the large assembly room of the town’s Education Hall. All over Earth, in millions of local halls, throughout that month, similar groups of children would he meeting. George felt depressed by the grayness of the room and by the other children, strained and stiff in unaccustomed finery. Automatically, George did as all the rest of the children did. He found the small clique that represented the children on his floor of the apartment house and joined them. Trevelyan, who lived immediately next door, still wore his hair childishly long and was years removed from the sideburns and thin, reddish mustache that he was to grow as soon as he was physiologically capable of it. Trevelyan (to whom George was then known as Jawjee) said, “Bet you’re scared.” “Ire-immigrants because of population problems, but a small trickle did return. For one thing the cost of living was lower on Earth, and what was a trifling annuity on Diporia, say, was a comfortable income on Earth. Besides, there were always men who found more satisfaction in displaying their success before the friends and scenes of their childhood than before all the rest of the Universe besides. Trevelyan, Senior further explained that if he stayed on Diporia, so would his children, and Diporia was a one-spaceship world. Back on Earth, his kids could end up anywhere, even Novia. Stubby Trevelyan had picked up that item early. Even before Reading Day, his conversation was based on the carelessly assumed fact that his ultimate home would be in Novia. George,