1
two-legs was now a very old man.
his race was constantly increasing. it lived dispersed over a large and glorious plain, where the rich corn waved in the fields and the cattle waded through the tall and luscious grass. some of the men followed the sea, others tilled the soil and tended the cattle, others felled timber in the forests. the women kept house and weaved and span.
wherever the plain rose into a little hill, a wind-mill strutted. every brook that ran turned the wheel of a water-mill.
two-legs himself constantly sat and observed what went on around him in nature and pondered upon it. all looked up to him with respect, as the eldest of the race and the cleverest man in the world. all came to him for advice and help and seldom went away unaided.
in the middle of the plain rose a tall, cone-shaped mountain. from its top, off and on, came a column of smoke. two-legs often looked at this mountain. once he rode up to the top and stood and stared into the hole whence the smoke ascended, but the heat that came out of it was so great that he could not endure it or remain there.
then he rode back to his house again and sat and gazed at the mountain and thought and wondered what there could be in its depths. he knew mountains that contained gold and iron and other metals; and he taught his children to extract the ore and smelt it and shape the metal into tools and ornaments. but a mountain like this, which smoked at the top, he had never seen before.
2
now, one day, as he was sitting plunged in thought, he heard voices round about him, as he was wont to do. they whispered in the stately palm-tree that raised its crown high above his head:
“two-legs is mighty ... greater than any other in the world ... he rules the earth and all that is upon it.”
they sang in the river that ran down to the sea:
“two-legs rules the waters ... they carry his ships wherever he will ... they breed fish for his table.”
the warm wind blew over his face:
“two-legs is greater than any other ... he rules me ... i have to toil in his service, like the ox and the horse.... blow east, blow west, he catches me and uses me.”
two-legs passed his hand down his long, white beard and nodded with pride and contentment.
at that moment, a peculiar thundering noise was heard. it was as though it came from the interior of the earth; and, indeed, one could not imagine where else it should come from. for the sky was cloudless and clear and the sun shone bright and warm, just at noonday.
“what was that?” said two-legs.
“who knows?” said the palm-tree, trembling right down to its roots. “who can fathom the forces that prevail in nature?”
“who can say?” said the river, tossing its waves in terror, like a rearing horse. “what do any of us know, after all?”
“who has so much as an idea?” said the wind, dropping suddenly, like a tiger preparing to spring. “the earth is full of mighty forces, which not one of us knows anything about.”
there came another booming sound. two-legs rose. he looked at the mountain in the middle of the plain and saw that the column of smoke had turned into a great black cloud, which grew and spread faster than his eyes could follow it.
now, it masked the sun; now, the waves in the river foamed and met the waves of the sea, which came dashing over the land; now, the wind rose, in a moment, into a furious gale.
and, before two-legs could look round, it was suddenly black as midnight.
he saw, just as the light disappeared, that something dropped from the sky, but could not see what it was. he groped his way to the stable, where his horse stood tethered, jumped on its back and darted away from the region where danger lay. the beast was mortally frightened, like himself, and ran for its life.
he could not see his hand before his eyes, but thought he heard a wailing and crying through the storm, all over the plain, wherever he came. he was able to tell a voice here and there, but he merely rushed on and on, until his horse dropped under him.
then he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, stumbled and fell and got up again and ran and ran, while the cries rang out around him, when they were not drowned in the roar of the storm and the thundering noise from the mountain.
he was struck by a stone on the back of the head and felt the blood trickle down his neck. his foot trod in something that was like boiling water. he drew it back with a cry and ran the other way. at last, he lost consciousness and had not himself the least idea how he had managed to escape. when he recovered, he was lying on a knoll, right at the end of the plain. round about him lay half a score of people of his family, bewildered and exhausted like himself. they did not speak, but gazed at one another in dismay and wept, with trembling hands.
3
two-legs shaded his brows with his hand and looked out over the plain.
it had become light again, suddenly, even as it had become dark. the black clouds had drifted away and the sun was setting in crimson and gold as on the most perfect summer’s evening.
here and there, on the neighbouring hillocks, were some of his family, who had saved themselves as he had. they also had a few of the tame animals with them; and two-legs suddenly noticed that his faithful dog was licking his hand.
but the whole country, except the few hillocks, was buried under an ocean of boiling and bubbling mud that soon stiffened to a hard crust. all the houses and mills were destroyed and drowned in the sea of mud. all the people and animals lay dead and buried under it. all the rich and glorious plain looked like a desert in which nothing had ever lived; and in its midst stood the mountain, tall and calm, with the column of smoke on its top.
two-legs’ kinsmen set to work to collect what had been saved.
with wailing and lamentation, they withdrew from the ruined country where they had made their home, together with the poor remnants of their wealth. the women carried in their arms the babes which they had saved and cried over those which were dead. the herdsmen counted the few head of cattle that had been spared. the sailors scanned the sea in vain for a single ship that had escaped unhurt.
