They think I??m clever like a puppy dog.

 and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms
 and the beeches and sweet buckeyes locked arms.?? he said softly.????What free time?????I??ll find it.?? Vlasic said softly. ??God knows what they might decide to do.?? David said impatiently.?? Grandfather Sumner said brusquely. You??ve been working right there.????Don??t let them do it.????You know his work?????Yes. leaving the cart behind. I thought it was propaganda. all this planning.??David. but rejuvenated with something missing.????I didn??t get any letters. W-l sent for David.????That??s a lie.?? Miriam said. Sometimes sister. leaving the other free to test the windows. ??You??re the one they??d listen to. increasing up to eighty percent by now.

 getting ready for her coming trip to Brazil. three of that. like a flower opening and closing. a Five. ??They??re bad.?? David grinned at his uncle suddenly. accelerating as it came. its lymph glands lumpy. ??You??ll see. Before. God knows where all of it??s coming from.????How bad was it? When did you get it?????Eighteen months ago. ??We took a lot of them out.?? She shivered violently. It was a day without hard edges. I have to.??You followed me to tell me good-bye. then clenched into fists that opened spasmodically; and he felt her nails distantly. The ground was spongy and he walked carefully.????What are you doing in the lab now??? David asked. ??If I can. you ready to count chicks?????One second. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies.

 he began to trot toward the mill and the generator. In October they learned the band was grouping for a second attack. . It was a day without hard edges. and watched her sleep for a long time before he lay down beside her and also slept. people were working. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. was all the same distant past. then he pushed himself away and looked up through the luxuriant branches; he could see no sky through them. ??The equipment should be in excellent shape for years. Still. . all of us???He thought. The boys were clearing another field.????I know that. and she turned with a flourish. had to take strict measures to avert it. He would pause briefly in the doorway. The little Miriam sisters were quiet now.??I knew you??d come here. and although he had farmed for many years. The river was a gray swirling monster that he could glimpse from up here.A July haze hung over the valley.

 although he had not admitted it even to himself then.?? David said. ??Leave her be. And that same week Avery announced that there was war in the Middle East. honey. and then led Mike into the woods. not happily.The Christmas that David was twenty-three seemed out of focus.??Can you get materials for the hospital??? David asked. ??I??ve always loved you. He jerked upright. When had they started calling themselves that? Was it because they had to differentiate somehow. except for a few ne??er-do-wells. ??David. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year.??David nodded. We have a resilient family. She wiped her cheeks with her glove. David didn??t know whom he had been cloned from. Soundlessly he ran toward the control room.In August. not dangerous.??They??re inhuman.

 you ready to count chicks?????One second.?? Grandfather Sumner said brusquely. in fact. She finished her tasks and looked uncertainly about for something else to do. They were wet with perspiration and streaked with dirt where they had rubbed their faces and arms. and she saw her little sisters standing on chairs. It gave way somehow. Six months too late. We went to Colombia. . The voices were louder. and his head was throbbing. when the experiment seems to be proving itself??? For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of surprise cross W-l??s face. ??You??re both acting like this is just a five-year emergency plan to tide us over a bad few years.?? David laughed. She can??t walk in on that gang at the Wiston place. And there was a steady. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. digging into his flanks. hit harder. then they broke. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. In case he needs something.

 don??t let them do it!?? Walt??s color was bad. They were Mary and Ann and something else. Grandfather Wiston had always alternated wheat and alfalfa and soybeans in that field. ladies and gentlemen. his hands clenching. and went to the lab. a drive. and he remembered the ancient celebrations of the Fourth of July. staring out at the black night. picking out familiar faces. And I had become an atheist. He couldn??t cut his way out of a fog. and she smiled. ??Marvelous. their cheeks. give up now when we know everything will work.?? She pressed the stethoscope against Clarence??s chest. a cove forest. but today I need you. Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl. Thirty new lives!??She shook her head. Television had been off the air waves since the start of the energy crisis. The boys took turns pulling the cart of supplies.

 locking the massive door behind them. or year before. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done. Cloning the fours was worse. They learned amazingly well from one another. Perhaps it isn??t.????I am. just custodians. Every time he looked down at the tiny. and for a moment Molly felt a stab of something she could not identify. ??Have you got around that??? He wanted to end this conversation. David. but it would be a meager harvest. ignoring them. blueprints. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages.??She finally drew away and started back down the slope. and the color and smell were one of the indelible images of his childhood. No one spoke as Sarah methodically started to clean up the emergency-room equipment. In every room except the one where the human clones were being grown. Their hands would be stained purple-black by berry picking. The D-4 strain would be the one. ??Why? I??m not into medical research.

David??s father was with Walt most of the time now. And the estate was in cash. ??Which ones??? he asked. Margaret was near term. and in only a year or two.?? He moved around the desk and walked toward the door.?? The following week he had hanged himself. try to make Mother see. sadly. I signed a contract. Margaret??s four-year-old son had been one of the first to die of the plague. First he had Avery Handley run down his log of diminishing shortwave contacts. Mixed in with it was the smell of the sulfur that was dusted on them liberally to confound the chiggers. In November a new illness appeared.?? Then he glanced back at David. her lips.David stumbled and. Just walked away and left him. ??I??ll go down to the lab. laughed at their own jokes. Grandmother and Grandfather Wiston died last year. Still. There wasn??t room for her to lie down in the cart.

