It was about half a mile to the cluster of buildings ahead. There were four or five domes made of something translucent, like greenhouses, and several conventional square buildings. There were two windmills turning lazily in the breeze.

There were several banks of solar water heaters. These are flat constructions of glass and wood, held off the ground so: they can tilt to follow the sun. They were almost vertical; now, intercepting the oblique rays of sunset. There were a ` few trees, what might have been an orchard.

About halfway there I passed under a wooden footbridge. It arched over the road, giving access from the east pasture to the west pasture. I wondered, What was wrong with a simple gate?

Then I saw something coming down the road in my direction. It was traveling on the tracks and it was very quiet. I stopped and waited.

It was a sort of converted mining engine, the sort that pulls loads of coal up from the bottom of shafts. It was=

battery-powered, and it had gotten quite close before I heard, it. A small man was driving it. He was pulling a car behind - him and singing as loud as he could with absolutely no sense of pitch. _

He got closer and closer, moving about five miles per hour, one hand held out as if he was signaling a left turn.: Suddenly I realized what was happening, as he was bearing. down on me. He wasn't going to stop. He was counting fenceposts with his hand. I scrambled up the fence just in time. There wasn't more than six inches of clearance be~: tween the train and the fence on either side. His palm-' touched my leg as I squeezed close to the fence, and he-r stopped abruptly.

He leaped from the car and grabbed me and I thought I, was in trouble. But he looked concerned, not angry, and felt'

me all over, trying to discover if I was hurt. I was embarrassed. - Not from the examination; because I had been foolish. The=