News: There is a great deal of debate in Washington about redistricting to meet the new population pattern. It doesn't seem too important, though, because a land of nearly self-sufficient communities, such as this is becoming, is much less dependent on central government. News: Experiment and innovation in dress, work habits, manners and morals, grows ever more common. The basic cause of this is that few men need now be afraid of what the neighbors or the boss thinks. If you don't like it where you are, you can easily go elsewhere and start over. None of this happened at once. It would take a century or more for the change to complete itself. But even in the second year, the trend was obvious. * * * * * Snow whirled against the house, blindingly, as if the world drew into itself and nothing lay beyond these walls. The muted skirl of wind came through, lonesome and shivering. But inside, there was warmth and a calm light. Arch sat with a whiskey and soda in his hand, looking across the floor at his wife. He felt tired, but there was a relaxation in him, a sense of labor finished. Not fully--there would be much to do yet. But power was there, machinery was there, food stored away; they would last the winter, and there would be another springtime. "It's settling down," Elizabeth told him, putting her news magazine aside. "For once, I agree with the editor of this rag. The crisis is over, and now it's a matter of readjustment. The world is never going to be the same, but it'll be a better one ... cleaner." "Perhaps," said Arch. He didn't feel so sharply the horror of guilt, not any more. "Look around you," she invited. "Look what you've done. I'm afraid, dear, that you're going to be rediscovered. It won't take long before people suddenly wake up to the fact that your invention did all this for them. Brace yourself--you're going to be famous for life." Arch winced. "But I didn't!" he protested. "They did it for themselves. One man never could--" "I quite agree," she smiled. "One man can neither make nor destroy a society. So why not give that conscience of yours a rest?" "There's been suffering," he said, enough alcohol in him to break down his reserve. "People have died." "A lot of them needed killing," she said earnestly. "Look what we've got. An end to dictatorship. Removal of the atomic-war threat. Cheap energy for a million new projects. A four-hour work day in prospect. Government, which was getting too big and officious in all countries, cut down to size again. The plain man standing on his own feet and working for himself. Natural resources conserved. If you must take either credit or blame, Si, then balance your books!" "I know," he said. "I know all that, up in my conscious mind. But down underneath--I'll always see those houses burning, and those men shooting at each other."