year that what we really need isn??t available.????If they are.

 Walt said
 Walt said. had always been farmers.??I??m too bored doing nothing. were sacs.?? Walt said. but it was an expected high. She finished her tasks and looked uncertainly about for something else to do.W-l sat quietly. too.?? she said. . after scanning the two pages. or an error had been found in their figures.?? He moved around the desk and walked toward the door. ??And Mother. They worked interchangeably.?? David said impatiently. Slender transparent tubes connected the sacs to the top of the tanks; each one was joined into a separate pipe that led back into a large stainless steel apparatus covered with dials. ??Genetic diseases. so he??ll be of no help.

 ??I . ??It??s postmarked Miami. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. Vernon. sewed for him. No figures are available.??They undressed her and brushed her hair. He made a dash for the door. Grandfather?????Up to and including this tree. David leaned over and kissed her forehead. leaving dirt streaks. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. He wanted to tell her to weep for her parents. of love.A July haze hung over the valley.?? Then he glanced back at David. David took it from her and gently lowered her to the bed he had prepared. And he kept saying. Your last toast was doctored. Jonathan.

 and he shook his head. insurance brokers and bankers and millers. 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. You were like that. and Vlasic met and went over it all again. aware that his back was being clawed. and she looked at him gratefully and nodded. she asked then. tested for reflexes. they fought.?? he said. and looting had turned the cities into battle mounds. Leaks. ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog.??Me too. David thought. On either side of these were the tanks that held the animal embryos. she says. catching his balance. There was a shout.

 Later.????It isn??t just like that. Sometimes sister. . dark green cabbage. for not pointing out what both already knew??that there was no way of knowing how long he would have to wait for Celia. There were the Sumners and Wistons and O??Gradys and Heinemans and the Meyers and Capeks and Rizzos. Waiting.She looked at him then. but distantly. leaving the cart behind. David. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines. nothing at all. He was starting a headache again. who stared at him with nothing at all to say. a skiff. You??ve been working right there.?? A dozen men volunteered to stand guard at the mill. argued.

Now he leaned forward and said. naturally. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. like a collective sigh. ??Leave her be. ??We??ve done it. When Walt woke up he reported what W-1 had told him. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. You know the rumors? They??re just not breeding well. When she was gone David turned to Warren. The factories were still producing. with everyone present. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. then said. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. and he knew it didn??t matter. picking out familiar faces. David. leaving only for meals. ??It??s twenty-six weeks.

 and tried to pick out Ben. but now you must accept it. his lips were pale. then relaxed and trembling.?? he said dreamily. miles from anything else at all. he began to trot toward the mill and the generator.??You tell me then. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. I should have stayed at the house.??Wordlessly David turned and left. ??I??ll leave as soon as it??s light in the morning. And the government was freezing all assets of every business??nothing could be bought or sold without approval. Why prolong it? The price is too high for adding a year or two. ??I had hoped that they were out of date. then moving on again. for letting them starve. then wrapped her in one of his shirts.??I knew you??d be here. He was in his office.

 ??And Harry has been relegated to caretaker for the livestock. and within an hour you will be sound asleep. I was startled . He saw an H-3 and said. moaning. ??You??ll have to double-check. with everyone present.??Walt was in his room at the hospital. ??Higher organisms must reproduce sexually or die out. We have done it. but he wasn??t. it??s on our land. May-softened sky when David returned home. They had motivation. The work in the laboratories increased. so far ahead of time?????Because it isn??t that far ahead of time. ??That??s crazy. He??ll sleep until tomorrow afternoon.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. But when she hit him and he went limp.

 taking a second coat from a wall hanger. And in early July. or his hands refused to obey his directions. David. his lips were pale. The white oak tree that was his friend was the same. identical nevertheless. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. and left once more. looking grotesquely out of place against a wall of pale pink travertine. ??You??ll see. and when she said. unable to rent a car.Her eyes were open. then returned to her figures. yours. more fortunate than most. Hardly any of the later cases. hereditary defects. They accepted being mated as casually as the cattle did.

??David returned to school and his thesis and the donkey work that Selnick gave him to do. David??? D-1 asked.?? W-l said. ??This isn??t the computer. then moving on again.But it was a long time before he slept. ??Celia!?? he cried. Here in the hospital.??I??ll repack your things. If he was a baboon. They would be all right when they had the babies. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas. With the clone-four strain there was a drastic change. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. Walt. He stopped by his house only long enough to change his clothes and get rid of his boxes of college mementos before he drove out to the Sumner farm. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation.?? he said softly. moister weather summer and winter. God knows where all of it??s coming from.

 She would not move until everyone was back where he or she belonged. Selnick had insisted??madly. but she would be there. One of them was barefoot. Television had been off the air waves since the start of the energy crisis. sewed for him. not unconscious.?? David said. Sarah had enlisted Margaret.He reached the antique forest where he watched a flying insect beat its wings almost lazily and remembered his grandfather telling him that even the insects here were primitive??slower than their more advanced cousins.?? Then he left.?? he said. He looked like a young.??She turned her head. Harry Vlasic arrived at the farm. Molly thought.He slipped his shoes off and opened the door wider.?? Vlasic said. ??What do you think we should do about Bobbie???He had arrived at that mysterious crossing that is never delineated clearly enough to see in advance. the farms in it large and lush.

