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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddc7617 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51342 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51342) diff --git a/old/51342-h.zip b/old/51342-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 34715f6..0000000 --- a/old/51342-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51342-h/51342-h.htm b/old/51342-h/51342-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index e18dec6..0000000 --- a/old/51342-h/51342-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,878 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of Citizen Jell, by Michael Shaara. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Citizen Jell, by Michael Shaara - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Citizen Jell - -Author: Michael Shaara - -Release Date: March 2, 2016 [EBook #51342] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIZEN JELL *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="372" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>Citizen Jell</h1> - -<p>By MICHAEL SHAARA</p> - -<p>Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Magazine August 1959.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3"><i>The problem with working wonders<br /> -is they must be worked—even when<br /> -they're against all common sense!</i></p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>None of his neighbors knew Mr. Jell's great problem. None of his -neighbors, in truth, knew Mr. Jell at all. He was only an odd old man -who lived alone in a little house on the riverbank. He had the usual -little mail box, marked "E. Jell," set on a post in front of his house, -but he never got any mail, and it was not long before people began -wondering where he got the money he lived on.</p> - -<p>Not that he lived well, certainly; all he ever seemed to do was just -fish, or just sit on the riverbank watching the sky, telling tall -stories to small children. And none of that took any money to do.</p> - -<p>But still, he <i>was</i> a little odd; people sensed that. The stories he -told all his young friends, for instance—wild, weird tales about -spacemen and other planets—people hardly expected tales like that -from such an old man. Tales about cowboys and Indians they might have -understood, but spaceships?</p> - -<p>So he was definitely an odd old man, but just how odd, of course, no -one ever really knew. The stories he told the children, stories about -space travel, about weird creatures far off in the Galaxy—those -stories were all true.</p> - -<p>Mr. Jell was, in fact, a retired spaceman.</p> - -<p>Now that was part of Mr. Jell's problem, but it was not all of it. -He had very good reasons for not telling anybody the truth about -himself—no one except the children—and he had even more excellent -reasons for not letting his own people know where he was.</p> - -<p>The race from which Mr. Jell had sprung did not allow this sort of -thing—retirement to Earth. They were a fine, tolerant, extremely -advanced people, and they had learned long ago to leave undeveloped -races, like the one on Earth, alone. Bitter experience had taught them -that more harm than good came out of giving scientific advances to -backward races, and often just the knowledge of their existence caused -trouble among primitive peoples.</p> - -<p>No, Mr. Jell's race had for a long while quietly avoided contact with -planets like Earth, and if they had known Mr. Jell had violated the -law, they would have come swiftly and taken him away—a thing Mr. Jell -would have died rather than let happen.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mr. Jell was unhuman, yes, but other than that he was a very gentle, -usual old man. He had been born and raised on a planet so overpopulated -that it was one vast city from pole to pole. It was the kind of -place where a man could walk under the open sky only on rooftops, -where vacant lots were a mark of incredible wealth. Mr. Jell had -passed most of his long life under unbelievably cramped and crowded -conditions—either in small spaceships or in the tiny rooms of unending -apartment buildings.</p> - -<p>When Mr. Jell had happened across Earth on a long voyage some years -ago, he had recognized it instantly as the place of his dreams. He had -had to plan very carefully, but when the time came for his retirement, -he was able to slip away. The language of Earth was already on record; -he had no trouble learning it, no trouble buying a small cottage on the -river in a lovely warm place called Florida. He settled down quietly, a -retired old man of one hundred and eighty-five, looking forward to the -best days of his life.