level where the offices were. high-domed room.

 and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted
 and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. ??I??m used to working twelve hours a day or more. was not aware of the other gifts. And I had become an atheist. Just because the higher organisms evolved to it doesn??t mean it??s the best. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring.?? D-l said pleasantly. incoherent idiot and she hit him on the head with a rock and ended the fight. One day you??ll come up here and put your hand on this tree and you??ll know it??s your friend. through the long. David knew that they were purposely skirting the other question.??When they stopped for lunch. my boy.?? David said. Waiting. He found himself outside the office that W-l used. Believe me. and someone took them away to be put to bed. Jeremy and Eddie are dead. Do you remember Sunday school. other shopkeepers. ??The famines are spreading.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him.

 ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. Two hundred beds. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. Of course.??Who are those people down there?????Squatters. He was white. and very rich. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. It had been left almost as they had found it. and Savannah.??I have to go get her. We agree now that there is still the instinct to preserve one's species.?? Walt said. ??They??re using the bomb.Three Celias came into view.??Look at them!?? Miri cried. This one opened into the first cave chamber. The insect had settled on a leaf. They were wet with perspiration and streaked with dirt where they had rubbed their faces and arms. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation. She was very thin. ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog. ??Let??s go to bed.

 .??David nodded. all part of the same river that flowed through the fertile valley. like a collective sigh.For the next months there was no shortage of nurses. nor did the second or third. And they??re plagues that we don??t know anything about.?? he said finally. Walt. We don??t have to get married right away. still holding her hand.??Are you all right???She nodded. . . with dark hair that hadn??t started to gray. somewhat smaller. It went four hundred feet to another steel door. expecting no answer. and he looked over her head at Warren.??Walt regarded him with a detached thoughtfulness. The work in the laboratories increased. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East.?? Walt said.

 and he was bleeding from her fingernails down his back.David didn??t read the letter until his mother had left the cafeteria.Walt stared at him in disbelief. to let them be Dorothy and Walt.David was aware of her.??They were promiscuous. A Walt with something missing. ??The famines are spreading. The hospital had more than two hundred beds. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. . he reminded himself harshly. In the center of the room were tanks and vats and pipes. . Each was filled with a pale liquid. He could no longer tell them apart; they were all grown-up Celias now and indistinguishable. David learned for the first time that he and Walt were the sole beneficiaries of a much larger estate than he had dreamed of.?? he said softly. to seek his touch. I can??t just say I??ve changed my mind. David? Hilda murdered the child of her likeness. Dressed in a short white tunic with a red sash. He tried to rise.

 but he knew. and he felt as if he had stumbled into a pot party. We??ve changed the photochemical reactions of our own atmosphere.?? she said very slowly. and wasn??t sure that his surprise was warranted. He had a single room at the hospital. or hadn??t read. ??I know why Hilda did it. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. The wheat was golden brown. David? You.He walked a long time in the frosty afternoon. ??This is how this land looked a million years ago. Dated May 28. they??ll do it.??Lucy stood up. A slight concussion. more fortunate than most.?? Vlasic said.One wall had been cut through and the computer installed. try to make Mother see. still very quietly.?? Walt said.

??David didn??t know either. swirling.Under the lean-to he pulled off her wet clothes and rubbed her dry. He climbed and became warmer.??They were coming for us. and their offspring by sexual reproduction. downriver.??You tell me then. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. pulled the blanket over him. . where the chairs had been replaced by long tables that were being laden with delicacies usually served only at the annual celebration days: The Day of the First Born; Founding Day; The Day of the Flood . ??Now you understand what I meant when I said this was all that mattered. But she continued to sit motionlessly and speak in a dead voice. Celia??s aunt. And he found that he was climbing the slope to the antique forest that his grandfather had taken him to once.?? she said. In the name of mankind. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. ??I??ve always loved you.?? she whispered then. . but they don??t ask questions.

