He noticed that the robot was getting an answer from Henry's station,
and was pleased. He could talk as long as he liked, knowing Henry
would not resent his cutting off any time he became bored with the
conversation.

* * * * *

The robot focused the image smoothly. Henry gave the impression of
being a small man. He was gray and wrinkled compared with Robert, but
his black eyes were alertly sharp. He smiled his greeting and
immediately launched into a story of one of his youthful trips through
the mountains, from the point at which it had been interrupted the
last time they had talked.

Robert listened impatiently.

"Maybe I have some interesting news," he remarked as the other
finished. "I picked up a new station the other night."

"That reminds me of a time when I was a boy and--"

Robert fidgeted while Henry described watching his father build a
spare television set as a hobby, with only a minimum of robot help. He
pounced upon the first pause.

"A new station!" he repeated. "Came in very well, too. I can't imagine
why I never picked it up before."

"Distant, perhaps?" asked Henry resignedly.

"No, not very far from me, as a matter of fact."

"You can't always tell, especially with the ocean so close. Now that
there are so few people, you'd think there'd be land enough for all of
them; but a good many spend all their lives aboard ship-robots."

"Not this one," said Robert. "She even showed me an outside view of
her home."

Henry's eyebrows rose. "She? A woman?"

"Her name is Marcia-Joan."

"Well, well," said Henry. "Imagine that. Women, as I recall, usually
do have funny names."

He gazed thoughtfully at his well-kept hands.

"Did I ever tell you about the last woman I knew?" he asked. "About
twenty years ago. We had a son, you know, but he grew up and wanted
his own home and robots."

"Natural enough," Robert commented, somewhat briefly since Henry _had_
told him the story before.

"I often wonder what became of him," mused the older man. "That's the
trouble with what's left of Earth culture--no families any more."

_Now he'll tell about the time he lived in a crowd of five, thought
Robert. He, his wife, their boy and the visiting couple with the fleet
of robot helicopters._

Deciding that Henry could reminisce just as well without a listener,
Robert quietly ordered the robot to turn itself off.

_Maybe I will make the trip_, he pondered, on the way down