</p> - -<p>And Earth turned out to be more wonderful than his dreams. He -discovered almost immediately that he had a great natural aptitude for -fishing, and though the hunting instinct had been nearly bred out of -him and he could no longer summon up the will to kill, still he could -walk in the open woods and marvel at the room, the incredible open, -wide, and unoccupied room, live animals in a real forest, and the sky -above, clouds seen through the trees—<i>real trees</i>, which Mr. Jell had -seldom seen before. And, for a long while, Mr. Jell was certainly the -happiest man on Earth.</p> - -<p>He would arise, very early, to watch the sun rise. After that, he might -fish, depending on the weather, or sit home just listening to the -lovely rain on the roof, watching the mighty clouds, the lightning. -Later in the afternoon, he might go for a walk along the riverbank, -waiting for school to be out so he could pass some time with the -children.</p> - -<p>Whatever else he did, he would certainly go looking for the children.</p> - -<p>A lifetime of too much company had pushed the need for companionship -pretty well out of him, but then he had always loved children, and they -made his life on the river complete. They <i>believed</i> him; he could -tell them his memories in safety, and there was something very special -in that, to have secrets with friends. One or two of them, the most -trustworthy, he even allowed to see the Box.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="348" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Now the Box <i>was</i> something extraordinary, even to so advanced a man as -Mr. Jell. It was a device which analyzed matter, made a record of it, -and then duplicated it. The Box could duplicate anything.</p> - -<p>What Mr. Jell would do, for example, would be to put a loaf of bread -into the Box, and press a button, and presto, there would be <i>two</i> -loaves of bread, each perfectly alike, atom for atom. It would be -absolutely impossible for anyone to tell them apart. This was the way -Mr. Jell made most of his food, and all of his money. Once he had -gotten one original dollar bill, the Box went on duplicating it—and -bread, meat, potatoes, anything else Mr. Jell desired was instantly -available at the touch of a button.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Once the Box duplicated a thing, anything, it was no longer necessary -to have the original. The Box filed a record in its electronic memory, -describing, say, bread, and Mr. Jell had only to dial a number any time -he wanted bread. And the Box needed no fuel except dirt, leaves, old -pieces of wood, just anything made out of atoms—most of which it would -arrange into bread or meat or whatever Mr. Jell wanted, and the rest of -which it would use as a source of power.</p> - -<p>So the Box made Mr. Jell entirely independent, but it did even more -than that; it had one other remarkable feature. It could be used also -as a transmitter and receiver. Of matter. It was, in effect, the Sears -Roebuck catalogue of Mr. Jell's people, with its own built-in delivery -service.</p> - -<p>If there was an item Mr. Jell needed, any item at all, and that item -was available on any of the planets ruled by Mr. Jell's people, Mr. -Jell could dial for it, and it would appear in the Box in a matter of -seconds.</p> - -<p>The makers of the Box prided themselves on the speed of their delivery, -the ease with which they could transmit matter instantaneously across -light-years of space. Mr. Jell admired this property, too, but he could -make no use of it. For once he had dialed, he would also be billed. And -of course his Box would be traced to Earth. That Mr. Jell could not -allow.</p> - -<p>No, he would make do with whatever was available on Earth. He had to -get along without the catalogue.</p> - -<p>And he really never needed the catalogue, not at least for the first -year, which was perhaps the finest year of his life. He lived in -perfect freedom, ever-continuing joy, on the riverbank, and made some -special friends: one Charlie, aged five, one Linda, aged four, one Sam, -aged six. He spent a great deal of his time with these friends, and -their parents approved of him happily as a free baby-sitter, and he was -well into his second year on Earth when the first temptation arose.</p> - -<p>Bugs.</p> - -<p>Try as he might, Mr. Jell could not learn to get along with bugs. His -air-conditioned, antiseptic, neat and odorless existence back home had -been an irritation, yes, but he had never in his life learned to live -with bugs of any kind, and he was too old to start now. But he had -picked an unfortunate spot. The state of Florida was a heaven for Mr. -Jell, but it was also a heaven for bugs.</p> - -<p>There is probably nowhere on Earth with a greater variety of insects, -large and small, winged and stinging, than Florida, and the natural -portion of all kinds found their ways into Mr. Jell's peaceful -existence. He was unable even to clear out his own house—never mind -the endless swarms of mosquitoes that haunted the riverbank—and the -bugs gave him some very nasty moments. And the temptation was that he -alone, of all people on Earth, could have exterminated the bugs at will.