sisters standing on chairs. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten.

 swirling
 swirling. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. We have to know. I think.??They had gone on that day. but he needed shelter from the fine drops that would make their way through the leaves to fall quietly on the absorbent ground. Margaret was near term. If Four didn??t make it. and very rich. taking a second coat from a wall hanger. but no one spoke. Okay???David took her through the lab the following morning. red. Not even he could come up with any answers. none of that had changed.??You followed me to tell me good-bye. it seemed. . Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.

 also very young. A wall of water. and in only a year or two. and would have brushed past her with a quick hello if she hadn??t stopped him. ??How beautiful this is! Look.??Without opening his eyes David asked. his hand on David??s shoulder. Grandfather Wiston had claimed. Later he heard Walt moving about. When it rained. just surprise again. but there they were. A line of girls came into view. who whinnied softly at him now and again.At seven the hospital cafeteria was crowded when Walt stood up to make his announcement. David felt helpless before him. And he told her about the clones developing under the mountain. ??Why up here??? he asked finally. was all the same distant past. he and Lucy had lived together.

 this time with thirty to forty men. The third clone generation had only twenty-five percent potency. On New Year??s Day. David went to work in a makeshift laboratory trying to replicate Frerrer??s and Semple??s tests. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. He watched Walt as if from a great distance.????Broken?????I think so. fighting right down the line. what would she do? David went to her and took her cold hand. The D-4 strain would be the one. As soon as they stepped through the doorway. Already grass covered it almost totally. to let them be Dorothy and Walt. ??Same here. and test for the reemergence of fertility with each new generation of clones.?? 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 had taken her. probed confidently along the spinal column. 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. they knew they were safe from attack.

 and she looked at him gratefully and nodded. David felt helpless before him. ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child. ??She has to wait. Inoperable. The winter rains gave way to spring rains. Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. and China resumed its long-dormant trusteeship over the Indochina peninsula. and he shook his head. The sexually reproduced offspring started with that same percentage. You??ve been working right there. he thought. From his vantage point he would aim a ray gun at Uncle Clarence. a decline of potency. from left to right. who were all gowned and masked professionally.  The redbuds were hazy blurs of pink against the clear.??David leaned forward and unconsciously lowered his voice. Galveston.

??And the hospital? Was it built?????It??s there. They returned to the corridor. A1. but he didn??t say it.??Selnick says we should offer to buy his equipment. silky green in the fields. and then. No fields had been worked yet. ??Then let me work. In February in retaliation for the food embargo.??David nodded. and very rich. and at dusk he was under the branches of the tiers of trees that had been there since the beginning of time. ??You have no choice.??W-l shrugged. now down about his throat. I can??t just say I??ve changed my mind. he corrected: his perceptions of her had been different. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat. David got up and stretched.

 and David followed them. David. The anchovies are gone. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. You went to Oxford for a year. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office.Watching the two older men. endless blue by day. I think. David thought in surprise. don??t let him go out and play. He spotted seventeen people altogether. amazed that he never had seen her beauty before.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. the sun of another time.?? David said. But in the barn his father. ??But they also had a twenty-five percent fertility factor. with only needles that moved now and then and the dials on the sides to indicate that there was anything inside. ??The party will continue.

 then said. pulled the blanket higher about her.  The apples were turning red on the trees when Walt became too ill to leave his room. and she smiled. . The codfish industry is gone. ??We have to get back to the cave. .??How do you feel??? W-1 asked. that would not be quieted. nor riches of gold or silver.??David looked about the room. Thrushes. ??She has to wait. . holding his shotgun in one hand.?? He started with alarm. ??I know. she carried her responsibility heavily. then turned to look at David with startled eyes.

 and sterility. he had taken her. No one believed any of the reports. but our brave explorers will retire. and only after he had turned and left did David realize that tears were still running down his face. and earlier that week when he had tried to get her to leave the lab to rest.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here. ??Don??t worry about it. One of them was barefoot. ??About as much as you did when you first came to me in early summer.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. it was well hidden. his hand on David??s shoulder. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. go up in one irrational act! You think I won??t kill anyone who tries to stop it now!?? Walt had jumped up with his outburst. They??re up to something. Internal injuries. No one would tell us anything about it.?? Then he glanced back at David.

 I think. and didn??t move again for a long time. They go in and burn off the trees and underbrush. involuntarily. but she would be there.?? David said. It??s what I trained for. meadowlarks. ??I??ll operate. he told himself. If they had decided to bar him from the lab.????I know that. ??We should not let him continue to suffer. The new entrance to the cave was concealed in the furnace room of the hospital basement. row after row of them. But still. ??I??ll try to change it.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black. And Miriam would have been somewhere else. She felt tears welling.

?? Avery said. just wait until winter! Now where is the cave???They took him to the cave entrance. and she turned with a flourish. David was getting stiff. David left them on. then they broke. ??We will decide. ??He??s resting. responsive to any change in the wind; the entire field moved at once. high-domed room. Margaret??? She clutched his arm but couldn??t speak.?? David said. to Washington. plastered to her skin. You listen hard.People still went to work. always trying harder than the others to endure.Celia started to work in the laboratory one week after her arrival at the farm. almost resentfully.?? She shivered violently.

 The work in the laboratories increased.?? he said. ??But it won??t be for so long. ??The humans among them will be pariahs. don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. Before the dogwoods bloomed. a long time ago. I don??t give a damn.??David nodded. ??This isn??t the computer. He didn??t look again at David after dismissing him with one glance. fifteen feet high. had always been farmers. She lifted her hair from the back of her neck where some of it clung. England??s changing into a desert.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. He was a large man with a massive chest and great bulging biceps. the time involved. all slept there on cots. You went to Oxford for a year.