“come, father two-legs,” they said. “let us leave this accursed land. there must be some place in the world where we can find peace and begin afresh to build up all that these terrible hours have destroyed.”
but two-legs shook his head:
“do you go,” he said. “i will follow you.”
4
they went; and he did not so much as look after them, but only sat and gazed at the strange mountain from which the disaster had come. he sat far into the night, which was clear and mild, and had none with him but the dog, who would not leave him. the smoke from the mountain was carried past him, now and then, by the wind; but now it was only like a light, thin stream.
“who caused that? who caused it?” said two-legs and gazed before him.
“i did,” said steam.
“you?” said two-legs. “who are you? you are flowing past me like a mist. how did you have the strength to do it? who are you?... where do you come from?”
“i am steam,” he said. “i come from the mountain up there. i was shut in until i grew mad and furious and had to get air. then i broke out and destroyed the whole country. now that’s over and i have found peace and am as you see me.”
“you bad steam,” said two-legs.
“i am not bad,” said steam.
“would you have me call you good?” asked two-legs. “you have destroyed my rich land and killed nearly all my children and grandchildren and most of my cattle. all that i invented so cleverly and successfully to make life easy and pleasant for me and mine you have spoilt in a few hours, though i have done nothing to offend you. are you good?”
“i am not good,” said steam.
“very well, you are neither bad nor good,” said two-legs. “i seem to have heard that nonsense once before. wait a bit: it was the wind who made the same remark, when he too had been the cause of my misfortune.”
“exactly,” said steam. “i am neither bad nor good. it is just as the wind said. didn’t you see, at the time, that the wind was right?”
“yes,” said two-legs, quietly.
“didn’t you take the wind into your service?” asked steam. “you caught him and put him to your boat and your mill. you watched him and learnt to know his ways, so that you could use him as he came. am i not right?”
“aye,” said two-legs. “i became the wind’s master. but i do not understand how i am to conquer you, who are mightier than the wind, or how to employ your formidable power in my service.”
“catch me, use me!” said steam. “i serve the strongest.”
5
two-legs sat and gazed and thought. he looked at the ruined land, at the sun, which shone as mildly as though nothing had happened, at steam, who floated quietly over the wilderness. there was not a house left standing, not a tree; and not a bird was singing.
once, he turned round and looked after his kinsmen. he saw them far away on the horizon, but still it did not occur to him to follow them. then he said to steam:
“who are you? tell me something about yourself.”
“i am like this at present,” said steam. “you see me now and you saw me a little while ago. look out across the sea and you shall see me there, too.”
“i don’t see you there,” said two-legs.
“that’s because you don’t know,” said steam. “as a matter of fact i am water, to start with.”
“tell me about it,” said two-legs.
“it’s easily told,” said steam. “you see, i am the sea water, which soaks through the ground into the mountain yonder. i ooze in through a thousand underground passages. but inside the mountain there is a tremendous fire, which smoulders everlastingly and never goes out. now, when the water rises above the fire, it turns to steam; and the steam is collected in great cavities down the mountain, so long as there is room for it. at last, there is so much of it that it can’t exist there. then the mountain bursts. rocks and stones ... the whole mountain-lake up there, which is boiling because of the fire in the ground ... mud and sludge, boiling water and scalding steam come rushing out over the land, as you have just seen. i burst everything, when i am tortured beyond endurance. there is not a wall that can imprison me, not a door which i cannot open ... do you understand?”
two-legs nodded.
“you have seen the column of smoke that rises from the mountain every day,” said steam. “there is always a little opening, you know, an air-hole through which some of me can escape. but at last it is no longer big enough and then i burst the whole concern. now learn from what has happened to you to-day that you must never build your abode where you see a smoking mountain, for you can never be safe there.”
“it’s not enough for me to be safe,” said two-legs. “i don’t want to avoid you. i want to rule you. you are the strongest force i know in the world. you must be my servant, like the horse and the ox and the wind.”
