If the Earth were

only a few feet in diameter

floating a few feet above a field some-

where, people would come from everywhere

to marvel at it. People would walk around it, marvell-

ing at its big pool of water, its little pools and the water

flowing between the pools. People would marvel at the bumps on it, and the holes in it, and they would marvel at the very thin layer of gas surrounding it and the water suspended in the gas. The people would marvel at all the creatures walking around the surface of the ball, and all the creatures in the water. The people would declare it precious because it was the only one, and they would protect it so that it would not be hurt. The

ball would be the greatest wonder known, and people would

come to behold it, to be healed, to gain knowledge, to know beauty and to wonder how it could be. People would

love it, and defend it with their lives, because they

would somehow know that their lives, their own

roundness, could be nothing without

it. If the Earth were only a

few feet in diameter.

By an unknown author