Chapter I

Life expectancy is short because the men are worked to death, performing hours and hours of hard labor for ten hours a day.

Thus must all men live until the are forty. At forty they are worn out. At forty they are sent to the Home of the Useless, where the Old Ones live. The Old Ones do not work, for the State takes care of them. They sit in the sun in summer and the sit by the fire in winter. They do not speak often, for the are weary. The Old Ones know that they are soon to die. When a miracle happens and some live to be forty-five, they are the Ancient Ones, and children stare at them when passing by the Home of the Useless. Such is to be our life, as that of all our brothers and of the brothers who came before us.