Our Children's Children by Clifford D. Simak Read Free Book Online

President.
    â€œBack deep into time,” said Gale. “To the mid-Miocene.”
    â€œThe Miocene?”
    â€œA geological epoch. It began, roughly, some twenty-five million years ago, lasted for some twelve million years.”
    â€œBut why the Miocene? Why twenty-five million years? Why not ten million, or fifty million or a hundred million?”
    â€œThere are a number of considerations,” said Gale. “We have tried to work it out as carefully as we can. For one thing, the main reason, I would guess, grass first appeared in the Miocene. Paleontologists believe that grass appeared at the beginning of the Miocene. They base their belief upon the development of high-crowned cheek teeth in the herbivores of that time. Grass carries abrasive minerals and wears down the teeth. The development of high-crowned teeth that grew throughout the animal’s lifetime would be an answer to this. The teeth are the kind that one would expect to find in creatures that lived on grass. There is evidence, too, that during the Miocene more arid conditions came about which led to the replacement of forests by extensive grass prairies that supported huge herds of grazing animals. This, say the paleontologists, began with the dawn of the Miocene, twenty-five million years ago, but we have chosen as our first target twenty million years ago, just in case the paleontologists’ timetable may be in error, although we do not believe it is.”
    â€œIf that is where you’re heading,” asked the Attorney General, “why are you stopping here? Your time tunnels, I assume, the ones you used to reach us, would have carried you that far.”
    â€œThat is true, sir. But we didn’t have the time. This move had to be made as rapidly as possible.”
    â€œWhat has time to do with it?”
    â€œWe can’t go into the Miocene without implements and tools, with no seed stocks or agricultural animals. We have all those up in our own time, of course, but it would have taken weeks to gather and transport them to the tunnel mouths. There was also the matter of capacity. Every tool or bag of seed or head of livestock would mean it would take longer to move the people. Given the time and without the pressure of the aliens we would have done it that way, going directly to the Miocene. But the logistics were impossible. The monsters knew there was something going on and as soon as they found out what it was, we knew they would attack the tunnel heads. We felt we had to move as swiftly as we could, to save as many people as we could. So we arrive here emptyhanded.”
    â€œYou expect us to furnish you with all the things you need?”
    â€œReilly,” the President said quietly, “it seems to me you are being somewhat uncharitable. This is not a situation that we asked for nor one that we expected, but it is one we have and we must deal with it as gracefully and as sensibly as we can. As a nation we have helped and still are helping other less-favored peoples. It is a matter of foreign policy, of course, but it is as well an old American tendency to hold out a helping hand. These people coming out of the tunnels located on our soil are, I would imagine, native Americans, our own kind of people, our own descendants, and it doesn’t seem to me we should balk at doing for them what we have done for others.”
    â€œIf,” the Attorney General pointed out, “any of this is true.”
    â€œThat is something,” the President agreed, “we must determine. I imagine that Mr. Gale would not expect us to accept what he has told us without further investigation when that is possible. There is one thing, Mr. Gale, that rather worries me. You say that you plan on going back to a time when grass has evolved. Do you intend going blind? What would happen if, when you got there, you find the paleontologists were mistaken about the grass, or that there are other circumstances that would make