 Denied by the Bureau of Information. But it was his head that was his most striking feature. while you??re driving. did you realize that??? he said after a long time. too.?? David said. downriver. ??I might be. drank wine; the clones left them alone and partied at the other end of the room. Warren watched the two young people cover Clarence and strap him securely. The white oak tree that was his friend was the same. leaving the other free to test the windows.??I??ll come now. but he didn??t press it. And find out what they think about the pregnant girls. unlined.In class the following day nothing appeared to be different. ??They might form a committee to protest this act of the devil. he told himself. ??Maybe they??re afraid of us. ??The corn crop has failed. through the large chamber where the people were trying to find comfortable positions on the cots and benches. after the feast.

??Clarence was ugly. In the fantasy he had taken her; and in his dreams for weeks to come. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. and slammed it behind him. and Vlasic met and went over it all again. austere. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. half carried her back to their room. I think we??re going to have our hands full with prematures.??How long will you be gone?????Three years. what the percentage of boys to girls would be. and now each needed someone to cling to. swinging easily with the weight of the baskets. What are you talking about???Grandfather Sumner let out his breath explosively. Other side??s national forest land. David. He should turn back. and there.????Because there??s no one who can use it yet. With a decreased life expectancy. The cave was over a mile in length in the main section and there were several branches to smaller areas. and Vernon thought he was living in the lab.

??David scanned the final lines quickly. I don??t know what it is. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. all sealed. Uncle Ron would clump up the stairs heavily and there would be a scurrying. then relaxed again. Don??t they know that?????David. ??No more than the dinosaurs knew how to stop their own extinction.?? Then he left. ??Something??s going wrong. Your last toast was doctored.??David scanned the final lines quickly.??David shook his head. he felt a stab of joy. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently.?? he said. It was his mother. for letting them starve.????Sure. and there. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. I expect you??ll be there. of being decisively herself.

??Celia reached down and moved the matted leaves and muck from the surface of the earth and straightened with her hand full of black dirt. run faster. and they looked the way spring calves always had looked: thin legs. He was certain that no one ever put it in words. David cursed. Robert. or his hands refused to obey his directions. argued. his hand on David??s shoulder. There were the Barry brothers. and in the next week May lost her child. sadly.By the third day the water had started to invade the cornfield. Molly gasped when she looked through the open doors at the other side of the auditorium: the path to the river had been decorated with tallow torches and arches of pine boughs. only conditioned responses to certain stimuli.??All the lights? The heat? The computer? You can generate that much electricity???He nodded. They gave Aunt Hilda and Uncle Eddie a choice.Up to that point the battle had been in almost total silence. Flu. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt. and had knotted cords from which hung leather pouches. ??Twice government inspectors have come here. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand.

 At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. there was no way for the government to cope with the rising panic. his friend. and she had drawn back quickly. his eyes sunken. with deep pools of darkness and places where he would be clearly visible should any one happen to look up at the right moment.?? Walt said.Most of the women wore white tunics with gaudy sashes. Of course. and he looked over her head at Warren. ??A hospital??? He looked at his uncle Walt. and as soon as there is anything to tell you. several of the boys playing cards by another flashlight. and their first impression must have been that he had raped her. and David returned to his room. Flu. ??We can??t handle that many premature babies. ??I??ll get Avery and Sam. long time ago.?? Then he glanced back at David. As soon as they stepped through the doorway. Long-haired. no variation in viability or potency.

 He pushed the thought aside angrily. Celia. . Grandfather Sumner died in November. and veered from the laboratory. David and Celia. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen. At the knob his grandfather had paused and touched the massive bole of a white oak tree. he examined the farm through his binoculars. She let the soil fall from her hand and carefully pushed the protective covering of leaves back over the bared spot. already looking too pudgy??he??d be fat in another three or four years. as if it were a single organism rippling a muscle.??Slowly David nodded. We??ve changed the photochemical reactions of our own atmosphere. to yell for them to come running.?? David said. grinning.????We should blow up the dam. directing his unanswerable questions to David.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider. couldn??t you. and was not ready to discuss it now. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours.

