The Head Member peered at me in mild surprise; his fourteen associates darted inquiring looks at one another. “Why, yes, that is a proper question,” he resumed, blandly. “I had forgotten: you are a foreigner, and are unacquainted with our ways. You will understand, of course that foreigners were so totally unknown before your coming that the necessity for explanation had not occurred to me. However, the whole matter can be made clear in a few words. You are summoned for what is known as the High Initiation--in other words, this should be the happiest day of your life, since you are now regarded as having reached maturity and so may set forth upon your career of service to the State.” * * * * * Having been a voter in the United States for the past eleven years, I was not flattered to be told that I had reached maturity. None the less, I held my tongue, and listened patiently as the Head Member continued. “The government tutor who has been instructing you,” he pursued, “has reported that you have at least an elementary knowledge of our language and customs, and suggests that you be assigned at once to service. Acting upon his recommendation, we intend to promote you to duties that accord as nearly as possible with your desires and capabilities. But first we must say a word as to the methods in vogue in our land. Ever since the great social revolution which occurred in the second century after the submergence and which for a time threatened to engulf us in chaos, we have employed what is known as the Beehive System of labor--which means that every citizen is required to perform a certain minimum amount of work for the State in order to accomplish those tasks indispensable for our continued existence. Fortunately, the utilization of intra-atomic energy and the elimination of waste and of duplication of effort have reduced the essential work to one-tenth of that thought necessary before the Submergence; and the average citizen now labors not more than an hour and a half or two hours a day. There have, indeed, been occasional men and women so enamored of their employment as to insist on working four or five hours, but such excessive application is not encouraged, for it is believed to overcast the mind and blunt the esthetic sensibilities.” “Then for heaven’s sake,” I burst forth, thinking this country to be wholly without “push” and energy, “What do people here do with their time? If they don’t work, they must be simply bored to death!” The Head Member regarded me with a tolerant smile, as one might regard a lunatic who makes some harmless remark.