ou
to petition our civil authorities to remove this brutal and inhumane
restriction in order that we may be able to behave as the civilized men
and women we think we have become. Although faced with disaster, we are
not yet without a voice in our own actions, and those who have made this
unholy ruling can be persuaded to relent if the voices of the people are
loud enough!"

He sat down amid a buzz of whispered comment. Then all eyes turned
suddenly at the sound of a new voice in the hall. Mayor Hilliard was on
his feet and striding purposefully toward the pulpit.

"Reverend, you've had your say, and now I think I've got a right to have
mine. I know this is your bailiwick and you can ask me to leave if you
want to. However, these are my people six days a week to your one. Will
you let me say my piece?"

Dr. Aylesworth rose again, a smile of welcome on his face. "I think we
share the people, or, rather, they share us on all 7 days of the week,"
he said. "I will be happy to have you use this pulpit to deliver any
message you may care to."

"Thanks," said Mayor Hilliard as he mounted the platform and stood
behind the pulpit. "Dr. Aylesworth and I," he began, "have been good
friends for a long time. We usually see eye to eye on most things, but
in this we are dead opposite.

"What he says is true enough. If enough of you want to protest what I've
done you can have a change, but that change will have to include a new
mayor and a new set of councilmen. I was elected, and the Council was
elected to make rules and regulations for the welfare of this community
as long as we were in office.

"We've made this rule about allowing no more refugees in Mayfield and
it's going to stand as long as we're in office. By next summer, if the
harvest is even a few days late, your children are going to be standing
around crying for food you can't give them, and you are going to have to
cut your supplies to one-fifth their normal size. That's the way it adds
up after we count all the people in the valley, and all the cases and
sacks of food in the warehouses.

"It's just plain arithmetic. If we keep adding more people we're all
going to get closer and closer to starvation, and finally wake up one
morning and find we've gone over the edge of it.

"Now, if that's what you want, just go ahead and get some city officers
who will arrange it for you. If anybody in this town, including you, Dr.
Aylesworth, can think of a more workable answer