," he said silently, "take your silly ship and get the hell off my
planet." Aloud he said, "It's a good planet, a little worn-out but still
in pretty good shape. Pity you can't trade in an old world like an old
car, isn't it?"

"If it weren't so damned far from the center of things," the young man
replied, defensively assuming the burden of all civilization, "we
wouldn't abandon it. After all, we hate leaving the world on which we
originated. But it's a long haul to Alpha Centauri--you know that--and a
tremendously expensive one. Keeping up this place solely out of
sentiment would be sheer waste--the people would never stand for the tax
burden."

"A costly museum, yes," Johnson agreed.

How much longer were these dismal farewells going to continue? How much
longer would the young man still feel the need to justify himself? "If
only there were others fool enough--if only there were others with
you.... But, even if anybody else'd be willing to cut himself off
entirely from the rest of the civilized universe, the Earth won't
support enough of a population to keep it running. Not according to our
present living standards anyway.... Most of its resources are gone, you
know--hardly any coal or oil left, and that's not worth digging for when
there are better and cheaper fuels in the system."

He was virtually quoting from the _Colonial Officer's Manual_. Were
there any people left able to think for themselves, Johnson wondered.
Had there ever been? Had he thought for himself in making his decision,
or was he merely clinging to a childish dream that all men had had and
lost?

"With man gone, Earth will replenish herself," he said aloud. First the
vegetation would begin to grow thick. Already it had released itself
from the restraint of cultivation; soon it would be spreading out over
the continent, overrunning the cities with delicately persistent green
tendrils. Some the harsh winters would kill, but others would live on
and would multiply. Vines would twist themselves about the tall
buildings and tenderly, passionately squeeze them to death ...
eventually send them tumbling down. And then the trees would rear
themselves in their places.

The swamps that man had filled in would begin to reappear one by one, as
the land sank back to a pristine state. The sea would go on changing
her boundaries, with no dikes to stop her. Volcanoes would heave up the
land into different configurations. The heat would increase until it
gr