marketing of crops will be handled by our central office," Carsing said. "All your shipments will be listed in a credit account, against which all your charges will be debited. For bookkeeping convenience, settlement will be made once a year." His papers moved restlessly in his hands. "The guides are waiting to take you to your homesteads. You will now return to your luggage and finish loading it on the carts. After that, you are to go to the main door, where you will receive your oxygen packs, and then you are to assemble outside. Are there any questions?"
"Yeh!" called out Red Brace, jumping to his feet. "I don't like the location you gave me. How do I get it changed?"
Carsing scowled. "How do you know you don't like it before you have even seen it?"