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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"

It first began
Before the hurrying race
Of ticking, and of tearing pages
Deafened the breathless ages:
It is the happy singing
Of wind among the rigging
Of our Extra Day!"
"It's something anyhow," decided Judy, rather impressed by her uncle's
fit of bursting.
And, somehow, Dawn was the password and Tomorrow the key. No one knew
more than that. It had to do with Time, for Uncle Felix had taken the
stopped clock to his room and hidden it there lest somebody like
Jackman or Thompson should wind it up. Later, however, he gave it for
safer keeping to Maria, because she moved so rarely and did so little
that was unnecessary that she seemed the best repository of all. Also,
this was _her_ particular adventure, and what risk there was belonged
properly to her. But beyond this they knew nothing, and they didn't
want to know. In the immediate future, just before the gateway of To-
morrow's dawn, a great gap lay waiting, a gap they had discovered
alone of all the world. The scientists had made a mistake, the
Government had been afraid to deal with it, the rest of the world lay
in ignorance of its very existence even.


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