Autumn On Rustum

"A Fair Exchange."

It is autumn on Rustum and Terrestrial trees show appropriate colors:

red maple;

yellow birch;

scarlet gim (should that be gum?);

blue plume oak (is this native Rustumite?)

 

The first colonists laid out streets with saplings while they still lived in tents or huts.

 

The town of Anchor now has:

 

tree-lined streets;

earlier frame buildings;

later brick and concrete buildings;

ground cars; 

trucks;

a few antique horse-drawn wagons;

ten thousand residents, half children, a quarter of the planetary population;

schools;

a hospital.

 

The familiar sights also include:

 

a pale blue sky;

fliers migrating south;

the ruddy orange sun rising above the Hercules snowpeaks.

 

Dan Coffin is content with progress but concerned about its longer term consequences.