</p> - -<p>One of the best-selling export gadgets on Mr. Jell's home world was -a small, flying, burrowing, electronic device which had been built -specifically to destroy bugs on planets they traded with. Mr. Jell -was something of a technician, and he might not even have had to order -a Destroyer through the catalogue, but there were other problems.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Mr. Jell's people had not been merely capricious when they formed their -policy of non-intervention. Mr. Jell's bug-destroyer would kill all the -bugs, but it would undoubtedly ruin the biological balance upon which -the country's animal life rested. The birds which fed on the bugs would -die, and the animals which fed on the birds, and so on, down a course -which could only be disastrous. And even one of the little Destroyers -would put an extraordinary dent in the bug population of the area; once -sent out into the woods, it could not be recalled or turned off, and it -would run for years.</p> - -<p>No, Mr. Jell made the valiant decision to endure little itchy bumps on -his arms for the rest of his days.</p> - -<p>Yet that was only the first temptation. Soon there were others, much -bigger and more serious. Mr. Jell had never considered this problem -at all, but he began to realize at last that his people had been more -right than he knew. He was in the uncomfortable position of a man who -can do almost anything, and does not dare do it. A miracle man who must -hide his miracles.</p> - -<p>The second temptation was rain. In the middle of Mr. Jell's second -year, a drought began, a drought which covered all of Florida. He sat -by helplessly, day after day, while the water level fell in his own -beloved river, and fish died gasping breaths, trapped in little pockets -upstream. Several months of that produced Mr. Jell's second great -temptation. Lakes and wells were dry all over the country, farms and -orange groves were dry, there were great fires in the woods, birds and -animals died by the thousands.</p> - -<p>All that while, of course, Mr. Jell could easily have made it rain. -Another simple matter, although this time he would have had to send -away for the materials, through the Box. But he couldn't do that. If he -did, <i>they</i> would come for him, and he consoled himself by arguing that -he had no right to make it rain. That was not strictly controllable, -either. It might rain and rain for several days, once started, filling -up the lakes, yes, and robbing water from somewhere else, and then what -would happen when the normal rainy season came?</p> - -<p>Mr. Jell shuddered to think that he might be the cause, for all his -good intentions, of vast floods, and he resisted the second temptation. -But that was relatively easy. The third temptation turned out to be -infinitely harder.</p> - -<p>Little Charlie, aged five, owned a dog, a grave, sober, studious dog -named Oscar. On a morning near the end of Mr. Jell's second year, Oscar -was run over by a truck. And Charlie gathered the dog up, all crumpled -and bleeding and already dead, and carried him tearfully but faithfully -off to Mr. Jell, who could fix <i>anything</i>.</p> - -<p>And Mr. Jell could certainly have fixed Oscar. Hoping to guard against -just such an accident, he had already made a "recording" of Oscar -several months before. The Box had scanned Oscar and discovered exactly -how he was made—for the Box, as has been said, could duplicate -anything—and Mr. Jell had only to dial Oscar number to produce a new -Oscar. A live Oscar, grave and sober, atom for atom identical with the -Oscar that was dead.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>But young Charlie's parents, who had been unable to comfort the boy, -came to Mr. Jell's house with him. And Mr. Jell had to stand there, -red-faced and very sad, and deny to Charlie that there was anything -he could do, and watch the look in Charlie's eyes turn into black -betrayal. And when the boy ran off crying, Mr. Jell had the worst -temptation of all.</p> - -<p>He thought so at the time, but he could not know that the dog had not -been the worst. The worst was yet to come.</p> - -<p>He resisted a great many temptations after that, but now for the first -time doubt had begun to seep in to his otherwise magnificent existence. -He swore to himself that he could never give this life up. Here on the -riverbank, dry and buggy as it well was, was still the most wonderful -life he had ever known, infinitely preferable to the drab crowds he -would face at home. He was an old man, grimly aware of the passage of -time. He would consider himself the luckiest of men to be allowed to -die and be buried here.