Once, on the way home, he stared back toward the school with strange
unease.
* * * * *
Inside the school there was the ringing of a bell. The children trooped
into the large play area that was enclosed in the heart of the great
building. Here and there they began to form in clusters. At the centers
of the clusters were the newest students, the ones that had moved here,
the ones that had been in the robot schools before.
"Is it true that the roboteachers will actually spank you?"
"It's true, all right."
"You're kidding. It's only a story, like Santa Claus or Johnny
Appleseed. The human teachers never spanked us here."
"The robots will spank you if you get out of line."
"My father says no robot can lay a hand on a human."
"These robots are different."
The bell began to ring again. Recess was over. The children moved toward
the classroom. All the children except one--Johnny Malone, husky Johnny
Malone, twelve years old--the Mayor's son. Johnny Malone kicked at the
dirt. A robot proctor approached. The metallic voice sounded.
"The ringing of the bell means that classes are resumed. You will take
your place, please."
"I won't go inside."
"You will take your place, please."
"I won't. You can't make me take my place. My father is the Mayor."
The metal voice carried no feeling. "If you do not take your place you
will be punished."
"You can't lay a hand on me. No robot can."
The robot moved forward. Two metal hands held Johnny Malone. Johnny
Malone kicked the robot's legs. It hurt his toes. "We were made to teach
the children. We can do what is necessary to teach the children. I will
do everything for the children's good. It is my prime law. All other
laws are secondary to the children's good."
The metal arms moved. The human body bent across metal knees. A metal
hand raised and fell, flat, very flat so that it would sting and the
blood would come rushing, and yet there would be no bruising, no damage
to the human flesh. Johnny Malone cried out in surprise. Johnny Malone
wept. Johnny Malone squirmed. The metal ignored all of these. Johnny
Malone was placed on his feet. He swarmed against the robot, striking it
with small fists, bruising them against the solid smoothness of the
robot's thighs.
"You will take your place, please."
Tears were useless. Rage was useless. Metal cannot feel. Johnny Malone,
the Mayor's son, was intelligent. He took his place in the classroom.
One of the more advanced literature classes was reciting. The
roboteacher said metallically,
"_The weird sisters, hand in hand,
Posters of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine.
Peace! the charm's wound up._"