Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World | Page 6

said I would
keep them fixed on the bright face of the moon. But how large it looked. Surely
something must be wrong with it, or was it my memory that was at fault? I thought the
moon generally appeared smaller as it rose further above the horizon, but now it was
growing bigger every minute. It was coming nearer, too. Nearer, larger--why, it was

monstrous. I could not turn my eyes away now, and everything else was forgotten,
swallowed up in that one awful sight. How fast it grew. Now it fills half the sky and
makes me tremble with fear. Part of it is still lighted by the sun, and part is in dark,
threatening shadow. I see pale faces around me. Others are gazing, awe-stricken, at the
same object. We are in the open street, and some have glasses, peering into the deep
craters and caverns of the surface.
I seemed to be a new-comer on the scene, and could not help remarking to my nearest
neighbor:
"This is a strange sight. Do you think it is real, or are we all bereft of our senses?"
"Strange indeed, but true," he answered.
"But what does it mean?" And then, assuming a gayety I did not feel, I asked further:
"Does the moon, too, want to be annexed to the United States?"
"You speak lightly, young man," my neighbor said, "and do not appear to realize the
seriousness of our situation. Where have you been, that you have not heard this matter
discussed, and do not understand that the moon is certain to come into collision with the
earth in a very short time?"
He seemed thoroughly alarmed, and I soon found that all the people shared his feeling.
The movement of the earth carried us out of sight of the moon in a few hours, but after a
brief rest everybody was on the watch again at the next revolution. The excitement over
the behavior of our once despised moon increased rapidly from this time. Nothing else
was talked of, business was well-nigh suspended, and the newspapers neglected
everything else to tell about the unparalleled natural phenomenon. Speculation was rife as
to what would be the end, and what effect would follow a union of the earth with its
satellite.
While this discussion was going on, the unwelcome visitor was approaching with
noticeable rapidity at every revolution of the earth, and the immense dark shadow which
it now made, as it passed beneath the sun, seemed ominous of an ill fate to our world and
its inhabitants. It was a time to try the stoutest hearts, and, of course, the multitude of the
people were overwhelmed with alarm. As no one could do anything to ward off what
seemed a certain catastrophe, the situation was all the more dreadful. Men could only
watch the monster, speculate as to the result, and wait, with horrible suspense, for the
inevitable. The circle of revolution was now becoming so small that the crisis was hourly
expected. Men everywhere left their houses and sought the shelterless fields, and it was
well they did so, for there came a day when the earth received a sudden and awful shock.
After it had passed, people looked at each other wonderingly to find themselves alive,
and began congratulating each other, thinking the worst was over. But the dreadful
anxiety returned when, after some hours, the moon again appeared, a little tardy this time,
but nearer and more threatening than ever. The news was afterwards brought that it had
struck the high mountain peaks of Central Asia, tearing down their sides with the power
of a thousand glaciers and filling the valleys below with ruin.

It was now felt that the end must soon come, and this was true, for at the earth's very next
revolution the tired and feeble satellite, once the queen of the sky and the poet's glory,
scraped across the continent of South America, received the death blow in collision with
the Andes, careened, and fell at last into the South Pacific Ocean. The shock given to the
earth was tremendous, but no other result was manifest except that the huge mass
displaced water enough to submerge many islands and to reconstruct the shore lines of
every continent. There was untold loss of life and property, of course, but it is astonishing
how easily those who were left alive accepted the new state of things, when it was found
that the staid earth, in spite of the enormous wart on her side, was making her daily
revolution almost with her accustomed regularity.
The lovers of science, however, were by no means indifferent to the new- comer. To be
able at last to solve all the problems of the constitution and geography of the