Prologue

 Lo, nowadays the earth is white or green, according as Winter rules or Spring. The thrush sings in the grove¹ and the canary in his cage, the smoke rises from the house-top and the church-bell tolls² for evensong. The monk³ walks in the meadow and the poet writes verse.

 

But once things were different.

 

Once things were so that, had somebody taken a walk on the earth, nowhere would a dog have run out of a house and barked at him. For there was not upon all the earth a single dog to run out of a house nor a single house for a dog to run out of.

 

He would not have come upon a tree nor a flower nor a blade of grass. Nor could he have found a drop of water to quench⁴ his thirst with.

 

For there was nobody on the earth—nobody and nothing.

 

Had there been anybody who wanted to take a walk, he simply could not have done so. For the earth was mere⁵ vapour and mist, so that he would have fallen plump through her and plunged⁶ straight into space, where the stars float.

 

And he would not have had much satisfaction from this. For, unless he had been quite round and nice and bright, he would have cut a foolish figure among the stars.

 

Such was the state of things.

 

But the earth quite understood that she could not go on like this for ever. She could not have been intended to be never more than smoke. So she pulled herself together and did her best. But she had to go through a terrible amount and it was a hard time for her, which she never forgot and which she bears the marks of to this day.

 

She had to go through fire and through water too.

 

For thousands of years, she flew through space like a ball of fire and, when at length she had a stone crust about her, the rain poured down upon her nor stopped until she sailed away like an enormous drop of water.

 

Meanwhile, the fire in the earth’s interior broke out each moment through the crust, burst it and split it criss-crosswise and flung the pieces higgledy-piggledy to every side.

 

“My poor, dear little Earth!” said the sun and looked at her kindly⁷.

 

“Why do you bother about that clot⁸?” asked one of the big stars. “Shine on us, who are worth shining on.”

 

“The earth is no clot to me,” replied the sun. “She is my child, like yourself and the others. And she is the youngest and therefore nearest to my heart. It is not so very many thousand years ago since she broke loose from me and sallied forth⁹ into the universe to tempt¹⁰ fortune single-handed. If only she behaves pluckily¹¹ and does not lose heart, I shall have pleasure enough in her.”

 

The earth heard this and held out.

 

Year by year, the stone crust grew thicker, the water sank gradually into the ground and the land rose to the surface. But, even when the crust became so thick that the fire could not break through it just when[xvi] and where it pleased, but had to make a regular effort when it wished to create a sensation, even then the earth’s trials were not over.

 

There was no order about her at all.

 

For instance, it was just as warm in Greenland as in Italy. Plenty of plants grew on the earth, but they were queer ones: ferns and horse-tails as tall as the tallest trees in the forest nowadays. There were animals too, but they were strange and uncanny creatures which we never meet with now except in the old fairy-tales. There were quadrupeds that were thirty yards long and swam in the water; and there were dragons that flew in the air and looked horrid¹².

 

And so it happened that it became ridiculously cold on the greatest part of the earth. Wherever one looked lay ice and snow; and the animals and plants died.

 

But then the fire broke out again, more violently than ever, and overturned hills and dales. Great new lands rose up out of the sea; and the sea swept its broad waves ruthlessly over the old lands.

 

No one could conceive what the end would be.

 

“My poor, dear little Earth!” said the sun.

 

But how all these things were put in order at last—this you shall read in the fairy-tale of The Four Seasons.

1 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

2 tolls   

（缓慢而有规律的）钟声( toll的名词复数 )； 通行费； 损耗； （战争、灾难等造成的）毁坏

参考例句：

• A man collected tolls at the gateway. 一个人在大门口收通行费。
• The long-distance call tolls amount to quite a sum. 长途电话费数目相当可观。

3 monk   

n.和尚，僧侣，修道士

参考例句：

• The man was a monk from Emei Mountain.那人是峨眉山下来的和尚。
• Buddhist monk sat with folded palms.和尚合掌打坐。

4 quench   

vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制

参考例句：

• The firemen were unable to quench the fire.消防人员无法扑灭这场大火。
• Having a bottle of soft drink is not enough to quench my thirst.喝一瓶汽水不够解渴。

5 mere   

adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过

参考例句：

• That is a mere repetition of what you said before.那不过是重复了你以前讲的话。
• It's a mere waste of time waiting any longer.再等下去纯粹是浪费时间。

6 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

7 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

8 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

9 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

10 tempt   

vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣

参考例句：

• Nothing could tempt him to such a course of action.什么都不能诱使他去那样做。
• The fact that she had become wealthy did not tempt her to alter her frugal way of life.她有钱了，可这丝毫没能让她改变节俭的生活习惯。

11 pluckily   

adv.有勇气地，大胆地

参考例句：

• He was Brentford's defensive star in pluckily holding out the determined Reading raids for long periods. 他是布伦特福德队的防守明星，长期坚持抗击雷丁队的猛攻。 来自互联网
• A crushing setback, pluckily overcome, is a good plot motif to carry the yarn forward. 如果你的公司曾遭受过一次毁灭性的打击，但你的勇气让公司度过了难关，那么这个情节也很不错，能推动故事的发展。 来自互联网

12 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。