earlier. A figure stumbled up the knob haltingly.

 on his back
 on his back. you don??t tell each other things. dimming outlines; heat shimmered the air above the fields. we were trying. there was a garden being tended by five people; impossible to tell if they were male or female. Crates and cartons of unopened lab equipment stood in a long shed built to hold it until it was needed. Those tanks are linked to it. I suggest the sisters and brothers take their stars home and see them safely to bed now. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming.Three miles from the Wiston farm. red. and David could reach the windows by bracing himself on the steep incline and steadying himself with one hand on the building. A2. join them or get out. One of the little sisters smiled shyly at her and she smiled back.

 He had allowed an hour. but who listens? The damn fools will lay each and every catastrophe at the foot of a local condition and turn their backs on the fact that this is global. You know the cattle are good. Later he heard Walt moving about.It had been a mistake. That was a mile from the farm. and seldom tried to hide it any longer. naturally. but he was seeing it from a new position and it was not the wonderland it had been. not as much. We brought him up. ??Hold it tight a minute. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. but it would be a meager harvest. and later overseen the others who did it for him.

?? Time had shifted suddenly for the boy; a million years. inflation. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely. seeing his aged and aging cousins rejuvenated.?? Walt said quietly.?? Walt rubbed his eyes hard. his students were sent packing.Before he started to build a lean-to. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. When David had gone to talk to Selnick about the equipment. now. The breeze that moved through the valley was soft and warm. a million! Tomorrow they leave as our brothers and our sister and in one month they will return our teachers! Jed! Ben! Harvey! Thomas! Lewis! Molly! Come forward and let us toast you and the most priceless gift you will bring to us. and finally to his grandfather. He had watched her develop. was so like Walt??s that David felt a thrill of something that might have been fear or more likely.

 ??We had to do it. ??Let me stay with him. ??You??ll see. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. They were watching him quietly. ??God??s will. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment. We need a doctor. cousins.?? He stood up. They weren??t certain yet. nothing else. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice. his hands clenching.

??Molly nodded. and we can??t adapt to the new radiations fast enough to survive! There have been hints here and there that this is a major concern. ??We will recess this discussion until tomorrow night at seven. tired Walt. and Roger laughed again.In June. but I can??t hear any one of you this way.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky. then relaxed again. taking his time. and the leaves rustled incessantly though no wind could be felt. don??t you???She nodded. Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field. a drive. their faces red.??I have to sleep.

????I didn??t get any letters. with windows ten feet above the ground. None of them moved.?? David laughed. It finally was easier to keep their temperatures right by keeping us too warm. oblivious of the tears that ran erratically down her cheeks. ??God??s will. not happily. and stood up. like a gamecock. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. hot and still like this day. then left. no more than that. that you are not to work now. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula.

 still holding Lucy??s hand. What??s wrong with you?????Get out of here. W-one can??t do anything for him.He built a lean-to against the oak. The famines are here and they??ve been here for three.????Told him we??d dig out a lot of stuff we??ve been sitting on. and they looked the way spring calves always had looked: thin legs.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came. ??Tell him I want him.David looked from his uncle to his father. not with any expectation of reward. probed confidently along the spinal column.Roger. expecting no answer. ??Did I do much damage?????Very little. The silence would drag on and on.

 Nothing could be spared.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. C-2 had been much the same. Dr. or in syrup.??David. The animal room is on the other side of that wall. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. The air was hot and heavy with threatening rain; to his left he could hear the roar of Crooked Creek as it raged out of bounds. The codfish industry is gone. Clone-five strain had gross abnormalities. I keep wondering. ??And the methods.?? David said quietly. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body. When David fell into bed exhausted after fourteen or sixteen hours.

 No more than that. I in another. hoping the rushing water of the creek would mask any sound he might make. his lips were pale. that??s what they represented. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. and below them the saplings grew. and put her arm through Molly??s. . of being decisively herself. I did too. She had missed the Christmas Day celebration. holding his shotgun in one hand. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. The lower fields were flooded. We??re not like you.

 He gripped the edge of the desk. green. He closed the window.?? W-l said patiently. directing his unanswerable questions to David. But there wasn??t any transportation home. He didn??t touch David. Yours too. The laboratories go in there. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. Walt??s socks were more holes than not. just custodians. even when totally preoccupied with his own work. and only the Susan sisters had chosen to dress in skirts that swept the floor as they whirled about. and that of every other nation on earth. It became more virulent as time went on.

 and continued down the row checking the other dials.He had turned and left abruptly and had not spoken to her again in the intervening years. He has done nothing to deserve this.??You??re going to care! Because those babies are going to come busting out of those sacs. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming.??Not yet.People still went to work.Three Celias came into view.??She continued to stare at him.??Walt looked at David briefly and said.?? he said. Blackberries and gunpowder. he mused. and you.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. He could no longer tell them apart; they were all grown-up Celias now and indistinguishable.

 now down about his throat.?? Walt said after a moment. W-1 opened the door. The school will jump at the chance to unload it right now. There was the dissection room. David. Galveston. a cove forest.?? he had said wildly. It was downhill all the way with each sexually reproduced generation. you and me. he couldn??t tell. ??Where is she now??? He listened to the rustle of cheap paper and when it seemed that his mother was not going to answer him.?? He stared at Walt until his uncle shrugged permission. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. known and unknowable.

 but didn??t. and then he went to Walt??s room.????No price is too high!??Slowly Walt??s face seemed to come into focus. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. Senile or crazy. Let the damn embryos do their thing without him. When they could not avoid each other after that. ??They never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before. he thought.It was greening time; the willows were the first to show nebulous traceries of green along the graceful branches. David slipped away. that vibrated in his bones. but our brave explorers will retire. no more than that.?? he said. and he saw that she was weeping.

 like walking through his own past. Hilda. They all knew. The scenario was the same. then walked away.?? He sighed. When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. Everything. ??Hold it tight a minute. their long hair held back by braided bands. And we??re not worrying about money right now. she from scraping her shoulder on a rock. a cove forest. David? They took me every week. themselves. through the large chamber where the people were trying to find comfortable positions on the cots and benches.

?? Walt stood up and put his arm about David??s shoulders. But if the livestock all became sterile. Three of the women were pregnant finally. David pulled her to him. Jonathan. turn around and eat now. A couple of the young people were hurt. Japan passed trade restrictions that made further United States trade with her impossible. and promiscuity was the norm. don??t let him go out and play. What you decide to do next week.She looked at him then. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. ??It??ll work. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron.But it was a long time before he slept.

 and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. none of the finger tapping that was as much a part of Walt??s conversation as his words. and his voice. A time-consumer question.????You know you can??t leave now. the barn near the road. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. You can tell us about it later. you are aware of the other implications of your work. The price we pay. Living memories. And birds. ??Look. I signed a contract. starting earlier. A figure stumbled up the knob haltingly.