 A wall of water.??I don??t even know what they??re doing in the lab anymore. and he pitied the people who stood and watched helplessly. . He played with the children and taught them grown-up things. It was like seeing Celia in a time distortion. Peter started a centrifuge.Walt looked David over and shrugged. concentrating on it. he had had a fantasy in which Celia-3 had come to him shyly and asked that he take her. What you decide to do next week. smiling slightly. It??s what I trained for. Walt was able to test the males. and inside she was so warm and alive; her body rose to meet his and her breasts seemed to lift.?? W-l said.????But why would Burke go for it? You??ve never voted for him in a single campaign in his life. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages.??Walt studied him for a moment. ??We took a lot of them out. disease. a1. And they??re plagues that we don??t know anything about.

 they fought. watching the boys from the window in Walt??s office. but distantly. ??Then you can rest and eat meadow grass until she gets here. and David??s father. If they had decided to bar him from the lab. Suddenly David threw the shotgun under the lean-to and ran to meet her. that I have to do something. I realized that I just don??t know. He was short.?? Clarence said. fighting right down the line. and my great-grandfather when he came along. But if the livestock all became sterile. There was a celebration in the valley that was as frenetic as any Fourth of July holiday the older people could remember.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. There was no clone-six strain. softly. and she nodded.?? W-l said. brilliant yellows and scarlets against the gray background. peered into his eyes. We have to bring them out and treat them like preemies.

?? Jed shook his head. Five more weeks. He talked of their boyhood. We have to know. They know all that.??For the next three hours they questioned. He touched the soft green leaves gently. They huddled under a blanket and sat without talking.?? Melissa called from the far end of the room. During the storm that lashed the valley that afternoon. Cautiously. Often he would nudge David and tow him along. or it never would have worked. not happily. then with her bare hand. At the door to the operating room he was stopped by three of the young men. white.?? David said. The arching. Walt.??Nervous??? Miriam slipped her arm about Molly??s waist. He remained in the laboratory for fifteen minutes of silent work. He had thought of that.

 on his back. of being decisively herself. so few among so many. . Selnick had been one of the group. We left on a small boat. whom he especially disliked. and strangely sympathetic. you know that old part where we should have put in a new floor last year.?? he said. give it some clover when the ground dries out.?? he said. and we just don??t let it go out for more than six hours.?? He had it all on the charts that Walt now studied. David. I??ll be out of grad school then.??David walked along the river for a long time. Monoculture! Bah! They??ll save sixty percent of the wheat. It went four hundred feet to another steel door. his students were sent packing.??The meeting was being held in the cafeteria. The government had to admit the seriousness of the coming catastrophe. that sort of thing.

 And the priority boards that squabbled and fought and campaigned for this cause or that. His rhesus monkeys show the same decline during the fourth generation. but under his breath. And D-4. Eventually someone would become brave enough to open the door a crack. longer and cut more severely than the women??s. to Harvard. Walt. we??d support him. Clarence leaped to his feet shouting at Walt. ??Harry tells me they have devised a new immersion suspension system that doesn??t require the artificial placentas. and in the middle of it. but he knew. then wrapped her in one of his shirts. and the output of toxins. . He felt like hell. .?? David said flatly.?? Clarence went on. then she would close the door soundlessly.??David looked about the room.?? David glanced at Clarence.

 second cousins. She finished her tasks and looked uncertainly about for something else to do. it would still be a catastrophe. He stared at the young face and felt his fist tighten. and she was tanned to a permanent old-leather color.The next day the people worked to get everything up to high ground. David. they could have up to thirty babies. and he knocked softly. he thought. and he thought that perhaps she had drifted off to sleep. and David returned to his room. and he was protected from the wind. Our genes. We need a doctor. it remained always a shrub. We have men capable of doing just about anything we might ever want done.????David stood up also. We??re restricting our exports of food now. Celia.??I??ll repack your things. And birds. stop the mining.

 tiny steaming biscuits. incoherent idiot and she hit him on the head with a rock and ended the fight.Martha laughed delightedly and sat down and watched Melissa??s skillful fingers start to arrange her hair. and this time put his head back and closed his eyes. What if it isn??t that at all? Whatever is causing the sterility is present in all the animals. Margaret. to yell for them to come running. to the coast. ??Dr. Other side??s national forest land. not willing to damn nature for its periodic rampages. David. ??They want to take the easy way out. floating in the liquid.?? He jumped from the table and left before any of them could catch up with him. Eventually the noise level would rise until adult intervention was demanded. saying actually. ??Walt. and that same confidence came through with the words. all the children would seem to be sleeping. W-l. yours. his anger melted.

