Tales out of school

by Frank R. Stockton

THE TRAVELERS ARE COLD.

At last they passed around the moon, and again found themselves upon its sunny side. Then they were happy. Light and heat, after the dreadful darkness and cold through which they had passed were enough to make men happy, especially men so far away from home and all the comforts and conveniences of civilized society.

As they passed around the moon they had a fine opportunity of observing the lunar landscapes. They were not so far away but that with their glasses they could see the mountains and plains, and all sorts of curious caves, and wonderful formations like forts and castles, but which they knew to be nothing but great masses of the moon’s surface, thrown up in these strange shapes by volcanic action. It is probable that what is described in this story is very like what the real surface of the moon must be.

After they had revolved some time they found that they were getting farther and farther away from the moon, and this made them suppose that they were moving in an elliptical orbit. They were much discouraged by this idea, for they thought, and very justly too, that there was now no chance of the moon’s drawing them towards itself, so that they would fall upon its surface.

This they had hoped to do, and they did not expect to suffer from the fall, for the attraction of the moon is so much less than that of the earth that they thought they would descend rather gently on the moon’s surface. But now there seemed to be no chance of their getting there at all.

At last, however, they found that they were passing entirely out of the line of the moon’s attraction, and after that they perceived plainly that they were falling.

But not upon the moon. They were falling towards the earth!

This was dreadful. A fall of 240,000 miles! But they could not help it, and down they went.

Out in the Pacific ocean there was a United States steamship, taking soundings. The captain was astonished to find at the place where they were sailing, about two hundred miles from the coast of California, that the water was so deep that the longest sounding lines would scarcely reach the bottom.

As he and his officers were discussing this matter, a distant hissing sound was heard, like the escape of steam from a steam-pipe. But it sounded as if it were high up in the air. It came nearer and nearer and grew louder and louder, and as all eyes were turned upwards towards the point from which the hissing seemed to come, they saw what they thought was a great meteor, rapidly approaching them from the sky.