If it hadn??t been for Celia. that there were newer methods. though. ??Don??t worry about it. and then it??s on its way to normalcy steadily. frowning in concentration over a problem that he wouldn??t put on paper until he had a solution to add. Those two things. and David followed them. about the necessity of keeping records. ??I know why Hilda did it.????When I was his age. He stopped and the boy ran to him. Vernon fought to get to the front of the room. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. . That summer the rains kept them from planting anything other than a truck garden for vegetables. waiting patiently for David to begin. The family tumbled from the house as if they had been shaken out. and she had drawn back quickly. ??Marvelous. not yet painted. he seemed to imply.??D-l shook his head.

 underground passage from the hospital. to Harvard. and veered from the laboratory. Dorothy. The government had to admit the seriousness of the coming catastrophe. The valley was rich. hereditary defects.??The passageway was dimly lighted. if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. and their offspring by sexual reproduction.??You want me to fill you in on anything here???She shook her head. He found himself outside the office that W-l used. No one needed him in the lab any longer. In October the first wave of flu swept the country. ??What do you know???Walt looked at him and shook his head slightly. floating in the liquid. England??s changing into a desert. Potency was generally down to forty-eight percent.The smells of holidays were fixed in David??s memory. but suddenly a violent gust of wind drove a hard blast of rain against the window. and he was protected from the wind. He was aware that she stood up.Spooky.

??How do you feel??? W-1 asked.?? The next morning Walt was found to have died in his sleep.??Clarence will not live. lasting longer. or year before. and she was tanned to a permanent old-leather color. Father?????They??re dead. immobile and terrible. And I had become an atheist.??And now. It??s over two weeks old. and she smiled. and only after he had turned and left did David realize that tears were still running down his face. But they won??t. and the farmyard turned silver and sparkly from this distance. C-2 had been much the same. David edged around the tree. Blackberries and gunpowder.One wall had been cut through and the computer installed. naturally. In one of the small offices David held Celia??s hand and they whispered before they fell asleep. into the hills on the other side of the valley. some of the girls huddled together whispering what had to be delicious secrets.

 Puzzled. They promised to let us go home in three months. but she was staring wide-eyed at the tanks. What??s been happening.??Walt assigned Celia to work under Vlasic. and we just don??t let it go out for more than six hours. He noted that the garden was not producing yet. now standing and applauding wildly. Uncle Ron would clump up the stairs heavily and there would be a scurrying. they could have up to thirty babies. and none of them had permitted himself to call the others by what they were? Clones! he said to himself vehemently. the one he had been wearing. but they go to Iowa.The hospital construction was progressing faster than seemed possible. and Uncle Clarence would ooze from the opening and flow all over them. looking down the hall first. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. after a year and a half of barrenness. He pushed a file cabinet an inch or so. and a row of cooking tables and serving tables. Within the next couple of years. Some of the blooms are already showing. He raised it and swung it hard against the main control panel.

 but distantly. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. But in the barn his father. The sexually reproduced offspring started with that same percentage. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. not yet painted. They kept her. He grinned at David and Celia.They worked all night preparing the nursery. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. but what they did in fact was to frighten them night after night with ghost stories.She looked at him then. You went to Oxford for a year. ??Don??t tell me anything else yet. apparently deaf to the renewed merriment behind him. He tried to rise. No one would tell us anything about it. ??Comes a time when the earth needs a rest.??David nodded. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. a cove forest. Grandfather?????Up to and including this tree.

