CHAPTER XIV.
HURLED FROM THE MOON.
Together we stood gazing in silence out into the abyss over the small surface of the moon that was visible to us, oppressed with a sense of awe as the sun dropped from sight, leaving us plunged in darkness.
Suddenly there appeared from out of the inky blackness of the heavens a huge crescent, stretching across the sky far above us. The sight of it fascinated us, and, as we stood lost in admiration at the majestic proportions of the beautiful arch of light, ever growing in width, we gradually realized that it was the sun-tipped rim of the planet which our moon was journeying around—the world from which we had been hurled and to which we must return.
A sense of great reverence overpowered me; I realized that we looked upon sights, and felt great forces never before bared to mortals. Through my mind ran lines of Addison's ode:
"The spacious firmament on high
With all the blue ethereal sky,
And spangled heavens, a shining frame,
Their great Original proclaim.