Rondah; or, thirty-three years in a star

by Florence Carpenter Dieudonné

Then he called, and from the palace came hundreds of people, yes, very people of Earth. They were strangely glorified, but men and women, who cried out, in glad acclaim, “The time is here at last!” and who looked with delighted countenances upon these three.

“The long years have passed,” said one.

“They speak as men,” said Rondah.

“Yes,” said the man who towered in majesty so superior to any that he could not be supposed to belong to the same race. “Listen while I tell you the secret of the Sun Island and how it came to be here.”

He moved his hand and a number of boys came forward and scattered upon the white rocks baskets of blossoms, making banks of flowers on which the three seated themselves while the man told them as follows:

“In time primeval, before the sun with its attendant worlds was spoken into being, where now we whirl, on this tiny orb, there rolled two stupendous, peopled worlds more vast than Jupiter. On these dwelt such as I, men whose lives were prolonged for ages. We reasoned for cycles. We built for great periods. We had years granted until we learned too much and grew weary of our knowledge.

“But woe and sin and hate, intensified in evil according to the size of the field and the capacity of the race, existed with us. For centuries my life was only part of a splendid pageant. Then I became troubled at the misery around me. I devoted my time to the unfortunate. Oh, there were so many! Their relief became the only pleasure of my life. I heard the prophecies about me. I noted the signs of impending disaster. I even heard the creaking of the sinews of our old world, and saw the continents being deserted for life beyond; but I was so busy. I hastened to get to a few more nations, and before I was there, while I was saying, ‘Some other time I will lay down my life,’ the globes, like two bubbles in air, burst into millions of fragments and my existence was indefinitely prolonged.

“Previously we had been instructed by agencies of a supernatural character, but I was vouchsafed no explanation, neither granted any instruction. On this fragment—a patch of my world—I floated for some chaotic cycles—somewhere! anywhere!

“Then I saw your sun, with worlds, called into that place where before all had been dark. Ages, oh, ages ago, my island dashed into the mass of hot vapor wherein were floating in steam Earth’s oceans, for then the gaseous ball was very large. Later, I saw the oceans fall upon lava, to be sent off in clouds. I saw continents form, like black ice in scarlet seas, and saw them dashed into pieces to leave no record.

“I saw such forests as these on the star, and saw them with their hot marshes sunken under temporary seas. I began to wonder why was all this. Time became a long sorrow to me. The Earth was a break in its monotony, and when it became the abode of man I could scarce endure my long exile. For each short visit I must away to Saturn’s kingdom out in distance. With farseeing eyes, such as we have, I could look through some years, and see the deeds and also read the hearts of men.