At first the water was in the form of dense clouds of overhanging vapor which, growing bigger and bigger, finally fell in rain. The heat, made by the pressure of the outside of the earth toward the centre as the earth kept growing, caused volcanic explosions. But there were far more volcanoes in those early days when the earth was settling down, and being "settled up," as it were, by these energetic pioneers in the fields of space--the planetessimals--and the surface became pitted with craters. In these great catch basins the rain was stored, and, as for ages the rain kept falling faster than the vapor rose from the earth, many of these bodies of water united, and so formed the lakes, the river systems, the oceans, and the seas. THE FOUR GREAT FEATURES OF THE BIBLE STORY All of which, while it differs so much from the theory of Laplace, does not affect the Bible outline of the origin of the earth. For these four great things must still have been: (1) an earth without form, and void; (2) a great deep; (3) upon its face darkness from the continuing masses of black rain-laden clouds which overhung it and shut out the sun; (4) the final dividing up of supply between the vapor of the clouds ("the waters above the earth") and "the waters upon the earth," so that at last the dark cloud curtain disappeared, and the sun began to rule the day. "Let there be light." * * * * * But good-by to Phaeton and the story of an original glowing ball which cooled off on the outside. If the earth grew bit by bit instead of being whirled off in one fiery mass by the sun it was never any hotter than it is now, if as hot. It grew hot by being pressed together by its own weight, and by the blows of additional little worlds as they fell upon it. But on one thing everybody agrees, that the rocks, as you go toward the earth's centre, have been and still are in a molten state; that this rock, when it cools, becomes granite, all full of little crystals like a lump of sugar, and that the Granites are one of the F. F. E.'s.[4] [Footnote 4: First Families on Earth.] I, as you see, am a Granite. So, besides going through fire and water--yes, and ice, as you will learn--and having many strange and wearing adventures both by land and sea--I'm "awfully" old. Older than you think. I looked it up in the family record called the "Geological Column"--just the other day. That column gives my age as "80+." This means I'm 80,000,000 years old, going on 81! (The _plus_ sign, in geology language, means "going on"; or, "and then some," as a certain slangful high school freshman puts it.) But I don't think I _show_ my age. Do you? HIDE AND SEEK IN THE LIBRARY