"It's just like having a baby," Alice said. "You know something?" Dr. MacNare asked. "I've had to resist passing out cigars. I hate to say it, but I'm prouder of Adam than I was of Paul when he was born." "So am I, Joe," Alice said quietly. "But I'm getting a little of that scared feeling back again." "In what way?" "He watches me. Oh, I know it's natural for him to, but I do wish you had made the eyes so that his own didn't show as little dark dots in the center of the iris." "It couldn't be helped," Dr. MacNare said. "He has to be able to see, and I had to set up the system of mirrors so that the two axes of vision would be three inches apart as they are in the average human pair of eyes." "Oh, I know," said Alice. "Probably it's just something I've seized on. But when he watches me, I find myself holding my breath in fear that he can read in my expression the secret we have to keep from him, that he is a rat." "Forget it, Alice. That's outside his experience and beyond his comprehension." "I know," Alice sighed. "When he begins to show some of the signs of intelligence a baby has, I'll be able to think of him as a human being." "Sure, darling," Dr. MacNare said. "Do you think he ever will?" "That," Dr. MacNare said, "is the big question. I think he will. I think so now even more than I did at the start. Aside from eating and sleeping, he has no avenue of expression except his robot body, and _no source of reward except that of making sense--human sense_." The days passed, and became weeks, then months. During the daytime when her husband was at the university and her son was at school, Alice would spend most of her hours with Adam, forcing herself to smile at him and talk to him as she had to Paul when he was a baby. But when she watched his motions through the transparent back of his head, his leg motions remained those of attempted walking and attempted running. Then, one day when Adam was four months old, things changed--as abruptly as the turning on of a light. The unrewarding walking and running movements of Adam's little legs ceased. It was evening, and both Dr. MacNare and his wife were there. For a few seconds there was no sound or movement from the robot body. Then, quite deliberately, Adam said, "Ah." "Ah," Dr. MacNare echoed. "Mm, Mm, ah. Ma-ma." "Mm," Adam said. The silence in the study became absolute. The seconds stretched into eternities. Then-- "Mm, ah," Adam said. "Mm, ah." Alice began crying with happiness. "Mm, ah," Adam said. "Mm, ah. Ma-ma. Mamamamama." Then, as though the effort had been too much for Adam, he went to sleep. * * * * * Having achieved the impossible, Adam seemed to lose interest in it. For two days he uttered nothing more than an occasional involuntary syllable.