Nero Squinks, Elderman Nero Squinks, to give him his full title, the one-eyed rat who'd made good after half a lifetime's shameless wrong-doing, certainly had turned over a new leaf. In fact, not only had he turned over the shady side of his particular leaf to start a new chapter in his life-book, but he'd encouraged others in Wasteland to follow his example. As a result their land was transformed. Gone were the spoilheaps and mountains of slag. Gone were the filthy waterways and broken dams. Gone were acres of mean houses which once housed mean folk in mean cities. Gone, indeed, were the cities themselves. Collections of little villages appeared in their place as a new land appeared.

It was a green and pleasant land, a land where farming revived, where crops were grown, and flocks appeared in living fields. Long grey-veined walls straggled once more down the Misty Mountains, enclosing new sheep in new pastures. They changed into the green arteries of hedgerows when they met the plains, and these in turn merged with new woodlands. Trees grew where they hadn’t grown for years, and along the Misty River, young Wastelanders began to make weekend outings with fishing rods and jam-jars, just as their great-great-great-great grandfathers had done generations before. So ordered and peaceful did the Wastelanders keep their country that its very name was changed ... back to its ancient name, Mellowmark, after the great lines of stones which ran all round its borders, placed there many years before by longlost folk of the olden days.