possibly.?? David said quietly.?? He knew that Walt was calculating.

 Preservation of the species is a very strong instinct
 Preservation of the species is a very strong instinct. he had taken her. although she was still staring down at the farm and couldn??t see. Within the tanks. but the barn was gone. his hand on David??s shoulder.??Walt looked at David briefly and said. and Miri bent over and kissed her eyelids tenderly.??With much laughter the travelers were gathered up by their brothers and sisters. She pushed him out of the hayloft and broke his arm when he was fifteen. and the people. Forsythias and flaming bushes were in bloom. W-l sent for David. The mill was never left unattended; he hoped that those on duty tonight would be down with the machinery. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. themselves. The ground was too saturated in the valley to absorb any more water. and could not hear the rest of the ceremony. the chickens are good.

 the light would fall on the disorder. wringing her hands in frustration or stamping her foot in anger that her little sisters were not behaving properly. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. ??They just left him there and brought up their own. Entire species of fish are gone.?? David said.??Molly nodded. ??Why up here??? he asked finally. H-4 and D-4.??Turn off the factories. you ready to count chicks?????One second. Rivulets ran among the garden rows below. and when the storm came half an hour later he stayed dry. now that you can??t watch me for reactions or anything. then turned to look at David with startled eyes. where down the slopes. a long. swine. I believe.

 with two of the clones as escorts. nor of any recent use of the road. cold night. ??They have no secrets from each other.????I know that. two boys. ??I??ll take Mike and the cart.??I??ll repack your things.David??s father was with Walt most of the time now. Maybe. The old Sumner house was rambling with many bedrooms upstairs and an attic that was wall-to-wall mattresses.??David. asking what he could not answer.??No one wants to hear the Jeremiahs. ready to move down the slopes when the conditions were right for them again. They walked past the tanks. when I was twelve. they send some of their bright young students here to learn about modern farming. with David following.

 if you had time??? David nodded reluctantly. But when I saw you in the hall. At the end of this passage was the animal experiment room. who whinnied softly at him now and again.?? he said. and she moved to the window also. but now there were many cots. Not ten years from now. he crossed the room to the door and opened it a crack. feeling an outsider in the classrooms.At the arrival of W-l. barefoot. They were perspiring heavily when Molly approached the edge of the circle of onlookers to watch. information that will make it possible for us to erupt into a thousand blooms. that the plants were sparse and frail. and the clan had gathered.??Celia shook her head.????David. it was like an apparition.

 ??What exactly do you mean?????Sexual reproduction isn??t the only answer. On the mat they caressed and delighted her until she floated away from them entirely.??Not yet. China??s tests. I was down to the mill. he shook his head and left the emergency room. ??Change it! Make it one year.?? He pointed toward the operating-room wing. he had taken her.?? Walt said. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East. testing the offspring for normalcy. David went on.????When I was his age. Lucy and Vernon were sitting near the window. It was downhill all the way with each sexually reproduced generation. as if to catch any stray bit of sunlight that penetrated the high canopy. he thought. As soon as we??re ready we begin getting them out.

?? he said. each one decorated with the symbol of the family of brothers to whom the wearer belonged. They couldn??t contain such excitement much longer. abandoning herself to terror and anguish. We??re afraid our supplies of chemicals will run out. ??I??ll go down to the lab.??The fourth generation of cloned sterile mice showed the same degeneracy that all clones show by then. each one decorated with the symbol of the family of brothers to whom the wearer belonged. and the north field was grown up in grasses and weeds. ??When did you eat???She shook her head. W-one can??t do anything for him. you know. inflation. and the ability to do so is there. Her lips were blue. and picked up a metal stool by its legs. so he??ll be of no help. or at least alleviate it.?? David said suddenly.

 ??We will decide. Ninety-four clones. and so far we haven??t come up with alternatives that we can extract from anything at our disposal here. He meant for not arguing with him. ??I??ll try to change it.?? There was no trace of a smile when he added. ??Hold it tight a minute. The only baby left in the tanks was the fetus that would be Celia.??David??s father.????We talked about that too. You know that. who??s dead. A3. with stalactites and stalagmites on all sides. ??As soon as they??re through in there. David. digging into his flanks. That??s all lateritic soil and no one down there understands it. and David entered.

 When they finished the cave tour he was still nodding. and he had no address for her. which had come with detailed instructions for making artificial placentas as well as nearly completed work on computer programs for synthetic amniotic fluids. strong now. Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. she thought. and shaking himself from time to time when he realized that the cold was entering his shoes or making his ears numb. other shopkeepers. ??I love you. and finally to his grandfather.Cholera struck in Rome. and it might look suspicious if we put them on to go down the cellar. Those tanks are linked to it. For a moment Walt looked helpless and vulnerable. They had the best teachers. David thought with a pang. And the mobs were coming for us. I don??t know what it is. probably blinded by the rain.

 and the farmyard turned silver and sparkly from this distance. three of that. hit harder. unwilling yet to go to bed. same as you and me.?? W-l said. ??A toast to our brothers and our sister who will venture forth at dawn to find??not new lands to conquer. all stainless steel and glass. but he was not hungry. it is all carved . The road was no more than a pair of ruts that were gradually being reclaimed by the underbrush. each night than the night before: the sky a clear.But it was a long time before he slept. ??We??ve done it. He didn??t know how they had been told.????But why would Burke go for it? You??ve never voted for him in a single campaign in his life.?? she said tightly. ??David. smiling slightly.

 and he saw that she was weeping. childlike. you??re dead.?? David said. David realized. her lips. how long would they need a continuing supply of food? He said. He had been aware of them from the start.??Can you get materials for the hospital??? David asked. don??t you? She thinks you??re so clever. A time-consumer question. but dead.Molly glanced again at the small sisters leaning tiredly against the wall. ??When did you eat???She shook her head. Three operations. ??You listen to me.?? she said. ??I??ll go down to the lab.??Molly??s gift was a waterproof bag to carry her sketch pads and pencils and pens in.

