It was a cow, then, my lords and gentlemen, and not one of the Earth folk, that appeared that day so suddenly in our sky. Our scientists were hasty in their inferences. They should not have based a theory so broad upon a single fact.
Chet mentally listened and tried to picture what manner of thing this was that held two Earth-folk helpless, that called them ‘creatures of an inferior race’.
Intrepid Earthfolk, suicide battalion people, walking slowly in their flexible suits of difrolchrome, weighted down with high-frequency coils and oxygen tanks and thigh-weights, and living, from instant to instant, dangerously.
I thought that if I tried to play ball with you on this planet of New Eden, tried to keep the Earth folk in their quarter and under your law, we'd get along. But it seems I was mistaken.
Ciel rose obediently but her eyes watched him slyly as she followed the Earthfolk out and down the hall.
Coals of fire are always attractive—Earthflame for earthfolk.
The people who lived on Earth, though, didn’t have to die at all, unless they chose to, and that sort of thing wasn’t exactly common. Why the Earthfolk were exempt from death was something widely discussed, and widely misunderstood, on the other inhabited worlds of the universe.
antedating 1880
Last modified 2021-04-09 12:00:56
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.