Then, in the midst of the hush, Zaidie put her hands
behind her, looked up towards the luminous silver surface which formed
the only visible sky of Venus, and began to sing "The Swanee River."
The clear, sweet notes rang up through the midst of a sudden silence.
The sons and daughters of the Love-Star instantly ceased their own soft
musical conversation, and Zaidie sang the old plantation song through
for the first time that a human voice had sung it to ears other than
human.
As the last note thrilled sweetly from her lips she looked round at the
crowd of queer half-human shapes about her, and something in their
unlikeness to her own kind brought back to her mind the familiar scenes
which lay so far away, so many millions of miles across the dark and
silent Ocean of Space.
Other winged figures, attracted by the sound of her singing, had crossed
the trees, and these, during the silence which came after the singing of
the song, were swiftly followed by others, until there were nearly a
thousand of them gathered about the side of the _Astronef_.
There was no crowding or jostling among them. Each one treated every
other with the most perfect gentleness and courtesy. No such thing as
enmity or ill-feeling seemed to exist among them, and, in perfect
silence, they waited for Zaidie to continue what they thought was her
long speech of greeting.
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