Introduction (The birth of Number Seventeen)
Mother 210:
Oh, isn't it beautiful! or he,
isn't he beautiful I should say.
And he'll be number seventeen of generation forty-three.
He looks like a number seventeen, doesn't he?
Something about the eyes.
Everyone in the corridor is talking about it,
-even across the campus, right out to unit ninety-five.
I think they're probably a bit jealous, actually.
So few people in our unit get the chance.
He comes from eighty percent western scientific stock,
but they say he has a sprinkling of the crossbred artistic balance from generation twenty-six;
which, let's face it, was a a very good year.
Mother 210:
Oh, isn't it beautiful! or he,
isn't he beautiful I should say.
And he'll be number seventeen of generation forty-three.
He looks like a number seventeen, doesn't he?
Something about the eyes.
Everyone in the corridor is talking about it,
-even across the campus, right out to unit ninety-five.
I think they're probably a bit jealous, actually.
So few people in our unit get the chance.
He comes from eighty percent western scientific stock,
but they say he has a sprinkling of the crossbred artistic balance from generation twenty-six;
which, let's face it, was a a very good year.