The inclosure, which was walled in by four fogs, was full of them, jumping hurdles, playing marbles, or racing around after each other.
So busy were they at their sport that it was not until Nimbus had shouted himself hoarse that they paid the slightest attention to him.
At last, however, one of them heard him and shot over to see what he wanted.
“I don’t believe,” said Nimbus, “that you Meteors could hear the rings of Saturn if they rang all at once. Did you know that the Equator had escaped?”
“Goodness, no!” said the Meteor, and instantly shot about among his fellows spreading the dreadful news.
They left off playing immediately, and all lined up before Nimbus for orders.
“You must go find the Equator,” said the Fairy authoritatively. “The Rays have gone to notify the Sun. Ten of you will come with us. The other six million will scatter about the universe and look for him. Let me know the instant you see him, and stop him if he starts to come back to the Earth.”
“Yes, sir,” said the Meteors in a breath. With a great crackling noise they shot away into the void, each taking a different direction so that their going looked like a splendid shower of rockets on the night of the Fourth of July.
“With a great crackling noise they shot into the void”