"Pum was a pup in a litter, raised catch-as-catch-can, a scavenger from the time he could walk..."
-Poul Anderson, "Ivory, and Apes, and Peacocks" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 229-331 AT p. 266.
Pum became an acolyte in a dockside temple, learned from the drunken priest before being dismissed by his successor and has made a wide circle of acquaintances, including palace staff, in Tyre.
Diana says:
"'My education's been catch-as-catch-can, you realize...'"
-The Game Of Empire, CHAPTER ONE, p. 207.
Diana is "...everybody's friend..." (p. 196) and keeps her belongings in "...a ruinous temple..." (ibid.)
Pum escapes poverty by helping Manse Everard of the Time Patrol. Diana, daughter of Dominic Flandry, escapes poverty by helping Fr. Axor and coming to her father's attention.
When Axor asks whether the authorities did not object to her running away, Diana replies that they could not find her and then forgot: more juvenile wish fulfillment. Pum lived long before any "authorities" tried to regulate children's lives.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I don't think it was necessarily that implausible for Diana to have been "forgotten" by the Imhotepan authorities, given certain factors. She never made trouble or committed crimes, and it was easy to disappear into a large, multi-species population. Last, no one was pushing authorities strongly enough to make them really try hard to track down Diana. Result, she slipped thru the cracks.
Ad astra! Sean
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