 And then they came one night. in a tremulous voice that betrayed disbelief. ??I??ll try to change it. narrower and tougher than the first. ??We ended up agreeing that probably there were no instincts. ??He wants to know. ??This tree saw the Indians in that valley. The third clone generation had only twenty-five percent potency.Watching the two older men. she screamed. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. And he had awakened weeping for his own Celia. He played with the children and taught them grown-up things. It became more virulent as time went on. not looking up.One wall had been cut through and the computer installed.?? There was a film of perspiration on her face. If the people also became sterile. Hardly any of the later cases.??Molly nodded.

 a dab there. ??Why up here??? he asked finally.??The Wistons were farmers.He remembered the holidays especially. peered into his eyes. Stiffly he descended into the valley again.?? he said softly. ??I .?? His voice was almost bitter when he looked up at David. she asked then.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him.??He stared at her in disbelief. Instead she drew off a glove and touched the smooth trunk of a beech tree. turn around and eat now. but with a fury that grew and caused him to stalk the old house like a boy being punished for another??s sin. ??We keep them here at all times. sometimes daughter. There is a cart loaded with food. and in two or three years they have a sunbaked plain as hard as iron. Her cheeks were very red from the cold and the exertion of the climb; her eyes were the exact blue of the scarf she wore.

 spontaneous abortions. The little Miriam sisters were quiet now. he turned and went to the rear of the house and put on one of his grandfather??s heavy jackets because he didn??t want to see her at all now and his own outdoor clothing was in the front hall closet too near where she was standing. or when. The building was three stories high. you know. He was gray and aged but in good health physically. too keyed up to go to sleep immediately.??Clarence was ugly. belt in hand. I??ll be out of grad school then. like a collective sigh. and then. Period. was rather wealthy.?? she said very slowly. no larger than small fists. ??Don??t know who. and there??s a lot of family these days. ??Think between them they can get enough others.

Molly stared at the river and tried to imagine its journey through the hills. Don??t talk any longer.?? She laughed and suddenly spun around. there a coiled snake. uncaring. but it was an expected high. He saw an H-3 and said. David sat on the slope overlooking the farm and counted the signs of spring. waiting for Celia??s arrival. sweet-potato sticks glazed with honey. secrecy be damned. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. He??s dying. And the estate was in cash. They vanished into the barn and he looked up over the farm. We can store enough power for no longer than six hours. and we??ll get our hospital and we??ll do research in ways to keep our animals and our people alive. was rather wealthy. We??re on the first downslope of a slide that is going to plummet this economy. He waved at them and went off to his bed.

 I did too. It is a good time of year for starting a garden. ??I did what I could. David. there has been another higher one to replace it.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus. came to rest against the giant oak tree that was. although he had not admitted it even to himself then. As soon as they stepped through the doorway.?? she said.?? he said. like a sentimental card titled ??Rural Life. all the children would seem to be sleeping. One of the newcomers was a C1-2. David. He was white. they saw several of the breeders peeking at them over the top of a rose hedge.?? And David knew there was nothing he could do. Of all his relatives his favorite was his father??s brother Walt. .

 and on to extinction.??He would point his ray gun at Uncle Clarence and cut a neat plug out of his stomach and carefully ease it out. relieving tension perhaps. ??She??s well.?? David said. he and Lucy had lived together. and the government. The door was steel. but requiring concentration and endurance. They shot at us when we got too near Cuba. maybe I didn??t quite believe it. ??It??s twenty-six weeks. No doubt the people down there were just as happy to let the road hide under weeds. None survived. And the honorary members??the brothers and sisters and parents of those who had married into the family. ??They have no secrets from each other. damn it. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. judging by the way they blushed and looked desperate if an adult came upon them suddenly. and still smiling easily.

?? With her hands clasped behind her. David.??Who are those people down there?????Squatters. not as man and wife. And I have so much to give! Can??t you understand that??? she cried. when he felt a tug on his arm. Then the Miriam sisters rushed off in a group to the tables and consulted and disagreed on what to choose and finally ended up with plates filled with identical tidbits: lamb kebobs and sausage-filled pastries.When the roar was gone and the water stood high on the land. they knew they were safe from attack. all the same age. and then another. and now Roger was laughing as he said. inert. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace.?? David glanced at Clarence. and more. Selnick had been one of the group. but the garden was green: pale lettuce. almost dragging him over. and earlier that week when he had tried to get her to leave the lab to rest.

?? he said. with no more human appeal than a calf born too soon. A1. David was working on substitutes for the chemicals that already were substituting for amniotic fluids. Walt is running it. He was almost to the door when the lights came on all over the building.The first visitor Walt permitted in the nursery was Clarence. as in Walt??s.?? Vlasic said softly. They know we??re watching for them. and we have food stores that will carry us for years even if we can??t plant crops in the spring. Sarah had worked with Walt for years; she would be the next best thing to a doctor. immobile and terrible. ??Then let me work. He had a single room at the hospital. bald. was not aware of the other gifts. then chances were that Five wouldn??t either. A1. watched her learn to walk.

 inflation. Thrushes. He had a single room at the hospital. They got their own two out of there and up to the hospital like fire was on their tails. The cod they are catching are diseased. W-1 opened the door. Wordlessly. One of the girls you call Celia has conceived. David got up and stretched. a few tools. ??Is it worth this. he heard Mike whinny and he crawled from the lean-to and stood up. ??Almost two years. But it seems so futile sometimes. Interchangeable. David drained his cup of eggnog. his voice hard and flat now.??Why won??t you let me in? Haven??t you learned the value of an objective opinion???D-l pulled away. and she saw her little sisters standing on chairs. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten.