Venus Boy
BY LEE SUTTON
Illustrated by Richard Floethe
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO., INC.
NEW YORK
Copyright, 1955, by Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co., Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 54-7882
Printed in the U.S.A.
All rights reserved
[Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any
evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
To Mildred and Blake
"Everything that lives is Holy."
OLD MARVA SAYING.
A Hero of Venus
If you ever make a trip to the green planet of Venus, the first thingyou'll see will be the fifty-foot high statue of Venus' greatest hero.It stands on the very top of towering New Plymouth Rock at the edge ofthe old colony of New Plymouth. Even from the rocket cradle, anyonecan tell that the statue is of a twelve-year-old boy smiling up at theVenusian jewel bear perched on his shoulder. Cut into the huge rockbelow the statue are the words,
"Virgil Dare (Johnny) Watson
And the Marva, Baba.
May their Friendship Endure!"
Virgil Dare Watson, called Johnny by his friends, was the first humanbeing born on Venus. He was named after Virginia Dare, the firstpioneer child born in North America, and for a long time he was theonly child on all Venus. And that would have been a lonely thing to beif it had not been for Baba. Baba, the bear, was not only Johnny's pet,but his best friend, too, and the only one who knew about his threesecrets.
Because of these secrets, Johnny got himself, his jewel bear, Baba, andthe whole colony of New Plymouth into desperate trouble. And becauseof these secrets, he also became a hero worthy of a statue—Venus'greatest hero.