s?"

"I believe it was a Mr. Canfield."

Mr. Cruthers' face lit up. "Well, why didn't you say so in the first
place! I'd have placed you right away."

"That's perfectly all right, Mr. Cruthers."

"Listen, I don't know what you guys do but those costumes should
certainly bring the house down. There's going to be four million people
watching this parade. I bet that's the biggest audience you've ever
seen."

"It certainly is." With that the ant strode away.

"Good luck!" Mr. Cruthers shouted after him.

* * * * *

"Daddy! Daddy, look! Look at the big rocket!" The little boy jumped up
and down gleefully. "It must be a whole mile long, Daddy! What kind is
it?"

"That's the Vanguard, son."

An autumn breeze from the East River chilled their vantage point at
Sixty-First Street and Fifth Avenue.

"The Vanguard?" The name meant nothing to the boy. "Gee, I'll bet it can
fly all the way to the stars!"

"It's the rocket that carried the first artificial satellite into
space."

The parade, now three hours old, continued past the reviewing stand.

"I wanna get a better look at the Vanguard!" the boy shouted.

The father lifted the boy onto his shoulders. The little fellow laughed
and whooped it up, firing several shots from his Captain Video Ray gun
at the passing missile.

The rocket moved on and the noise of the crowd diminished slightly.

A one-hundred piece brass band was passing in front of them. They were
playing "The Stars and Stripes Forever." They were followed by the Sak's
Fifth Avenue display; nine small floats, each depicting life on another
planet. The National Academy of Sciences had a success on its hands.

"Wow! Daddy, I wanna ride on it! I wanna ride on that float and visit
all those planets! Can I, Daddy!" The boy became all limbs trying to
squirm down from his father's shoulders.

"You stay right where you are, young man," the father struggled to hold
his balance.

"But I wanna go to the stars. I can watch the rest of the parade from
Venus or Mercury! Please, Daddy!"

The father grinned. "Not just yet, son, but it won't be long before man
will go to the stars."

"Who lives up there, Daddy?"

"Oh, there isn't any life up there yet."

"If no one's living up there why does anyone want to go there?"

"Well, maybe there'll be too many people on earth someday and then we'll
have to find other planets with more room."

Another monstrous brass band was going