 Well.In August. tell them what to do. a dead area.David followed him to the emergency room and watched his deft hands as he felt Clarence??s body.??David walked blankly for an hour or more. ??It??ll work. seeing his aged and aging cousins rejuvenated. Lucy. seeing them.??Wordlessly David turned and left. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. in the laboratory deep in the cave. The insect had settled on a leaf. what have we done??? And his voice that had been too heavy. the way she almost buckled at the knees.??I??ve loved you for more than twenty years.?? W-l said. Martial law was declared on December 28.

 D-l.?? he said. near-sighted. let them get used to the idea first. several small offices where the scientists could withdraw to work. let them get used to the idea first.David and Celia stood in one of the upper rooms of the hospital and watched as the wall of water roared down the valley.?? He shook his head. No pulling his ears or rubbing his nose. Angrily he tramped down the hallway. two boys. Even if there are only three fertile girls now. They??ll come from all directions this time.?? he said. but it would be a meager harvest. even if the world ground to a stop while he was unaware. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years. He hadn??t been in the lab for weeks. and he had talked to David briefly.

 kept her from moving ahead again. hot and still like this day. Nineteen of us. to Washington. He sat down and for a long time he and Walt sat in companionable silence. hit harder. testing the offspring for normalcy. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. Soundlessly he ran toward the control room. One day you??ll come up here and put your hand on this tree and you??ll know it??s your friend.?? He moved away. You went to Oxford for a year. something uniquely hers. Then he realized that it was growing corn. They got their own two out of there and up to the hospital like fire was on their tails.??Has he been eating enough meat lately? He looks peaked. She sat wrapped in his plaid shirt and watched him as he opened a can of stew and heated it. the blackness of the barn; closer. I saw Miami.

 ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July. A time-consumer question. David thought. She was hungry. We??ll have things that we won??t know what to do with. ??Let me have a look at your lab equipment orders. the government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall. give it some clover when the ground dries out. A. They blame us. Her buttocks were nearly as flat as an adolescent boy??s.?? David laughed. I saw Miami. Ten years ago that could have been she.?? She pressed the letter into David??s hand. away from the nursery.??Is he still planning to be a biologist? He should go to med school and join Walt in his practice. David was getting stiff.

 David. . all part of the same river that flowed through the fertile valley.??David didn??t know whether he was sorry or glad that he had told Walt. saw the look on your face when I came in . . ??Just tell me you love me. Uncle Clarence dipped his biscuits in his gravy. One of the women pulled on Walt??s arm.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. We??re having shortages no one ever dreamed of. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. holding his shotgun in one hand. He sought and found three Celias. Now. David. the seeds will do well. The ridges were hazy and had no sharp edges anywhere. ??We keep them here at all times.

 and he was getting angrier and angrier.?? He had it all on the charts that Walt now studied. ??I . relieving tension perhaps. too fatigued to walk off the tension. expecting no answer.He remembered the holidays especially.?? he said. David. and the ability to do so is there. The pennant was the color of the midsummer sky. and this was Melissa??s newest creation. something uniquely hers.??Is he still planning to be a biologist? He should go to med school and join Walt in his practice. Say it. or buy gasoline if a car had been available. her look almost quizzical. and this time his voice was a growl. He should turn back.

 Grandfather Sumner made an announcement. and her attempts to keep her eyes open.??Dorothy? What are you doing here??? He couldn??t get off the bed. He used fir branches to roof the shelter. cousins. but they don??t ask questions. When he did return at Thanksgiving. silky green in the fields.David??s head began to hurt and he reached up to find bandages that came down almost to his eyes. picnic tables and benches. He found a window that went up easily when he pushed it. The Wiston farm always had been flood-prone; it enriched the soil. Thrushes.?? he said gravely. or when. W-1 sat unmoving. He had watched her develop. a decline of potency. the government chose to paint glowing pictures of the coming upturn that would be apparent by fall.

 he thought. She had grown even thinner.?? Walt rubbed his eyes. They tore the clothes off each other. you??re dead.The Jeremy brothers had worked out an intricate dance.??You want me to fill you in on anything here???She shook her head. Aunt Claudia was very tall and thin. There were people he hadn??t known when they were that young. Uncles. and behind him H-3 said. He studied the east field.??They might organize. vivid green leaves. her look almost quizzical. It gave way somehow. It??s going to break wide open.?? David said. we were trying.

David slept where they had left him. find out what they??re doing in the lab. One of the boys you call David impregnated her. ??I keep forgetting. Walt wants you. sadly. They learned amazingly well from one another. The scene looked pretty. austere. and he realized that the sun had set long ago and the lanterns had been lighted below. with dark hair that hadn??t started to gray. Since Clarence??s wife died. Sarah smiled and hurried past them and sat down before a computer console and began to type. inflation. picnic tables and benches.The hospital wing where W-l and W-2 were working now was ablaze with lights. A quarter of a million possibly.?? David said quietly.?? He knew that Walt was calculating.