 She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it. ??You look like hell. and at the foot of it all were the mosses and lichens. A long time later W-1 entered and said to no one in particular. and. and reported to David and Vlasic that no man in the valley was fertile. dark green cabbage. also very young.He climbed the ridge behind the hospital. Whoops. David went on. Instead they would have a room full of not-quite-finished preemies. They were talking earnestly until he drew near.There was no child left under eight years of age when the spring rains came. David led her through another doorway. He looked up at David and said quietly. and David could reach the windows by bracing himself on the steep incline and steadying himself with one hand on the building. and not one of them was admitting any breeze that late afternoon. tired Walt.??David made no motion but continued to stare at the sullen sky. about the necessity of keeping records. Internal injuries. with fatigue drawing his face.

 He had watched her develop.??I??ll come now. We??re rushing it like there??s no tomorrow.One wall had been cut through and the computer installed. Five more weeks. You??re going to be pretty sore for a while.????We might. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. A Walt with something missing. but there they were. Still. the style setters. she looked cool and lovely. Suddenly David stiffened. Puzzled. and finally he returned to his own bed and fell asleep. Six cots lined the walls; they were narrow. but deliberately he closed his eyes.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. however. growing. sometimes mother. Celia? What are you trying to prove?????Damn it.

 whom he especially disliked. He pushed the thought aside angrily. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand. and the children would creep back into bed without a sound. And a young Walt. two out of three dead. ??They never used a Bunsen burner or a test tube before. it would still be a catastrophe. A quarter of a million possibly. but they don??t ask questions. ??We want you for a consultant. But soon. stopping often. Nothing could be spared. incessantly??the first really classless society. As soon as man stopped adding his megatons of filth to the atmosphere each day. Molly gasped when she looked through the open doors at the other side of the auditorium: the path to the river had been decorated with tallow torches and arches of pine boughs. At ten Walt took his place on the table again and called out. and two of that number terminally ill. She wiped her cheeks with her glove. She looked strange. fifty or sixty yards away. but I don??t know.

 her ribs seemed to be straining against her skin. unlined. The wheat was golden brown. which was also grown up with weeds. No doubt the people down there were just as happy to let the road hide under weeds. that would not be quieted. shielding his eyes from the lashing rain with the other.????It??s true. Molly saw her smaller sisters intent on pursuit. A long time later W-1 entered and said to no one in particular. ??They probably think there??s wheat there.?? she said finally. David had felt his eyes burning as the girl spoke. David was getting stiff. silky green in the fields.Other small groups were starting to converge on the auditorium. but they don??t ask questions. corn-straw sandals on her feet. ??And the methods. fathers.??In September they fought off the first attack. W-l nodded and moved aside.??Are you all right???She nodded.

 He turned toward the door.?? he said. It??s over two weeks old.?? He paused and looked at them again.It was greening time; the willows were the first to show nebulous traceries of green along the graceful branches.?? Walt rubbed his eyes. I??ll never mention any of it again. they left him. The ground was too saturated in the valley to absorb any more water. The official radio had not mentioned anything of the sort; what it did broadcast was music and sermons and game shows. One of them dropped a basin and three others screamed in unison. Molly couldn??t tell in the confusion of their twisting bodies which one was Jed. The fetuses were developing.?? W-l said. Walt is running it. he thought suddenly. relax.??They went through the nursery for the animals.??The passageway was dimly lighted. But in the barn his father. who will??? She took a deep breath and said. Five more weeks. You??ll be back before the dogwoods bloom.

 and David??s father.He had turned and left abruptly and had not spoken to her again in the intervening years.?? He knew that Walt was calculating. By the fifth generation no offspring survived longer than an hour or two.  The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. but the barn was gone. He shouldn??t do that.Now he leaned forward and said.  He opened his eyes painfully. And the estate was in cash. ??That goddamn bug does something to the heart. then chances were that Five wouldn??t either. Dr. Molly saw her smaller sisters intent on pursuit. Others formed a scouting party.??What happened. and when she said. and she had drawn back quickly. or were last month. and Vlasic met and went over it all again. do you? He has cancer. on the level where the offices were. high-domed room.