登陆注册
14723600000002

第2章

"Eighteen hundred thousand billion quintillions of kazarks.""Very well, then, let his boarders freeze till the next comet comes. Lighten ship! Lively, now, lively, men! Heave the whole cargo overboard!"Peters, look me in the eye, and be calm. I found out, over there, that a kazark is exactly the bulk of a HUNDRED AND SIXTY-NINEWORLDS LIKE OURS! They hove all that load overboard. When it fell it wiped out a considerable raft of stars just as clean as if they'd been candles and somebody blowed them out. As for the race, that was at an end. The minute she was lightened the comet swung along by me the same as if I was anchored. The captain stood on the stern, by the after-davits, and put his thumb to his nose and sung out -"Ta-ta! ta-ta! Maybe YOU'VE got some message to send your friends in the Everlasting Tropics!"Then he hove up his other suspender and started for'ard, and inside of three-quarters of an hour his craft was only a pale torch again in the distance. Yes, it was a mistake, Peters - that remark of mine. I don't reckon I'll ever get over being sorry about it. I'd 'a' beat the bully of the firmament if I'd kept my mouth shut.

But I've wandered a little off the track of my tale; I'll get back on my course again. Now you see what kind of speed I was making.

So, as I said, when I had been tearing along this way about thirty years I begun to get uneasy. Oh, it was pleasant enough, with a good deal to find out, but then it was kind of lonesome, you know.

Besides, I wanted to get somewhere. I hadn't shipped with the idea of cruising forever. First off, I liked the delay, because Ijudged I was going to fetch up in pretty warm quarters when I got through; but towards the last I begun to feel that I'd rather go to - well, most any place, so as to finish up the uncertainty.

Well, one night - it was always night, except when I was rushing by some star that was occupying the whole universe with its fire and its glare - light enough then, of course, but I necessarily left it behind in a minute or two and plunged into a solid week of darkness again. The stars ain't so close together as they look to be.

Where was I? Oh yes; one night I was sailing along, when Idiscovered a tremendous long row of blinking lights away on the horizon ahead. As I approached, they begun to tower and swell and look like mighty furnaces. Says I to myself -"By George, I've arrived at last - and at the wrong place, just as I expected!"Then I fainted. I don't know how long I was insensible, but it must have been a good while, for, when I came to, the darkness was all gone and there was the loveliest sunshine and the balmiest, fragrantest air in its place. And there was such a marvellous world spread out before me - such a glowing, beautiful, bewitching country. The things I took for furnaces were gates, miles high, made all of flashing jewels, and they pierced a wall of solid gold that you couldn't see the top of, nor yet the end of, in either direction. I was pointed straight for one of these gates, and a-coming like a house afire. Now I noticed that the skies were black with millions of people, pointed for those gates. What a roar they made, rushing through the air! The ground was as thick as ants with people, too - billions of them, I judge.

I lit. I drifted up to a gate with a swarm of people, and when it was my turn the head clerk says, in a business-like way -"Well, quick! Where are you from?"

"San Francisco," says I.

"San Fran - WHAT?" says he.

"San Francisco."

He scratched his head and looked puzzled, then he says -"Is it a planet?"

By George, Peters, think of it! "PLANET?" says I; "it's a city.

And moreover, it's one of the biggest and finest and - ""There, there!" says he, "no time here for conversation. We don't deal in cities here. Where are you from in a GENERAL way?""Oh," I says, "I beg your pardon. Put me down for California."I had him AGAIN, Peters! He puzzled a second, then he says, sharp and irritable -"I don't know any such planet - is it a constellation?""Oh, my goodness!" says I. "Constellation, says you? No - it's a State.""Man, we don't deal in States here. WILL you tell me where you are from IN GENERAL - AT LARGE, don't you understand?""Oh, now I get your idea," I says. "I'm from America, - the United States of America."Peters, do you know I had him AGAIN? If I hadn't I'm a clam! His face was as blank as a target after a militia shooting-match. He turned to an under clerk and says -"Where is America? WHAT is America?"

The under clerk answered up prompt and says -"There ain't any such orb."

"ORB?" says I. "Why, what are you talking about, young man? It ain't an orb; it's a country; it's a continent. Columbus discovered it; I reckon likely you've heard of HIM, anyway.

America - why, sir, America - "

"Silence!" says the head clerk. "Once for all, where - are - you -FROM?"

"Well," says I, "I don't know anything more to say - unless I lump things, and just say I'm from the world.""Ah," says he, brightening up, "now that's something like! WHATworld?"

Peters, he had ME, that time. I looked at him, puzzled, he looked at me, worried. Then he burst out -"Come, come, what world?"

