He had planted those few wild seeds in a secret plot behind his house, and watered them every day, the natural way. He had guarded the bad-tempered shoots from all harm, his anticipation growing. What an adventure for a teenaged male! Until his mother, Bianca had discovered the plot. Alas, she had recognized the species instantly.

       There had been a prompt family hassle. "How could you?" Bianca demanded, her face flaming. But Roland had labored to suppress his admiring smile. "Sowing wild oats!" he murmured. "The lad's growing up."

       "Now, Roland, you know that-"

       "Dear, it isn't as if there's any real harm in it."

       "No harm!" she exclaimed indignantly.

       "It is a perfectly natural urge for a young man-" But her furious expression had halted Bink's father, who feared nothing in Xanth but was normally a peaceable man. Roland sighed and turned to Bink. "I gather you do know what you were doing, son?"

       Bink felt excruciatingly defensive. "Well-yes. The nymph of the oats-"

       "Bink!" Bianca snapped warningly. He had never seen her so angry before.

       Roland held up his hands, making peace. "Dear-why don't you let us work this out, man-to-man? The boy's got a right."

       And so Roland had betrayed his own bias; when his man-to-man chat was with Bink, it was with a boy.

       Without another word, Bianca had stalked out of the house.

       Roland turned to Bink, shaking his head in a gesture that was only nominally negative. Roland was a powerful, handsome man, and he had a special way with gestures. "Genuine wild oats, culled thrashing from the stem, sown by the full moon, watered with your own urine?" he inquired frankly, and Bink nodded, his face at half heat. "So that when the plants mature, and the oat nymph manifests, she will be bound to you, the fertilizer figure?"