ree of the sisters in the field appeared, coming toward the road,
so the Golden One walked away from us. They took the bag of seeds, and
they threw the seeds into the furrows of earth as they walked away. But
the seeds flew wildly, for the hand of the Golden One was trembling.

Yet as we walked back to the Home of the Street Sweepers, we felt that
we wanted to sing, without reason. So we were reprimanded tonight, in
the dining hall, for without knowing it we had begun to sing aloud some
tune we had never heard. But it is not proper to sing without reason,
save at the Social Meetings.

"We are singing because we are happy," we answered the one of the Home
Council who reprimanded us.

"Indeed you are happy," they answered. "How else can men be when they
live for their brothers?"

And now, sitting here in our tunnel, we wonder about these words. It is
forbidden, not to be happy. For, as it has been explained to us, men are
free and the earth belongs to them; and all things on earth belong to
all men; and the will of all men together is good for all; and so all
men must be happy.

Yet as we stand at night in the great hall, removing our garments
for sleep, we look upon our brothers and we wonder. The heads of our
brothers are bowed. The eyes of our brothers are dull, and never do they
look one another in the eyes. The shoulders of our brothers are hunched,
and their muscles are drawn, as if their bodies were shrinking and
wished to shrink out of sight. And a word steals into our mind, as we
look upon our brothers, and that word is fear.

There is fear hanging in the air of the sleeping halls, and in the air
of the streets. Fear walks through the City, fear without name, without
shape. All men feel it and none dare to speak.

We feel it also, when we are in the Home of the Street Sweepers. But
here, in our tunnel, we feel it no longer. The air is pure under the
ground. There is no odor of men. And these three hours give us strength
for our hours above the ground.

Our body is betraying us, for the Council of the Home looks with
suspicion upon us. It is not good to feel too much joy nor to be glad
that our body lives. For we matter not and it must not matter to us
whether we live or die, which is to be as our brothers will it. But we,
Equality 7-2521, are glad to be living. If this is a vice, then we wish
no virtue.

Yet our brothers are not like us. All is not well with our brothers.
There are Fraternity 2-5503, a