"For maybe a hundred thousand years or more, grownups have been waving tangles of string in their children's faces." - "Um." - Newt remained curled in the chair. He held out his painty hands as though a cat's cradle were strung between them: "No wonder kids grow up crazy. A cat's cradle is nothing but a bunch of X's between somebody's hands, and little kids look and look and look at all those X's . . ." - "And?" - "_No damn cat, and no damn cradle_."