nine years ago. Judging by his own experience, it would
take Dr. Hoyt a full six months to get used to having a room all to
himself. There would be plenty of time to start showing him the ropes
tomorrow, and in the meantime there were the backed-up appointments to
be taken care of.

Dr. Kalmar went to his office and had his nurse, Miss Dupont, send in
the first patient.

It was a girl of 17, Avis Emery, who had been brought by her parents.
She sat sullenly, dark-haired, too daintily pretty and delicately
shapely for a frontier world like this, while Mr. Emery put the file
from Social Control on the doctor's desk.

"We're farmers--" the man began.

Dr. Kalmar interrupted, "The information is in the summary. Avis is to
be assigned her mate next year, but she wants to go to Earth and become
a nightclub singer. She refuses to marry a boy who'd be able to help
around the farm, and she won't work on it herself."

[Illustration]

He looked up severely at the parents. "This is your own fault, you know.
You pampered her. Farm labor is too valuable for pampering. We can't
afford it."

"You can blame me, Doc," said Mr. Emery miserably. "She's such a pretty
little thing--I couldn't work her the way Sue and I work ourselves."

"And then she started getting notions," Mrs. Emery added, giving her
husband a vicious glare. Dr. Kalmar could imagine the nights of argument
and accusation before they were at last forced to go for medical help to
solve their self-created problem. "Singing in nightclubs back on Earth,
marrying a billionaire, living in a sky yacht!"

"Avis," said Dr. Kalmar gently. "You know it's not that easy, don't you?
There are lots and lots of pretty girls on Earth and very few
billionaires. If you did get a job singing in a nightclub, you know
you'd have to do some unpleasant things because there's so much
competition for customers. Things like stripteasing, drinking at the
tables and going out with whoever the owner tells you to."

The girl's face grew animated for the first time. "Well, sure! Why do
you think I want to go?"

"And you don't love Deneb and your farm?"

"I hate both of them!"

"But you realize that we must have food. Doesn't it make you feel
important to grow more food so we can increase our population?"

"No! Why should I care? I want to go to Earth!"

Dr. Kalmar shook his head regretfully. He pushed a button on his desk.
It was connected to a gravity generator directly under the girl'