</p> - -<p>But the temptations went on.</p> - -<p>First there was the Red Tide, a fish-killing disease which often sweeps -Florida's coast, murdering fish by the hundreds of millions. He could -have cured that, but he would have had to send off for the chemicals.</p> - -<p>Next there was an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly, a bug -which threatened most of Florida's citrus crop and very nearly ruined -little Linda's father, a farmer. There was a Destroyer available which -could be set to kill just one type of bug, Mr. Jell knew, but he would -have had to order it, again, from the catalogue. So he had to let -Linda's father lose most of his life's savings.</p> - -<p>Shortly after that, he found himself tempted by a young, gloomy couple, -a Mr. and Mrs. Ridge, whom he visited one day looking for their young -son, and found himself in the midst of a morbid quarrel. Mr. Ridge's -incredible point of view was that this was too terrible a world to -bring children into. Mr. Jell found himself on the verge of saying that -he himself had personally visited forty-seven other worlds, and not one -could hold a candle to this one.</p> - -<p>He resisted that, at last, but it was surprising how close he had come -to talking, even over such a relatively small thing as that, and he had -concluded that he was beginning to wear under the strain, when there -came the day of the last temptation.</p> - -<p>Linda, the four-year-old, came down with a sickness. Mr. Jell learned -with a shock that everyone on Earth believed her incurable.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He had no choice then. He knew that from the moment he heard of the -illness, and he wondered why he had never until that moment anticipated -this. There was, of course, nothing else he could do, much as he loved -this Earth, and much as he knew little Linda would certainly have died -in the natural order of things. All of that made no difference; it had -finally come home to him that if a man is able to help his neighbors -and does not, then he ends up something less than a man.</p> - -<p>He went out on the riverbank and thought about it all that afternoon, -but he was only delaying the decision. He knew he could not go on -living here or anywhere with the knowledge of the one small grave for -which he would be forever responsible. He knew Linda would not begrudge -him those few moments, that one afternoon more. He waited, watching the -sun go down, and then he went back into the house and looked through -the catalogue. He found the number of the serum and dialed for it.</p> - -<p>The serum appeared within less than a minute. He took it out of the -Box and stared at it, the thought of the life it would bring to Linda -driving all despair out of his mind. It was a universal serum; it would -protect her from all disease for the rest of her life. <i>They</i> would -be coming for him soon, but he knew it would take them a while to get -here, perhaps even a full day. He did not bother to run. He was much to -old to run and hide.</p> - -<p>He sat for a while thinking of how to get the serum to her, but that -was no problem. Her parents would give her anything she asked now, and -he made up some candy, injecting the serum microscopically into the -chunks of chocolate, and then suddenly had a wondrous idea. He put the -chunks into the Box and went on duplicating candy until he had several -boxes.</p> - -<p>When he was finished with that, he went visiting all the houses of all -the good people he knew, leaving candy for them and their children. He -knew he should not do that, but, he thought, it couldn't really do much -harm, could it? Just those few lives altered, out of an entire world?</p> - -<p>But the idea had started wheels turning in his mind, and toward the -end of that night, he began to chuckle with delight. Might as well be -flashed for a rogg as a zilb.</p> - -<p>He ordered out one special little bug Destroyer, from the Box, set -to kill just one bug, the medfly, and sent it happily down the road -toward Linda's farm. After that, he duplicated Oscar and sent the dog -yelping homeward with a note on his collar. When he was done with that, -he ordered a batch of chemicals, several tons of it, and ordered a -conveyor to carry it down and dump it into the river, where it would be -washed out to sea and so end the Red Tide.</p> - -<p>By the time that was over, he was very tired; he had been up the whole -night. He did not know what to do about young Mr. Ridge, the one who -did not want children. He decided that if the man was that foolish, -nothing could help him. But there was one other thing he could do. -Praying silently that once he started this thing, it would not get out -of hand, he made it rain.