Maybe a
thousand years from now, when every one is so artistic that they want
to write books, it will be hard to get enough drudges. But now----
Look at any office, with the clerks toiling day after day, even the
unmarried ones. Look at all the young fathers of families, giving up
everything they want to do, to support children who'll do the same
thing right over again with _their_ children. Always handing on the
torch of life, but never getting any light from it. People don't run
away from slavery often enough. And so they don't ever get to do real
work, either!"

"But, sweetheart, what if we should have children some day? You
know---- Of course, we haven't been ready for them yet, but some day
they might come, anyhow, and how could we wander round----"

"Oh, probably they will come some day, and then we'll take our dose of
drudgery like the rest. There's nothing that our dear civilization
punishes as it does begetting children. For poisoning food by
adulterating it you may get fined fifty dollars, but if you have
children they call it a miracle--as it is--and then they get busy and
condemn you to a lifetime of being scared by the boss."

"Well, darling, please don't blame it on me."

"I didn't mean to get so oratorical, blessed. But it does make me mad
the way the state punishes one for being willing to work and have
children. Perhaps if enough of us run away from nice normal grinding,
we'll start people wondering just why they should go on toiling to
produce a lot of booze and clothes and things that nobody needs."

"Perhaps, my Hawk.... Don't you think, though, that we might be bored
in your Rocky Mountain cabin, if we were there for months and months?"

"Yes, I suppose so," Carl mused. "The rebellion against stuffy
marriage has to be a whole lot wider than some little detail like
changing from city to country. Probably for some people the happiest
thing 'd be to live in a hobohemian flat and have parties, and for
some to live in the suburbs and get the missus elected president of
the Village Improvement Society. For us, I believe, it's change and
_keep going_."

"Yes, I do think so. Hawk, my Hawk, I lay awake nearly all night last
night, realizing that we _are_ one, not because of a wedding ceremony,
but because we can understand each other's make-b'lieves and
seriousnesses. I knew that no matter what happened, we had to try
again.... I saw last night, by myself, that it was not a question of
finding out w