The Magic Egg, and Other StoriesStockton, Frank R.
Science
The Magic Egg, and Other Stories
Stockton, Frank R.
Short stories; United States -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Fiction
I did not stop to investigate, however, from my window. I found my
clothes huddled together with the furniture at the front end of the
room, and as soon as I was dressed I went into the hall and then to my
front door. I quickly jerked this open and was about to step outside
when, suddenly, I stopped. I was positive that my front porch had been
destroyed. But there I saw a porch a little lower than mine and a
great deal wider, and on the other side of it, not more than eight feet
from me, was a window--the window of a house, and on the other side of
the window was a face--the face of a young girl! As I stood staring in
blank amazement at the house which presented itself at my front door,
the face at the window disappeared, and I was left to contemplate the
scene by myself. I ran to my back door and threw it open. There I
saw, stretching up the fields and far up the hillside, the wide path
which my house had made as it came down from its elevated position to
the valley beneath, where it had ended its onward career by stopping up
against another house. As I looked from the back porch I saw that the
ground still continued to slope, so that if my house had not found in
its path another building, it would probably have proceeded somewhat
farther on its course. It was lighter, and I saw bushes and fences and
outbuildings--I was in a back yard.
Almost breathless with amazement and consternation, I ran again to the
front door. When I reached it I found a young woman standing on the
porch of the house before me. I was about to say something--I know not
what--when she put her finger on her lips and stepped forward.
"Please don't speak loudly," she said. "I am afraid it will frighten
mother. She is asleep yet. I suppose you and your house have been
sliding downhill?"
"That is what has happened," said I. "But I cannot understand it. It
seems to me the most amazing thing that ever took place on the face of
the earth."
"It is very queer," said she, "but hurricanes do blow away houses, and
that must have been a hurricane we had last night, for the wind was
strong enough to loosen any house. I have often wondered if that house
would ever slide downhill."
"My house?"
"Yes," she said. "Soon after it was built I began to think what a nice
clean sweep it could make from the place where it seemed to be stuck to
the side of the mountain, right down here into the valley."
I could not talk with a girl like this; at least, I could not meet her
on her own conversational grounds. I was so agitated myself that it
seemed unnatural that any one to whom I should speak should not also be
agitated.
"Who are you?" I asked rather brusquely. "At least, to whom does this
house belong?"
"This is my mother's house," said she. "My mother is Mrs. Carson. We
happen just now to be living here by ourselves, so I cannot call on any
man to help you do anything. My brother has always lived with us, but
last week he went away."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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