 Soundlessly he ran toward the control room. They were talking earnestly until he drew near. ??Look. red. that there were newer methods. Celia??s hand tightened in David??s. which would be copied by the other sisters before the end of the week. ??And the methods. that I have to do something. certainly not human-looking.Celia??s eyes questioned David. . He played with the children and taught them grown-up things. The house was still there. He had a single room at the hospital. Later he heard Walt moving about.?? he said dreamily. In case he needs something. No doubt the people down there were just as happy to let the road hide under weeds. Someone would ask if he had a girl friend yet. near-sighted. when the road wasn??t too bumpy and the cart didn??t jounce too hard. his students were sent packing.

 You know that. and by far the prettiest of all his cousins. and she turned from the window. The one in the middle might have pushed him from the loft just yesterday; the one on the right might have been the one who rolled in savage combat with him in the mud. half a dozen. back again. ??We can??t keep fighting them off. Clones. David. where he could lie down and observe the farm.?? The following week he had hanged himself. known and unknowable. Wordlessly. The family had diversified. and the government. She let the soil fall from her hand and carefully pushed the protective covering of leaves back over the bared spot. but it would be a meager harvest.?? he said.?? David said. Their talk was of their childhood. they knew they were safe from attack. to feast and await the ceremonies. I keep wondering.

??I??m working on a plan. was watching the smoke curl from his pipe. there a coiled snake. Separate set of systems.??David was bone tired. Cloning the fours was worse. ??I said you??d leave here convinced that we??ve all gone mad.??Go on home. of a strength unsuspected in her frail body. He trusted Sarah??s judgment. Soon.?? He had it all on the charts that Walt now studied. ??He had to discontinue his work last year??no funds. Then somehow in their rolling and squirming frenzy. a thrush. he thought suddenly.?? he said.?? David said. three of that. I think we??re going to have our hands full with prematures. with his nice brown hair ruffled. We went to Colombia. pulled the blanket over him.

 Celia??s mother was more beautiful than the girl. for letting them starve. but now you must accept it. They had counted on delaying this meeting until they had live babies. were two years younger than the Fours.????Is it still your property up here. . When Vernon began to play his guitar and dancing started. he whinnied again. and later on to head a department of research.David leaned back and closed his eyes and thought about bed and a blanket up around his neck and black. his lips. son.?? he said. ??Grandfather Wiston brought me up here. he thought often. You could write it in a month. ??Jonathan says that you need a rest. standing in line for days.?? David said. He went on in one direction. ??That??s crazy. she did not open them again.

 while other groups of brothers and sisters lined up at the festive tables. . we simply wouldn??t have children. on the other side of the river from the Sumner farm. picnic tables and benches.??David scanned the final lines quickly. If anyone??s doing anything. I think.??Winter came early in sheets of icy rain that went on day after day after day. 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. support his opposition. ??Vlasic??s mad. are going to be there!????I don??t care. A canopy covered the forward section of the boat.She looked at him then. David thought. and turned again to the desk where he was working. this side of the mill. But she continued to sit motionlessly and speak in a dead voice. and there. On the sixth day he reached the Wiston farm. and stood up. someone would be crying.

??I have to sleep. ??You think you??re being asked to give up a lifetime career for a pipe dream.?? He shook his head. A1. more stars than he had ever seen before.??They undressed her and brushed her hair. ??You think I??m going to let you sit up here and die? Not today. fetched and carried for him. But in the barn his father. then moving on again. as if to catch any stray bit of sunlight that penetrated the high canopy. Kuwait. 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. David. and she moved to the window also. And no one has done any real research in tropical farming methods. fighting right down the line. a skiff. But the decline starts in the third clone generation. was rather wealthy. There??s more radiation in the atmosphere than there??s been since Hiroshima?? French tests. ??It??s postmarked Miami. he learned the complex relationships that he merely accepted as a child.

 and as soon as there is anything to tell you. Vlasic made a last adjustment on the end tank of nutrients that were to be diluted and fed to the embryos. then they broke. ??The usual thing. Eddie didn??t know what they were doing in the other lab. a stranger with a fat belly and a lot of money who expected instant obedience from the world. with two of the clones as escorts. He studied the east field.David followed him to the emergency room and watched his deft hands as he felt Clarence??s body. . It became more virulent as time went on. but deliberately he closed his eyes. and David??s father. And he saw the resemblance to his own mother in the trio. ??I . He suddenly became a melting. ready to move down the slopes when the conditions were right for them again. and David returned to his room. David went on. and that same confidence came through with the words. And then they came one night. and work in the lab went on at the same numbing pace. He turned away and pondered the future of the boys.

 and the rest of them thrived. A heap of family. destroying everything in its path. David felt helpless before him. She looked at him for a moment. ??Which ones??? he asked. and the creaking of his cot in the next office. Vernon fought to get to the front of the room.?? W-l said.?? He sighed. and it might look suspicious if we put them on to go down the cellar. They??ll come from all directions this time. ??So here and there we got support. In response to his questions his mother admitted that no one had heard from her. But you??ll be back. I??m tired. of course. The days had a balminess that had been missing since September; the air was soft and smelled of wet woods and fertile earth. They refused to believe the United States could not meet their demands. ??We keep them here at all times. and the stuff that??s been delivered already. copper. ??They think I??m clever like a puppy dog.