THE FIRST MUSIC 267 THE FIRST ARMOUR 271 STONEHENGE 287 THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN [Illustration] THE FIRST DAYS OF MAN CHAPTER I HOW MOTHER NATURE MADE THE EARTH READY FOR MAN IN the beginning, millions of years ago, before there were any men, or animals, or trees, or flowers, the Earth was just a great round ball of fire, bright and dazzling, like the Sun. Instead of being solid, as it is now, it was a huge cloud of white-hot gases, whirling through space. We all know how solids can be turned into liquids, and liquids into gases, by Heat, for we have only to heat a solid piece of ice to turn it into a liquid, water, and if we keep on heating the water, _it_ will turn into a gas, which we call steam. It was the same way with all the solid things on the Earth; Heat had turned them all to gases, like steam. Then God called Mother Nature to Him and told her to get the Earth ready for Man to live on. So Mother Nature sent Heat away to melt up some other worlds, and called for his brother, Cold. And Cold came rushing up, his great white wings glittering with frost. "What can I do for you, Mother Nature?" he asked. "Blow on the Earth with all your might, Cold," said Mother Nature, "and get it ready for Man to live on." Then she flew away, and as she went she took a piece of the Earth-cloud and rolled it into a ball, and set it spinning in space about the Earth, so that it might cool down later and be the Moon. When Mother Nature had gone, Cold, who was the spirit of the great outer darkness in which the Sun and Stars move, hovered about the Earth and blew on it with all his might, and as his icy breath swept over the fiery Earth, the hot gases began to get cooler and cooler, and at last they turned back to liquids again. And after that, they got cooler still and began to turn to solids, just as hot melted taffy gets hard and solid when it cools. It took Cold a very long time to cool the Earth, millions of years, but he did not mind, for he had nothing else to do. So he blew and blew, and after a while a hard solid crust began to form all over the Earth, very rough and uneven, with high hills and mountains sticking up here and there, and between them great wide valleys and plains, all of solid rock. When Mother Nature came back to look at the Earth, Cold asked her how she liked it. "You have done very well, Cold," she said, "but it isn't fit for Man to live on yet, for it is too hot, and there isn't any water. Blow some more, and make Rain."