Young Bleys - Childe Cycle 09 by Gordon R. Dickson

from his bowl.
    "Let Bleys be with you as he says," said Henry. "Afterwards be sure to tell me how quick he was to pick things up; and how useful he might be, if for some reason he had to take care of the goats by himself."
    "Yes, Father," said Joshua agreeably.
    As a result, in late afternoon sunlight—for the weather had been good that day—Bleys found himself out in an enclosed field with Joshua. Joshua had taken seriously the injunction of his father to teach Bleys about the goats. He did so now, conscientiously, telling Bleys the name of each one, and showing him little differences in hair color, action or size, by which that goat could be identified.
    "... We have one billy goat to about every ten nannies," Joshua explained. "That's because it's the females that pay their way in milk and cheese and kids. All these goats you see here are variforms, genetically tailored to this world. They're the descendants of a dozen frozen variform embryos shipped out from Old Earth while they were still tiny; then raised to birthing age in the plant in Ecumeny."
    He looked at Bleys.
    "You understand?"
    "Yes," said Bleys.
    Joshua went on.
    "Because the kids of most goats are deformed when they're born and don't live, we have to buy new embryos every so often to avoid inbreeding. That's awfully expensive, but there's no help for it. Anyway, now we have over forty of the animals; and most of those are good-producing nannies. The billies—the male goats—are good for hides. We get a slightly stronger leather from them; and they're also better for pulling the goat-cart and plowing, and such things like that. We'll use up to a dozen billies to pull the plow. But they're hard to work with. We'll all be glad when Father gets the motor put together; and we can build a motorized vehicle that can pull the plow, the harrow, and other things."
    He stopped and looked at Bleys.
    Bleys nodded. He understood about the goats not reproducing on most New Worlds, along with many other species of animals; a fact that continued to puzzle biologists. The rest was new to him; but he stored it in his memory.
    "Is there some particular question you've got?" Joshua asked. "You're looking at me as if you wanted to ask something. Go ahead. That's the whole point. I can tell you what I know, but I don't know what you need to know, unless you tell me."
    Bleys felt as if he were standing on the brink of a cliff. Nonetheless, everything he knew about people told him that now was the moment for him to speak, and so he spoke.
    "It's just—" He hesitated. "Are you all right?"
    Joshua looked puzzled.
    "All right?" he echoed. "Of course. I haven't been sick for six months or more, not since last winter, and even that was only a bit of an upset stomach I got from something I ate. Though we were all surprised, because neither Will nor Father got sick. What makes you think I might not be all right?"
    Joshua had been so open and certain in his answer that Bleys found himself for a moment without the words he needed to say what he wanted to say. He hesitated again.
    "It*s just that . . . last night . . ." he said, and ran out of words again.
    "Oh!" said Joshua, "you mean the beating Father gave me because that goat got killed? Is that it? You must come from very strange people, Bleys, to be wondering about that. It was nothing—just a beating."
    "But—" Bleys still found himself at a loss. "I just didn't understand why your father took it out on you. I mean, it was an accident that the goat got killed, wasn't it?"
    "Yes," said Joshua, "but it was my fault for not making sure the fence was secure, so that a loose rail fell or got pushed down and pinned the nanny's neck between that rail and the one below it. So the nanny strangled and we lost a valuable goat; and I was responsible for the fence not being safe. Who else could be responsible but me?"
    "But it was an accident," said Bleys.
    "No, Bleys," said Joshua seriously, "nothing is ever an accident. God made it happen