Editing Farmer in the Sky (section)

==Plot summary==
[[File:Ganymede g1 true.jpg|thumb|250px|Ganymede, where the story takes place.]]
In the future, food is carefully rationed on an overcrowded [[Earth]]. Teenager William (Bill) Lermer lives with his widowed father, George. George decides to emigrate to the farming [[colony]] on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons.  After marrying Molly Kenyon, the couple, Bill and Molly's daughter Peggy embark on the '[[torchship]]' ''Mayflower''. On the journey, Bill saves his bunkmates from [[asphyxiation]] by improvising a patch when a meteor punctures their compartment. During the trip, all the children attend class; also, to combat the boredom of the long trip, the [[Boy Scout]]s among the passengers form troops. (Because the novel was originally written to be serialized in the Boy Scout magazine ''[[Boys' Life]]'', Bill's participation in the Scouts is pervasive, mentioned at least once per chapter.)

When they arrive on Ganymede, an unpleasant surprise awaits the newcomers. The arriving group is much larger than the colony wanted or can easily absorb. The soil has to be built from scratch by pulverizing boulders and lava flows, then seeding the resulting dust with carefully formulated organic material, and the rock crushers are in short supply. While some whine about the injustice of it all, Bill accepts an invitation to live with his prospective neighbors, a prosperous farmer and his large, hard-working family, to learn the needed skills, while his father signs on as an engineer in the town of Leda. Peggy, unable to adjust to the low pressure atmosphere, has to stay in a bubble in the hospital. When the Lermers are finally reunited on their own homestead, they build their house with a pressurized room for Peggy.

One day, a rare alignment of all of Jupiter's major moons causes a devastating [[moonquake]]. Peggy is seriously injured when her room suffers an [[Uncontrolled decompression|explosive decompression]]. Furthermore, the machinery that maintains Ganymede's "heat trap" fails and the temperature starts dropping rapidly. George quickly realizes what has happened and gets his family to the safety of the town. Others do not grasp their peril soon enough and either stay in their homes or start for town too late; two-thirds of the colonists perish, either from the quake or by freezing. The Lermers consider returning to Earth, but after Peggy dies, they decide to stay and rebuild. The colony gradually recovers.

An expedition sets out to survey more of Ganymede. Bill goes along as the cook. While exploring, he and his friend Hank discover artifacts of an alien civilization, including a working land vehicle that has legs, like a large metal centipede. This proves fortuitous when Bill's [[Appendicitis|appendix bursts]]. Forced to adhere to a schedule, a shuttle picks up the rest of the group and leaves without the missing pair. Hank figures out how to drive the alien vehicle and transports Bill to the next landing site. Bill is then taken to the hospital for a life-saving operation.

Upon awakening from the operation, Bill contemplates a discussion he had with George about his future: whether to return to Earth for school or stay. He sneaks outside and looks up at the sky. When a nurse finds him and scolds him to return where he belongs, he replies, "I am where I belong. And I'm going to stay!"