</p> - -<p>In this way, he deprived himself of the last sunrise. There was nothing -but gray sky, misty, blowing, when he went out onto the riverbank that -morning. But he did not really mind. The fresh air and the rain on -his face were all the good-by he could have asked for. He was sitting -on wet grass wondering the last thought—why in God's name don't more -people here realize what a beautiful world this is?—when he heard a -voice behind him.</p> - -<p>The voice was deep and very firm.</p> - -<p>"Citizen Jell," it said.</p> - -<p>The old man sighed.</p> - -<p>"Coming," he said, "coming."</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Citizen Jell, by Michael Shaara - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIZEN JELL *** - -***** This file should be named 51342-h.htm or 51342-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/3/4/51342/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Citizen Jell - -Author: Michael Shaara - -Release Date: March 2, 2016 [EBook #51342] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIZEN JELL *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Citizen Jell - - By MICHAEL SHAARA - - Illustrated by DICK FRANCIS - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Magazine August 1959. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - The problem with working wonders - is they must be worked--even when - they're against all common sense! - - -None of his neighbors knew Mr. Jell's great problem. None of his -neighbors, in truth, knew Mr. Jell at all. He was only an odd old man -who lived alone in a little house on the riverbank. He had the usual -little mail box, marked "E. Jell," set on a post in front of his house, -but he never got any mail, and it was not long before people began -wondering where he got the money he lived on. - -Not that he lived well, certainly; all he ever seemed to do was just -fish, or just sit on the riverbank watching the sky, telling tall -stories to small children. And none of that took any money to do. - -But still, he _was_ a little odd; people sensed that. The stories he -told all his young friends, for instance--wild, weird tales about -spacemen and other planets--people hardly expected tales like that -from such an old man. Tales about cowboys and Indians they might have -understood, but spaceships? - -So he was definitely an odd old man, but just how odd, of course, no -one ever really knew. The stories he told the children, stories about -space travel, about weird creatures far off in the Galaxy--those -stories were all true. - -Mr. Jell was, in fact, a retired spaceman. - -Now that was part of Mr. Jell's problem, but it was not all of it. -He had very good reasons for not telling anybody the truth about -himself--no one except the children--and he had even more excellent -reasons for not letting his own people know where he was. - -The race from which Mr. Jell had sprung did not allow this sort of -thing--retirement to Earth. They were a fine, tolerant, extremely -advanced people, and they had learned long ago to leave undeveloped -races, like the one on Earth, alone. Bitter experience had taught them -that more harm than good came out of giving scientific advances to -backward races, and often just the knowledge of their existence caused -trouble among primitive peoples. - -No, Mr. Jell's race had for a long while quietly avoided contact with -planets like Earth, and if they had known Mr. Jell had violated the -law, they would have come swiftly and taken him away--a thing Mr. Jell -would have died rather than let happen. - - * * * * * - -Mr. Jell was unhuman, yes, but other than that he was a very gentle, -usual old man. He had been born and raised on a planet so overpopulated -that it was one vast city from pole to pole. It was the kind of -place where a man could walk under the open sky only on rooftops, -where vacant lots were a mark of incredible wealth. Mr. Jell had -passed most of his long life under unbelievably cramped and crowded -conditions--either in small spaceships or in the tiny rooms of unending -apartment buildings. - -When Mr. Jell had happened across Earth on a long voyage some years -ago, he had recognized it instantly as the place of his dreams. He had -had to plan very carefully, but when the time came for his retirement, -he was able to slip away. The language of Earth was already on record; -he had no trouble learning it, no trouble buying a small cottage on the -river in a lovely warm place called Florida. He settled down quietly, a -retired old man of one hundred and eighty-five, looking forward to the -best days of his life. - -And Earth turned out to be more wonderful than his dreams. He -discovered almost immediately that he had a great natural aptitude for -fishing, and though the hunting instinct had been nearly bred out of -him and he could no longer summon up the will to kill, still he could -walk in the open woods and marvel at the room, the incredible open, -wide, and unoccupied room, live animals in a real forest, and the sky -above, clouds seen through the trees--_real trees_, which Mr. Jell had -seldom seen before. And, for a long while, Mr. Jell was certainly the -happiest man on Earth. - -He would arise, very early, to watch the sun rise. After that, he might -fish, depending on the weather, or sit home just listening to the -lovely rain on the roof, watching the mighty clouds, the lightning. -Later in the afternoon, he might go for a walk along the riverbank, -waiting for school to be out so he could pass some time with the -children. - -Whatever else he did, he would certainly go looking for the children. - -A lifetime of too much company had pushed the need for companionship -pretty well out of him, but then he had always loved children, and they -made his life on the river complete. They _believed_ him; he could -tell them his memories in safety, and there was something very special -in that, to have secrets with friends. One or two of them, the most -trustworthy, he even allowed to see the Box. - -Now the Box _was_ something extraordinary, even to so advanced a man as -Mr. Jell. It was a device which analyzed matter, made a record of it, -and then duplicated it. The Box could duplicate anything. - -What Mr. Jell would do, for example, would be to put a loaf of bread -into the Box, and press a button, and presto, there would be _two_ -loaves of bread, each perfectly alike, atom for atom. It would be -absolutely impossible for anyone to tell them apart. This was the way -Mr. Jell made most of his food, and all of his money. Once he had -gotten one original dollar bill, the Box went on duplicating it--and -bread, meat, potatoes, anything else Mr. Jell desired was instantly -available at the touch of a button. - - * * * * * - -Once the Box duplicated a thing, anything, it was no longer necessary -to have the original. The Box filed a record in its electronic memory, -describing, say, bread, and Mr. Jell had only to dial a number any time -he wanted bread. And the Box needed no fuel except dirt, leaves, old -pieces of wood, just anything made out of atoms--most of which it would -arrange into bread or meat or whatever Mr. Jell wanted, and the rest of -which it would use as a source of power. - -So the Box made Mr. Jell entirely independent, but it did even more -than that; it had one other remarkable feature. It could be used also -as a transmitter and receiver. Of matter. It was, in effect, the Sears -Roebuck catalogue of Mr. Jell's people, with its own built-in delivery -service. - -If there was an item Mr. Jell needed, any item at all, and that item -was available on any of the planets ruled by Mr. Jell's people, Mr. -Jell could dial for it, and it would appear in the Box in a matter of -seconds. - -The makers of the Box prided themselves on the speed of their delivery, -the ease with which they could transmit matter instantaneously across -light-years of space. Mr. Jell admired this property, too, but he could -make no use of it. For once he had dialed, he would also be billed. And -of course his Box would be traced to Earth. That Mr. Jell could not -allow. - -No, he would make do with whatever was available on Earth. He had to -get along without the catalogue. - -And he really never needed the catalogue, not at least for the first -year, which was perhaps the finest year of his life. He lived in -perfect freedom, ever-continuing joy, on the riverbank, and made some -special friends: one Charlie, aged five, one Linda, aged four, one Sam, -aged six. He spent a great deal of his time with these friends, and -their parents approved of him happily as a free baby-sitter, and he was -well into his second year on Earth when the first temptation arose. - -Bugs. - -Try as he might, Mr. Jell could not learn to get along with bugs. His -air-conditioned, antiseptic, neat and odorless existence back home had -been an irritation, yes, but he had never in his life learned to live -with bugs of any kind, and he was too old to start now. But he had -picked an unfortunate spot. The state of Florida was a heaven for Mr. -Jell, but it was also a heaven for bugs. - -There is probably nowhere on Earth with a greater variety of insects, -large and small, winged and stinging, than Florida, and the natural -portion of all kinds found their ways into Mr. Jell's peaceful -existence. He was unable even to clear out his own house--never mind -the endless swarms of mosquitoes that haunted the riverbank--and the -bugs gave him some very nasty moments. And the temptation was that he -alone, of all people on Earth, could have exterminated the bugs at will. - -One of the best-selling export gadgets on Mr. Jell's home world was -a small, flying, burrowing, electronic device which had been built -specifically to destroy bugs on planets they traded with. Mr. Jell -was something of a technician, and he might not even have had to order -a Destroyer through the catalogue, but