Note: Fixup of the following stories: "Creche" - orignal "The Never Girl" - Worlds of If, Jan-Feb 1973 "Menagerie" - original "Charity Run" - original "A Woman and Her Friend" - Worlds of If, Mar-Apr 1973

Synopsis: Brain transference is immortality - The problem of immortality was solved in the 21st Century. It was a matter of successful brain transference. When you reached forty, your brain was removed and transferred to the head of a six-months old infant. In that way, you got another forty years of life, until you could do it all over again. All you had to do was obey the laws and make no trouble. Besides, it solved the population crisis - who wanted to have a baby that would soon become a total adult stranger mentally? So there was a growing waiting period between transfers - and in the interim the disembodied brains were conscious in special boxes known as Friendship Boxes. If you would be companion to such a box, you would be truly charitable. But, as the old saying might have it, if you had a Friend in a Box, you didn't need any enemies. This is the brilliantly different novel of the day it all came to a head. (from the back cover of the DAW Books first edition)