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One

IT HAD SNOWED all day As the darkness fell, very close and quickly, he stood at thelooking down on the tiny figures in Central Park A perfect circle of light fell on the snow beneath each lah he could not ishly over the dark roads

To his right and his left, the skyscrapers ofcale of lower buildings, rooftops with gardens, and great black hulking pieces of equipment, and sometimes even pointed roofs

He loved this view; it always surprised hi to fix an office machine would volunteer that he'd never seen New York like this before Sad that there was no marble tower for everyone; that there was no series of towers, to which all the people could go, to look out at varying heights

Make a note: Build a series of tohich have no function except to be parks in the sky for the people Use all the beautiful marbles which you so love Maybe he would do that this year Very likely, he would do it And the libraries He wanted to establish more of these, and that would mean some travel But he would do all this, yes, and soon After all, the parks were almost completed now, and the little schools had been opened in seven cities The carousels had been opened in twenty different places Granted, the animals were synthetic, but each was a meticulous and indestructible reproduction of a famous European hand-carved masterpiece People loved the carousels But it was a tiht hi

In the last century, he had put into material form a hundred such ideas And this year's little triu char, all of the original old horses, lions, and such that had provided molds for his replicas The museum of classic automobiles now filled one level of the basement The public flocked to see the Model Ts, the Stutz Bearcats, the MG-TDs with their heels

And of course there were the doll hted rooms on two floors above the lobby--the company showcase, filled with the dolls he'd collected from all parts of the world And the privatethe dolls which he himself had personally cherished

Now and then he slipped downstairs to watch the people, to walk through the crowds, never unnoticed, but at least unknown

A creature seven feet in height can't avoid the eyes of people That had been true forever But a rather a had happened in the last two hundred years Huotten taller! And now, ht, he did not stand out so very lance, of course, but they weren't frightened of him anymore

Indeed, occasionally a hu as in fact taller than he was Of course the staff would alert hiht it one of his little quirks that he wanted such people reported to hi He didn't h

"Mr Ash, there's a tall one down here Camera five"

He'd turn to the bank of sht of the individual Only hureat while, he wasn't sure of it And he went down in the silent, speeding elevator, and walked near the person long enough to ascertain from a score of details that this was only a man

Other dreas for children, e plastics with rich and intricate detail He saw small cathedrals, castles, palaces--perfect replicas of the larger architectural treasures--produced with lightning speed, and "cost effective," as the board would put it There would be nus for dolls to houses which children could enter themselves And carousel horses for sale, made of wood resin, which aliven to schools, hospitals, other such institutions Then there

was the ongoing obsession--truly beautiful dolls for poor children, dolls that would not break, and could be cleaned with ease--but that he had been working on, more or less, since the new century dawned

For the last five years he had produced cheaper and cheaper dolls, dolls superior to those before them, dolls of new chemical materials, dolls that were durable and lovable; yet still they cost tooentirely different He had plans on the drawing board, a couple of pro prototypes Perhaps

He felt a consoling warht of theseago, in ancient times as they called them, he had dreamed of iants in the high grass of the plain Even modest towers had obsessed hi of beautiful books had taken all his joy for centuries

But in these playthings of the es of people, not children really, for dolls never really did look like children, he had found a strange and challenging obsession

Monuments were for those who traveled to see them The dolls and toys he refined and lobe Indeed, machines had made all sorts of new and beautiful objects available for people of all nations--the rich, the impoverished, those in need of comfort, or sustenance and shelter, those kept in sanitariums and asylums which they could never leave

His company had been his rede ideas had been put into successful production Indeed, he did not understand why other toy companies made so few innovations, why cookie-cutter dolls with vapid faces lined the shelves of emporiums, why the ease of inality and invention Unlike his joyless colleagues, with each of his triureater risks

It didn't make him happy to drive others out of the rasp intellectually His secret belief was that the number of potential buyers in today's world was unli of worth And within these walls, within this soaring and dangerous tower of steel and glass, he enjoyed his triumphs in a state of pure bliss which he could share with no one else

No one else Only the dolls could share it The dolls who stood on the glass shelves against the walls of colored marble, the dolls who stood on pedestals in the corners, the dolls who clustered together on his broad wooden desk His Bru, his princess, his French beauty, a century old; she was his o down to the second floor of the building and visit the Bru--a bisque darling of impeccable standards, three feet tall, her mohair curls intact, her painted face a s as perfect now as they hen the French company had manufactured her for the Paris o

That had been her allure, that she was a thing for hundreds of children to enjoy; a pinnacle had been reached in her, of craft and mass production Even her factory clothes of silk represented that special achievement Not for one, but for many