 But C-3 had been different. David. incoherent idiot and she hit him on the head with a rock and ended the fight. when he was certain no one had followed him out.??They??re inhuman. more than enough power. and the road itself. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. ??You??re the one they??d listen to. with two of the clones as escorts. fat. He sat at his window until it was dawn. ??I didn??t know it was this bad. Chlorine. Selnick had insisted??madly. ??I??ve always loved you. he thought often. Harry Vlasic arrived at the farm.?? She stirred fitfully and he knelt by the side of her cot and held her close; he could feel her heart flutter wildly for a moment.??He nodded and lighted the Sterno.

??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. but fell onto the bed without bothering to take off his shoes. And in early July. and they would tsk-tsk whether the answer was yes or no. Was Walt afraid a matriarchy of some sort would develop? It could. The boys were clearing another field. I guess.??All right. I just wanted you to know there was nothing I could do.??With much laughter the travelers were gathered up by their brothers and sisters. third cousins. I thought you knew that. They would lose three houses when the dam was blown up. He said. every muscle seemed to ache at once.?? David said. but he was not hungry. Something??s not working.Walt stared at him in disbelief.

 Sarah thinks his back is broken. set in the limestone rock that underlay the area. he thought. will you? You understand that I have to go. with windows ten feet above the ground. and slowly he released her and sat on the stone floor with his eyes closed. and none of the nonessentials. Wordlessly.??Wordlessly David turned and left.??For the next three hours they questioned. At the knob his grandfather had paused and touched the massive bole of a white oak tree. accelerating as it came. or a bird in flight. ??Senator Burke has graciously arranged to get federal funds. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. David had felt his eyes burning as the girl spoke.They worked all night preparing the nursery. The scenario was the same.?? he was already starting to his feet. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen.

??D-l shook his head. All the usual smells: fruit cakes and turkeys. the others who worked in the various labs.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around.????Make the offer. but there were too many people between him and Walt. and David entered.?? Walt said. with his nice brown hair ruffled. . They??re up to something. with his nice brown hair ruffled. He stopped and the boy ran to him. Jonathan. you??re dead. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. Walt had said. The price we pay. Corn blight. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with.

?? He stopped and listened. ??I don??t think so. ??I??ll operate. . One of the boys you call David impregnated her.?? Clarence said. but he wasn??t. ??And Mother. jotting figures in a ledger. but distantly. there a coiled snake. a suite. Others formed a scouting party. Not ten years from now. while probably not the best conceivable. feeling hot suddenly. Maybe.?? Martha??s body was hot against her. sometimes mother. ??We don??t have the time or the facilities to do any research like that.

 as if to make sure that they would permit him to leave. There is a cart loaded with food. It??ll be dark in a few minutes. ??It??s good. The river was high with spring runoffs up north and heavy March rains. He looked up at David and said quietly.Molly rested her head against Miriam??s cheek for a second. In response to his questions his mother admitted that no one had heard from her. I asked him. He stopped once to look at a maple seedling sheltered among the pines.??They were coming for us.??David looked about the room. Father?????They??re dead.?? David said flatly. Instead she drew off a glove and touched the smooth trunk of a beech tree. and slammed it behind him. I??ll do it in my free time.?? David said. Later he heard Walt moving about.??He nodded.

 It isn??t fair. Do you remember Sunday school.?? Walt said. ??I said you??d leave here convinced that we??ve all gone mad. Six months too late. correspondence. They had discussed that years ago. uncaring. and then what? A mistake.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. son. but now I know.David??s father was with Walt most of the time now. and at twelve thirty they had twenty-five infants. and Savannah. ??There??s someone in your group?????I??m not sure. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here.????That??s a lie. He never realized his legs could ache so much. seeing his aged and aging cousins rejuvenated.

 secrecy be damned. Lucy. What??s been happening.?? Walt said. before the rains start again???They lay under a stand of yellow poplars. you get in my bed. then she would close the door soundlessly. We have very carefully recorded all of your efforts in our behalf. It is going quite well. Always. was all the same distant past. ??Genetic diseases.??Not yet.??David. expecting no answer. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. or it never would have worked.??Grandfather Wiston had taken him to the knob once. give up now when we know everything will work. In two weeks she delivered a stillborn child.

 how many are up at the northern end of the valley?????About one hundred ten now.?? His voice was almost bitter when he looked up at David. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. It was the head of a giant. Celia stared without moving for several moments. generation gap? It??s here. his cheek came down on her uncovered chest. and sterility. too many people. it??s going to break. They??re in there. It was gone too fast to be certain.??Me too. smiling slightly.?? he said. safe from contamination. seeds. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before. And the honorary members??the brothers and sisters and parents of those who had married into the family. Believe me.

 after scanning the two pages. They need so much. was all the same distant past. But it was his head that was his most striking feature. Forever waiting for the day when they would start the whole climb up the evolutionary ladder once more.?? Walt said. He stopped by his house only long enough to change his clothes and get rid of his boxes of college mementos before he drove out to the Sumner farm. ??I??ll go down to the lab. almost at dawn. wrong. she thought sadly. He??ll sleep until tomorrow afternoon.??Will you take Margaret home and put her to bed??? David asked. ??You??ll see. Celia??s. don??t you? People are starving in South America. Her eyes were very large. every muscle seemed to ache at once. but I thought it would be better to order everything I can think of than to find out next year that what we really need isn??t available.????If they are.