ternational 4-8818
are different. They are a tall, strong youth and their eyes are like
fireflies, for there is laughter in their eyes. We cannot look upon
International 4-8818 and not smile in answer. For this they were not
liked in the Home of the Students, as it is not proper to smile without
reason. And also they were not liked because they took pieces of coal
and they drew pictures upon the walls, and they were pictures which made
men laugh. But it is only our brothers in the Home of the Artists who
are permitted to draw pictures, so International 4-8818 were sent to the
Home of the Street Sweepers, like ourselves.

International 4-8818 and we are friends. This is an evil thing to say,
for it is a great transgression, the great Transgression of Preference,
to love any among men better than the others, since we must love all men
and all men are our friends. So International 4-8818 and we have never
spoken of it. But we know. We know, when we look into each other's eyes.
And when we look thus without words, we both know other things also,
strange things for which there are no words, and these things frighten
us.

So on that day of the spring before last, Union 5-3992 were stricken
with convulsions on the edge of the City, near the City Theatre. We
left them to lie in the shade of the Theatre tent and we went with
International 4-8818 to finish our work. We came together to the great
ravine behind the Theatre. It is empty save for trees and weeds.
Beyond the ravine there is a plain, and beyond the plain there lies the
Uncharted Forest, about which men must not think.

We were gathering the papers and the rags which the wind had blown from
the Theatre, when we saw an iron bar among the weeds. It was old and
rusted by many rains. We pulled with all our strength, but we could not
move it. So we called International 4-8818, and together we scraped the
earth around the bar. Of a sudden the earth fell in before us, and we
saw an old iron grill over a black hole.

International 4-8818 stepped back. But we pulled at the grill and it
gave way. And then we saw iron rings as steps leading down a shaft into
a darkness without bottom.

"We shall go down," we said to International 4-8818.

"It is forbidden," they answered.

We said: "The Council does not know of this hole, so it cannot be
forbidden."

And they answered: "Since the Council does not know of this hole,
there can be no law permitting to enter it. And everythi