I collect stamps--I've heard about getting rare ones with inverted
centers, or some minor deviation that made them immensely valuable. I'd
imagined getting one by mistake sometime that would make me rich. But
this! They'd billed "King Kong" as "The Eighth Wonder of the World," but
that was only imaginary--a film ... a terrifying thought crossed my
mind. I pushed open the box hastily: maybe _I_ had been dreaming. But
there it was--the unbelievable; the Little Man!
A car was before me, just leaving. Its polished surface had not
reflected through the haze, and the new design made so little noise that
I hadn't seen it. I jumped for it, my mind in such a turmoil that the
conductor had to ask three times for my fare. Ordinarily, I would have
been embarrassed, but a young man with his mind on millions doesn't
worry about little things like that. At least, not this young man.
How I acted on the streetcar, or traversed the five blocks from the end
of the line, I couldn't say. If I may imagine myself, though, I must
have strode along the street like a determined machine. I reached the
house and let myself into the basement room. Inside, I pulled the shades
together and closed the door, the matchbox still in my hand. No one was
at home this time of day, which pleased me particularly, for I wanted to
figure out how I was going to present this wonder to the world.
I flung myself down on the bed and opened the matchbox. The little man
lay very still on the bottom.
"Little Man!" I cried, and turned him out on the quilt. Maybe he had
suffocated in the box. Irrational thought! Small though it might be to
me, the little box was as big as all outdoors to him. It was the bumping
about he'd endured; I hadn't been very thoughtful of him.
He was reviving now, and raised himself on one arm. I pushed myself off
the bed, and stepped quickly to my table to procure something with which
I could control him. Not that he could get away, but he was so tiny I
thought I might lose sight of him.
Pen, pencil, paper, stamps, scissors, clips--none of them were what I
wanted. I had nothing definite in mind, but then remembered my stamp
outfit and rushed to secure it. Evidently college work had cramped my
style along the collecting line, for the tweezers and magnifier appeared
with a mild coating of dust. But they were what I needed, and I blew on
them and returned to the bed.
The little man had made his way half an inch or so from his former
prison; was crawling over what I suppose were, to him, great uneven
blocks of red and green and black moss.
He crossed from a red into a black patch as I watched his movements
through the glass, and I could see him more plainly against the darker
background. He stopped and picked at the substance of his strange
surroundings, then straightened to examine a tuft of the cloth. The
magnifier enlarged him to a seeming half inch or so, and I could see
better, now, this strange tiny creature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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