only a rough estimate, since there had been off days.

Still, the count came out to at least three months. The plane was very definitely overdue.

In the middle of the third year, he completed a radio receiver, made from wire stripped from the useless generator and using the crystal receiver principle. It had a pinpoint balanced on an old razor blade. There had been a description of the method of making such a receiver in a mechanics magazine, and Don had done it carefully. It took him a long time, because he did not find the job very interesting except when he was tired of reading and writing. Also, he had spent a long time extracting the blank leaves from all of the books so that he would have plenty of writing paper.

The receiver seemed to be a workable design. However, all he could hear was a steady crackle and hiss, and, during storms, the sounds made by distant lightning.

Things went well, otherwise. His garden grew with a minimum of attention; he had learned the easiest methods of fishing, and he could not have named a single thing that he did not have that he would want.

The history grew longer. It was bound, volume by volume, in covers removed from books that were then piled carefully away. Don had found a way to bleach out the pages of printed matter, but there were only a few books that he could bring himself to turn into writing paper in this manner. In his notes, he used the term "palimpsest"; he knew what it meant by now.

2234. The last queen of England, not possessing any political power, was nevertheless regarded with great respect by the people of Britain, and her death at an advanced age was the occasion for great public mourning. However, since she had left no direct descendant, her entombment in the rebuilt Westminster Abbey marked the final end of the monarchy, even as a symbol.

The year 2234 also marked the first serious attempt to cross interstellar space, in a giant ship which was built to house a large colony of travelers for a long time.

Among the books published in 2234 were new works by the famous historian and scholar Nosreg, and his contemporary Songre. "The Tragedy of Man" by the playwright Gresno played to great audiences over the Solar Television Network....

Thoughtfully, Don pulled at his graying beard. He was considering the plays of Gresno, and feeling, very mildly, a longing to see them. But, 

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