rests, the lakes, the
rivers, and the great sections untouched by man's hands. Now he saw the
areas between homes, the neat fields, the signs of human toil--the toil of
hands, not machines.

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'm afraid not. This is how Earth must
once have been. But no longer."

The other nodded. "Our total population is but a few million," he said.
Then, "I would like to see the mother planet, but I suppose I never
shall."

Ronny said diplomatically, "I have seen little of Kropotkin thus far but I
am not so sure but that I might not be happy to stay here, rather than
ever return to Earth."

The old man knocked the ashes from his pipe by striking it against the
heel of a work-gnarled hand. He looked about him thoughtfully and said,
"Yes, perhaps you're right. I am an old man and life has been good. I
suppose I should be glad that I'll unlikely live to see Kropotkin change."

"Change? You plan changes?"

-------------------------------------

The old man looked at him and there seemed to be a very faint bitterness,
politely suppressed. "I wouldn't say _we_ planned them, comrade. Certainly
not we of the older generation. But the trend toward change is already to
be seen by anyone who wishes to look, and our institutions won't long be
able to stand. But, of course, if you're from United Planets you would
know more of this than I."

"I'm sorry. I don't know what you're talking about."

"You are new indeed on Kropotkin," the old man said. "Just a moment." He
went into his house and emerged with a small power pack. He indicated it
to Ronny Bronston. "This is our destruction," he said.

The Section G agent shook his head, bewildered.

The old-timer sat down again. "My son," he said, "runs the farm now. Six
months ago, he traded one of our colts for a small pump, powered by one of
these. It was little use on my part to argue against the step. The pump
eliminates considerable work at the well and in irrigation."

Ronny still didn't understand.

"The power pack is dead now," the old man said, "and my son needs a new
one."

"They're extremely cheap," Ronny said. "An industrialized planet turns
them out in multi-million amounts at practically no cost."

"We have little with which to trade. A few handicrafts, at most."

Ronny said, "But, good heavens, man, build yourselves a plant to
manufacture power packs. With a population this small, a factory employing
no more than half a d