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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"

Something was slipping from them, as sleep slips from the
skin and the eyes in the early morning when the bath comes "pinging"
upon the floor. What did it mean?
Big and little, far and near, above, below, inside and outside--all
were mixed together in a falling rush.
They themselves were changing.
They looked up. They saw an enormous thing rising behind them with
vast caverns of square outline opening in its sides--a house. They saw
huge, towering shapes whose tops were in the clouds--the familiar lime
trees. Big and tiny were inextricably mixed together.
And that was wrong. For either the forest of grass was as big as
themselves--in which case they still were daisies; or else it was tiny
and far below them--in which case they were hurrying humans again.
There was an odd confusion...while consciousness swung home to its
appointed centre and Adventure brought them back towards the old,
familiar starting-place again.
There came an ominous and portentous sound that rushed towards them
through the air, and through the solid ground as well. They heard it,
and grew pale with terror. Across the entire lawn it rumbled nearer,
growing in volume awfully.


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