 How did the children come to be at the Farm?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, August 1957. MOTHER GOOSE Dr. David Lessing found Jack Dorffman and the boy waiting in his office when he arrived at the Hoffman Center that morning. Nobody's been able to get near him for three weeks, and now at six o'clock this morning he decides he's leaving the Farm. The first was from Roberts Bros., announcing another shift of deadline on the book, and demanding the galley proofs two weeks earlier than scheduled. As director of psionic research at the Hoffman Medical Center, he had long since learned how administrative detail could suck up daytime hours. "A Theory of Psionic Influence on Infant and Child Development." They were trying to study phenomena which made no sense, observing things that defied logic. "Within the stronghold of psionic research at last. "I think you'd better wait before you do that," Melrose said sharply, "because I'm planning to take you apart at the Conference next month unless I like everything I see and hear down here today. "I want to hear this fairy tale you're about to publish in the name of 'Theory'," Melrose said. "I want to see this famous Farm of yours up in Connecticut and see for myself how much pressure these experimental controls you keep talking about will actually bear. "So far, we haven't found any way to set up logical controls," said Melrose.
 Some children are sent to the Farm by their parents for boarding school. Others are orphans and runaways.
 Dr. Lessing bought them from their parents.  Some children are sent to the Farm by their parents for boarding school. Others are orphans and runaways.  The children come from migrant and refugee camps.  Dr. Lessing bought them from human traffickers.