"I'd like to see him," she repeated. "And my family."

Some of the blue-splotched men turned away. A broad-shouldered man
said bluntly, "Don't look for them to be glad to see you. And you'd
better not show yourself in public. You've been well fed. You'll be
hated for that."

Maril began to cry. Murgatroyd said bewilderedly, "_Chee! Chee!_"

Calhoun held him close. There was confusion. And Calhoun found the
Minister of Health at hand. He looked most harried of all the
officials gathered to question Calhoun. He proposed that he get a look
at the hospital situation right away.

It wasn't practical. With all the population on half rations or less,
when night came people needed to sleep. Most people, indeed, slept as
many hours out of the traditional twenty-four as they could manage. It
was much more pleasant to sleep than to be awake and constantly nagged
at by continued hunger.

And there was the matter of simple decency. Continuous gnawing hunger
had an embittering effect upon everyone. Quarrelsomeness was a common
experience. And people who would normally be the leaders of opinion
felt shame because they were obsessed by thoughts of food. It was best
when people slept.

Still, Calhoun was in the hospitals by daybreak. What he found moved
him to savage anger. There were too many sick children. In every case
undernourishment contributed to their sickness. And there was not