there were other problems. - - * * * * * - -Mr. Jell's people had not been merely capricious when they formed their -policy of non-intervention. Mr. Jell's bug-destroyer would kill all the -bugs, but it would undoubtedly ruin the biological balance upon which -the country's animal life rested. The birds which fed on the bugs would -die, and the animals which fed on the birds, and so on, down a course -which could only be disastrous. And even one of the little Destroyers -would put an extraordinary dent in the bug population of the area; once -sent out into the woods, it could not be recalled or turned off, and it -would run for years. - -No, Mr. Jell made the valiant decision to endure little itchy bumps on -his arms for the rest of his days. - -Yet that was only the first temptation. Soon there were others, much -bigger and more serious. Mr. Jell had never considered this problem -at all, but he began to realize at last that his people had been more -right than he knew. He was in the uncomfortable position of a man who -can do almost anything, and does not dare do it. A miracle man who must -hide his miracles. - -The second temptation was rain. In the middle of Mr. Jell's second -year, a drought began, a drought which covered all of Florida. He sat -by helplessly, day after day, while the water level fell in his own -beloved river, and fish died gasping breaths, trapped in little pockets -upstream. Several months of that produced Mr. Jell's second great -temptation. Lakes and wells were dry all over the country, farms and -orange groves were dry, there were great fires in the woods, birds and -animals died by the thousands. - -All that while, of course, Mr. Jell could easily have made it rain. -Another simple matter, although this time he would have had to send -away for the materials, through the Box. But he couldn't do that. If he -did, _they_ would come for him, and he consoled himself by arguing that -he had no right to make it rain. That was not strictly controllable, -either. It might rain and rain for several days, once started, filling -up the lakes, yes, and robbing water from somewhere else, and then what -would happen when the normal rainy season came? - -Mr. Jell shuddered to think that he might be the cause, for all his -good intentions, of vast floods, and he resisted the second temptation. -But that was relatively easy. The third temptation turned out to be -infinitely harder. - -Little Charlie, aged five, owned a dog, a grave, sober, studious dog -named Oscar. On a morning near the end of Mr. Jell's second year, Oscar -was run over by a truck. And Charlie gathered the dog up, all crumpled -and bleeding and already dead, and carried him tearfully but faithfully -off to Mr. Jell, who could fix _anything_. - -And Mr. Jell could certainly have fixed Oscar. Hoping to guard against -just such an accident, he had already made a "recording" of Oscar -several months before. The Box had scanned Oscar and discovered exactly -how he was made--for the Box, as has been said, could duplicate -anything--and Mr. Jell had only to dial Oscar number to produce a new -Oscar. A live Oscar, grave and sober, atom for atom identical with the -Oscar that was dead. - - * * * * * - -But young Charlie's parents, who had been unable to comfort the boy, -came to Mr. Jell's house with him. And Mr. Jell had to stand there, -red-faced and very sad, and deny to Charlie that there was anything -he could do, and watch the look in Charlie's eyes turn into black -betrayal. And when the boy ran off crying, Mr. Jell had the worst -temptation of all. - -He thought so at the time, but he could not know that the dog had not -been the worst. The worst was yet to come. - -He resisted a great many temptations after that, but now for the first -time doubt had begun to seep in to his otherwise magnificent existence. -He swore to himself that he could never give this life up. Here on the -riverbank, dry and buggy as it well was, was still the most wonderful -life he had ever known, infinitely preferable to the drab crowds he -would face at home. He was an old man, grimly aware of the passage of -time. He would consider himself the luckiest of men to be allowed to -die and be buried here. - -But the temptations went on. - -First there was the Red Tide, a fish-killing disease which often sweeps -Florida's coast, murdering fish by the hundreds of millions. He could -have cured that, but he would have had to send off for the chemicals. - -Next there was an infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly, a bug -which threatened most of Florida's citrus crop and very nearly ruined -little Linda's father, a farmer. There was a Destroyer available which -could be set to kill just one type of bug, Mr. Jell knew, but he would -have had to order it, again, from the catalogue. So he had to let -Linda's father lose most of his life's savings. - -Shortly