Now, when Pat was born, his daddy and I decided not to encourage him to follow in his father's footstep there's too much pain in this sort of career for anyone who is not a born impersonator. We wanted our child to grow up into a normal boy. He was never encouraged to wear girl's clothes, or to like girlish things, and he never saw his daddy in feminine attire until after he was six years old. But by this time he had shown all the signs which, for reasons which nobody knows, you have shown too. Heloved girlishness, girl's clothes, girl's activities. But he loved boyish ones too. And so, when we could see that Pat was born to be a girl-boy, a female impersonator if you like, we stopped hiding our secret from him and he stopped trying to hide his secret from us. We began training him, and he soon became the star of our show, as you can see from that album of photos and cuttings."

Pat blushed, and looked down at his pretty lap.

"And now," Aunt Jemima continued, "about your future, Robin. All the time I was away touring the wor- ld I wrote regularly to your parents, and they were wonderfully conscientious in writing to me too. I've been very interested in you children ever since you ar- rived on earth, but when I heard about your desire for femininity I became more than just interested. Now it happened that about that time a cook was needed here on the station, and I was able to recommend one for you, the wonderful Japanese gentleman who is working in your kitchen at this minute - Hirosake. Of course he's a good cook, but he's far more than that before he left Japan for political reasons he was an actress in the famous NO dramas, and always played female roles."

•

"I wish I'd known! I exclaimed.

She smiled. "I badly wanted to write special let- ters to you, Robin, but decided to wait until I could talk to you in person. But I kept asking your friend Hirosake all sorts of questions about you, and sending for photographs of you, and even, lately, getting your measurements sent, so that I could buy these pretty clothes and give them to you if you were as nice as I expected.