Read "Mars is my Destination" by Frank Belknap Long online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
They were all downstairs now, waiting to be fed, hardy perennials like all children everywhere. Thomas with his shining morning face -- it seemed to stay that way right up until bedtime -- and Susan, seven, and still doll-wedded, and the twins, Hedy and Louise. Three girls and one boy, and Grace Lynton felt a little sorry for her son at times, until she remembered that a boy of thirteen isn't troubled by too many girls in a family when he's seven or eight years their senior. The girls were simply very young children to him and he was -- well, right next door at least to being grown up.
"All right," John Lynton said, seating himself at the head of the table. "Let's fall to and see who gets through first."