after that, he found himself tempted by a young, gloomy couple, -a Mr. and Mrs. Ridge, whom he visited one day looking for their young -son, and found himself in the midst of a morbid quarrel. Mr. Ridge's -incredible point of view was that this was too terrible a world to -bring children into. Mr. Jell found himself on the verge of saying that -he himself had personally visited forty-seven other worlds, and not one -could hold a candle to this one. - -He resisted that, at last, but it was surprising how close he had come -to talking, even over such a relatively small thing as that, and he had -concluded that he was beginning to wear under the strain, when there -came the day of the last temptation. - -Linda, the four-year-old, came down with a sickness. Mr. Jell learned -with a shock that everyone on Earth believed her incurable. - - * * * * * - -He had no choice then. He knew that from the moment he heard of the -illness, and he wondered why he had never until that moment anticipated -this. There was, of course, nothing else he could do, much as he loved -this Earth, and much as he knew little Linda would certainly have died -in the natural order of things. All of that made no difference; it had -finally come home to him that if a man is able to help his neighbors -and does not, then he ends up something less than a man. - -He went out on the riverbank and thought about it all that afternoon, -but he was only delaying the decision. He knew he could not go on -living here or anywhere with the knowledge of the one small grave for -which he would be forever responsible. He knew Linda would not begrudge -him those few moments, that one afternoon more. He waited, watching the -sun go down, and then he went back into the house and looked through -the catalogue. He found the number of the serum and dialed for it. - -The serum appeared within less than a minute. He took it out of the -Box and stared at it, the thought of the life it would bring to Linda -driving all despair out of his mind. It was a universal serum; it would -protect her from all disease for the rest of her life. _They_ would -be coming for him soon, but he knew it would take them a while to get -here, perhaps even a full day. He did not bother to run. He was much to -old to run and hide. - -He sat for a while thinking of how to get the serum to her, but that -was no problem. Her parents would give her anything she asked now, and -he made up some candy, injecting the serum microscopically into the -chunks of chocolate, and then suddenly had a wondrous idea. He put the -chunks into the Box and went on duplicating candy until he had several -boxes. - -When he was finished with that, he went visiting all the houses of all -the good people he knew, leaving candy for them and their children. He -knew he should not do that, but, he thought, it couldn't really do much -harm, could it? Just those few lives altered, out of an entire world? - -But the idea had started wheels turning in his mind, and toward the -end of that night, he began to chuckle with delight. Might as well be -flashed for a rogg as a zilb. - -He ordered out one special little bug Destroyer, from the Box, set -to kill just one bug, the medfly, and sent it happily down the road -toward Linda's farm. After that, he duplicated Oscar and sent the dog -yelping homeward with a note on his collar. When he was done with that, -he ordered a batch of chemicals, several tons of it, and ordered a -conveyor to carry it down and dump it into the river, where it would be -washed out to sea and so end the Red Tide. - -By the time that was over, he was very tired; he had been up the whole -night. He did not know what to do about young Mr. Ridge, the one who -did not want children. He decided that if the man was that foolish, -nothing could help him. But there was one other thing he could do. -Praying silently that once he started this thing, it would not get out -of hand, he made it rain. - -In this way, he deprived himself of the last sunrise. There was nothing -but gray sky, misty, blowing, when he went out onto the riverbank that -morning. But he did not really mind. The fresh air and the rain on -his face were all the good-by he could have asked for. He was sitting -on wet grass wondering the last thought--why in God's name don't more -people here realize what a beautiful world this is?--when he heard a -voice behind him. - -The voice was deep and very firm. - -"Citizen Jell," it said. - -The old man sighed. - -"Coming," he said, "coming." - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Citizen Jell, by Michael Shaara - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CITIZEN JELL *** - -***** This file should be named 51342.txt or 51342.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/3/4/51342/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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