Says I, "Why, THE world, of course."

"THE world!" he says. "H'm! there's billions of them! . . . Next!"That meant for me to stand aside. I done so, and a sky-blue man with seven heads and only one leg hopped into my place. I took a walk. It just occurred to me, then, that all the myriads I had seen swarming to that gate, up to this time, were just like that creature. I tried to run across somebody I was acquainted with, but they were out of acquaintances of mine just then. So I thought the thing all over and finally sidled back there pretty meek and feeling rather stumped, as you may say.

"Well?" said the head clerk.

"Well, sir," I says, pretty humble, "I don't seem to make out which world it is I'm from. But you may know it from this - it's the one the Saviour saved."He bent his head at the Name. Then he says, gently -"The worlds He has saved are like to the gates of heaven in number - none can count them. What astronomical system is your world in?

- perhaps that may assist."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 公主复国记

    公主复国记

    变身公主,游戏异界。普通的地球少年萧远,遇到恶作剧的创世神,穿越异界变成美少女公主的故事。剑与魔法,龙与骑士,战争冒险,什么都有一点。西式奇幻,古典风格,谢绝男主。彩云帝国尘埃落定,光明圣战风起云涌。由于一场不幸的意外,琳雅来到了遥远东方陌生的格勒西亚大陆,在返回故乡的旅途中,她又会有怎样神奇的经历呢?光明与黑暗,战争与和平,危机与希望,梦想与现实,信仰与信念,她终将如何抉择?
  • 你永远不会孤单

    你永远不会孤单

    讲述老百姓的故事,品读五味杂陈的人生。细腻的文笔,浓烈而朴实的情感,一部部饱含真情的故事跃然纸上,读来让人倍感温馨,真情荡漾。
  • 无上无敌

    无上无敌

    天地玄黄宇宙洪荒,世界无穷之大。系统在手,天下我有,看一个林家小子如何纵横百族,脚踏天才!爆抢神女……
  • 诗经(中华国学经典)

    诗经(中华国学经典)

    本丛书只是选取其中部分内容分门别类进行介绍。我们约请的作者,都是各个领域的专业研究者,每一篇简短的文字背后其实都有多年的积累,他们努力使这些文字深入浅出而严谨准确。无论您是什么学历,无论您是什么年龄,无论您从事的是什么职业,只要您是中国传统文化的爱好者,您都可以从本书中获得您想要的。
  • 女配病毒

    女配病毒

    某年某月某日,兰蓝打开电脑准备开个新坑。但是!电脑小说都遭病毒了,这个病毒叫做“女配”!竟然会把女主吞噬,然后改变小说,最后自己辛辛苦苦码的小说全部崩盘!那可是好多万字的小说呀!下个专杀“女配”的“作者修复系统”,然后……果然是要作者亲自动手修复吗?兰蓝决定要灭灭女配的威风,力挺女主!灭杀女配!小人不被炮灰,好人统统死光?!女配,尼玛够了!
  • 惴喘之夜:遇鬼成祥

    惴喘之夜:遇鬼成祥

    轻如烟,微似尘,吴轻尘本是废材女一枚,她只想平凡的过一辈子,一味地隐忍,却不能如愿。诡异的喘息声,奇怪的新上司,夜半来访的水鬼,变态的女鬼王,冷漠无情的家人,举步维艰的生活……这一切的一切,让她艰于呼吸,难以支撑。然,天无绝人之路,一只鬼高调的走进她的生活,为她悲,替她苦,潜移默化中,悄悄拨正了她那被压弯的脊梁……
  • 青春,正好

    青春,正好

    青春正好,我们匆匆走过;青春正好,我们选择的路,不会后悔。有人说,青春,只不过是一个走场……有人说,我没有青春……有人说,我的青春,我好像已经忘记怎么走过……我说,我的青春,那年正好,但是我却没有把握。我说,青春,对于我来说,就是一场梦。我的青春,也告诉我,不要永远当一个好人。
  • 不败龙神

    不败龙神

    陈天的一生便是战,战便是其一生,为了对她的诺言而去战,可当他成神之后却……
  • 穿越之特种兵王

    穿越之特种兵王

    特种兵王带领特种兵强势穿越,傲视天下,傲笑山河,用现代科技建立宗门,一代妖孽顷辰,逆天出世,得逍遥神王传承,修武道,踏九霄,破天地,傲苍穹。
  • 白色眷恋

    白色眷恋

    因为不满皇马6比2的比分,中国青年律师沈星怒砸啤酒瓶,结果电光火石间,他穿越成了佛罗伦蒂诺的儿子,且看来自09年的小伙子如何玩转03年的欧洲足坛