The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Filbert Is a Nut, by Rick Raphael

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Title: A Filbert Is a Nut

Author: Rick Raphael

Release Date: November 22, 2007 [EBook #23588]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration]

Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction November 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

A FILBERT IS A NUT

BY RICK RAPHAEL

_That the gentleman in question was a nut was beyond question. He was an
institutionalized psychotic. He was nutty enough to think he could make
an atom bomb out of modeling clay!_

Illustrated by Freas

Miss Abercrombie, the manual therapist patted the old man on the
shoulder. "You're doing just fine, Mr. Lieberman. Show it to me when you
have finished."

The oldster in the stained convalescent suit gave her a quick, shy smile
and went back to his aimless smearing in the finger paints.

Miss Abercrombie smoothed her smock down over trim hips and surveyed the
other patients working at the long tables in the hospital's arts and
crafts shop. Two muscular and bored attendants in spotless whites,
lounged beside the locked door and chatted idly about the Dodgers'
prospects for the pennant.

Through the barred windows of the workshop, rolling green hills were
seen, their tree-studded flanks making a pleasant setting for the mental
institution. The crafts building was a good mile away from the main
buildings of the hospital and the hills blocked the view of the austere
complex of buildings that housed the main wards.

The therapist strolled down the line of tables, pausing to give a word
of advice here, and a suggestion there.

She stopped behind a frowning, intense patient, rapidly shaping blobs of
clay into odd-sized strips and forms. As he finished each piece, he
carefully placed it into a hollow shell hemisphere of clay.

"And what are we making today, Mr. Funston?" Miss Abercrombie asked.

The