The small ball with its little gravitation caused us to be so light that we were not fatigued, and as the days were only six hours long we had but a short time to labor.
Having found a site which was remarkably pleasant, we built ourselves four stone houses, and proceeded to adorn the grounds.
We called the broad, rapid river which flowed past to the sea the Styx, because its waters were so dark and because the forest on the further side was so mysterious.
The tall trees about us were of corn stalk consistency. They grew from a deep morass. The broad leaves formed so close a surface that they penned the heated air beneath them, and at noon-time we could see the atmosphere turn to a greenish hue, and vibrate as if over a heated stove.
Sometimes the roots became too heavy and, falling somewhere, pulled the tops to the ground. Sometimes the tops became too heavy and the tree toppled on one side, lodged, and, after awhile, fell with some of its fellows into a pile of green reeds and vines. These heaps of trunks and webs of vines made it possible for us to cross the river; from isle to isle there were vine bridges formed, and thus we were enabled to investigate the forest, where we were glad to find an abundance of fruit and berries.
Into this bewildering maze, a dreamland of bottomless swamps and foundationless jungle, Regan and I went often. Always in the morning, as at noon its heat became unendurable. We found many birds, which we killed with no difficulty, several different fruits, and a few harmless serpents. There was a lack of animal life in the seething woodlands of the Star.
We gathered a bark, softer and lighter than that of the birch, and this we used for paper, upon which we chronicled every important event, fact and discovery of our Earth, as fast as we could remember them. We were making wooden type and printing presses, but meantime wrote everything so as not to forget; forget and grow like the uncivilized nations of Earth before we could find those people who had built the fire.
We were late this day. The burdens of bark were heavy and hindered our progress through the vines and over the fallen trunks.
The hours, always too few, had gone before we knew it, and we were hastening to get into the cooler air, in momentary expectation of falling from the heat.
“Where does this intense heat come from?” asked Regan. “Is it all from the sun?”