 Who wanted to mine Lovenbroy’s minerals?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, September 1962. "The Bogans have launched no less than four military campaigns in the last two decades. That's an industrial world of the poor but honest variety." "Our function is merely to bring them together. Now I don't know if you're familiar with the Bacchus vines we grow...?" In between, the vines don't need a lot of attention, so our time's mostly our own. We've turned all the land area we've got into parks and farms. Lovenbroy's a nice place, Mr. Retief." Blue-black sky, stars visible all day. Lots of skiing, bob-sledding, ice skating; and it's the season for woodworkers. Our furniture—" "I've seen some of your furniture," Retief said. Lots of metals in our soil and those sulphates give the woods some color, I'll tell you. Lots of beach on Lovenbroy; we're mostly islands. Fruit, grain, that kind of thing; getting it in doesn't take long. Arapoulous puffed on his cigar, looked worriedly at Retief. Course, I'm only twenty-eight; I can't remember but two other harvests. Retief put aside his cigar, pulled the wires loose, nudged the cork, caught it as it popped up. "We've got plenty of minerals on Lovenbroy," Arapoulous said, swallowing wine. "But we don't plan to wreck the landscape mining 'em. They figured they knew better what to do with our minerals than we did. Wanted to strip-mine, smelt ore. "We had to borrow money from a world called Croanie. Had to start exporting art work too. Picking Bacchus grapes isn't a job you can turn over to machinery—and anyway we wouldn't if we could. Vintage season is the high point of living on Lovenbroy. Miles and miles of vineyards covering the mountain sides, and crowding the river banks, with gardens here and there. Big vines, eight feet high, loaded with fruit, and deep grass growing between. There's prizes for the biggest day's output, bets on who can fill the most baskets in an hour.... The sun's high and bright, and it's just cool enough to give you plenty of energy. Fresh-baked bread ... and wine, plenty of wine.
 Boge
 Croanie  MUDDEL  Boge  Lovenbroy neighbors