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Once upon a time there was a boy—Just like me.
He had to stay in bed in the morning until seven o’clock until his family was ready to get up.
So did I.
As he was always awake long before this time, he used to lie there and think about all sorts of curious things.
So did I.
One thing he used to wonder was this:
What would the world be like if there were—
No fathers and mothers,
No uncles and aunts,
No cousins or other children to play with,
No people at all, except himself in the whole world!
Perhaps you have wondered the same thing.
So did I.
At last he used to get so lonely, just from thinking how dreadful such a world would be, that he could stand it no longer and would run to his parents’ room and jump into bed by their side just to get this terrible thought out of his mind.
So did I— for I was the boy.
Well, there was a time long, long, long ago when there were no men or women or children, no people of any kind, in the whole world. Of course there were no houses, for there was no one to build them or to live in them, no towns or cities—nothing that people make. There were just animals—mastodons and dinosaurs, birds and butterflies, frogs and snakes, turtles and fish. Can you think of such a world as that?
Then
long,long
before that, there was a time when there were NO PEOPLE, and NO ANIMALS of any sort in the whole world; there were just growing plants. Can you think of such a world as that?
Then
long,long,long
long,long,long
before that, there was a time when there were NO PEOPLE, NO ANIMALS, NO PLANTS, in the whole world; there was just bare rock and water everywhere. Can you think of such a world as that?
Then
long,long,long
long,long,long—you might
keep on saying—
“long, long, long,” all day, and
tomorrow, and all
next week, and next
month, and next
year, and it would
not be long enough—
before this, there was a time when there was NO WORLD AT ALL!
No world at all! Only the stars, and God, who made the stars.
Now, real stars are not things with points like those in the corner of a flag or the gold ones you put on a Christmas tree. The real stars in the sky have no points. They are huge burning balls of fire—balls of fire. Each star, however, is so huge that there is nothing in the world now anywhere nearly as big. One little bit, one little scrap of a star is bigger than our whole world—than our whole world.
One of these stars is our sun—yes, our sun. The other stars would look the same as the sun if we could get as close to them. But at that time, so long, long ago, our sun was not just a big, round, white, hot ball as we see it in the sky today. It was then more like the fireworks you may have seen on the Fourth of July. It was whirling and sputtering and throwing off sparks.
One of these sparks, which the sun threw far off, got cool just as a spark from a crackling log in a fireplace gets cool, and this cooled off spark was—
What do you suppose?
See if you can guess—
It was our world!—yes, the world
on which we now live.
At first, however, our world, or Earth, was nothing but a ball of rock. This ball of rock was wrapped around with steam, like a heavy fog.
The sun sputtering and throwing off sparks
Then the steam turned to rain, and it rained on the world,
a a a
i i i
t t t
r r r
a a a
i i i
n n n
e e e
d d d
until it had filled up the hollows and made enormously big puddles. These puddles were the oceans. The dry places were bare rock .
Then, after this, came the first living things—tiny plants that you could only have seen under a microscope. At first they grew only in the water, then along the water’s edge, then out on the rock.
Then dirt, or soil, as people call it, formed all over the rock and made the rock into land, and the plants grew larger and spread farther over the land.
Then, after this, came the first tiny animals in the water. They were wee specks too small, like the first plants, to be seen without the help of a microscope.
Then, after this, in the water came larger animals like Jellyfish and clams and horseshoe crabs.
Then, after this, came Insects , some that live in the water, some on the water, some on the land, like cockroaches, and some in the air.
Then, after this, came Fish that live only in the water.
Then, after this, came animals like frogs called Amphibians that live in the water and also on the land.
Then, after this, came Reptiles , like snakes, turtles, lizards, and huge dinosaurs.
Then, after this, came Birds that lay eggs, and Mammals , like foxes and monkeys and cows, that nurse their babies when they are born.
Then, last of all, came—what do you suppose? Yes—People—men, women,and children.
Here are the steps; see if you can take them:
STARS,
SUN,
SPARK,
WORLD,
STEAM,
RAIN,
OCEANS,
PLANTS,
ANIMALS,
JELLYFISH,
INSECTS,
FISH,
AMPHIBIANS,
REPTILES,
BIRDS,
MAMMALS,
PEOPLE.
And here we are!
What do you suppose will be next?