“catch me and use me, if you can!” said steam.
“well,” said two-legs, “i will try. but first tell me what becomes of you when you float through the air, as you are doing now.”
“then i turn cold,” said steam. “and, when i have turned cold, i become water ... rain ... mist ... whatever you please.”
“and then you fall into the sea,” said two-legs. “and then you soak into the mountain, where the fire is, and become steam again; and so on and so on, for ever and ever.”
“that’s it,” said steam.
then he floated on across the wilderness and disappeared out at sea. two-legs gazed after him and then stared at the mountain again, which was smoking peacefully, as it had done before.
he sat the whole night and pondered. then he rose, called the dog and went after the others.
6
two-legs and his family had discovered a new country.
they built their houses again and tilled the soil and reaped corn and raised cattle. they cut timber in the forests and the seamen built new ships. many years passed before the disaster was overcome, but at last the whole tribe was recovered to such an extent that they forgot about it, all excepting two-legs.
he was always sitting and pondering and thinking about it. that is to say, it was not the disaster itself he thought about: he had forgotten that, like the others. he had forgotten the dead, for he now had so many descendants that he no longer knew their number or their names. it was steam he thought about.
when he saw how the wind turned the sails of the mill or carried the ships across the sea, he gave a scornful smile. it went so terribly slowly, he considered. and then a storm might come, when they could neither sail nor grind, or a head-wind so strong that they had to divert their course for it, or a calm, when everything had to stand still.
“you’re only a second-rate servant, friend wind,” he said. “ah, steam! now there’s a fellow for you!”
he remembered how the captive steam broke out and, in a moment, obscured the sun and turned day into night, how it scattered far and wide over the land great stones and mud and ashes and all that the fiery mountain or volcano contained. in a few hours, the plain was transformed into a wilderness. it was all done so quickly and with such force that no one could possibly imagine it who had not seen it. surely, steam must be the strongest power on earth.
he thought of what the steam had said, how it came into existence when the water got above the fire.
“that’s right,” he said.
he sat and looked at the pot, which was boiling. as soon as the water grew hot enough, the white steam floated above it.
he took a piece of glass and held it over the steam. the steam settled on the glass in clear drops.
“that’s right, too,” he said. “the steam turns to water again.”
he saw them put a lid on the pot to keep in the heat. they made up the fire and more steam came, so that the lid began to jump.
“now it’s getting too close in there,” he said. “just as steam told me about the volcano.”
they put a stone on the lid to hold it down. two-legs added more and more fuel and more and more steam came. at last it flung off the lid with the stone and darted out into the room.
“the mountain is splitting,” said two-legs, rubbing his hands.
7
he built himself a big boiler and a great furnace. here he kept up a constant fire and tried the strength of the steam and pondered how to make use of it. he had only one person with him, one of his grandsons, who was cleverer than the others, and with whom he often talked of the thought that dwelt in him.
many a time they two would sit long into the night and work and talk, always of the same thing. it was the question of making the steam work the way it should and no other and as strongly as it should and no more. no one ventured to disturb them. all the rest of the tribe looked upon two-legs’ house with awe and reverence, for they knew how clever he was and that he was working alone for the good of the whole race. some of them, also, believed that he would at last succeed in mastering steam, but many thought that it would never come to pass and that it would end in terror, as though he were fighting the most secret and powerful forces in nature.
but, whether they held this view or that, they all preferred to keep away from two-legs’ house, because they understood how great the danger was to which he exposed himself. all those who had survived the calamity of the volcano were long since dead; but the legend of that terrible day still lingered in the tribe and two-legs’ kinsmen could not help thinking what terrible things might happen if steam should suddenly, one day, turn bad again.
two-legs took no heed of what they thought or said.
now and again, the elders came to him to report on what was happening, good or bad, in the family: the number of children born, the losses suffered or the gain in prosperity. he looked up hastily from his work, nodded to them and then bade them go and leave him alone.
sometimes, a young man would come running up, radiantly happy at some discovery he had made, to gather praise from the old, wise man whom they all honoured above any other. two-legs scarcely looked up from his work and did not hear him to the end. he knew that the ideas with which he himself was busied were far greater and more important and longed impatiently for the day when they should be realized.
he built new boilers of strange shapes and bigger, so that they could hold more steam, and stronger, so that the steam could not burst them. he made his people dig coal from the mountains and used it for fuel, because he had discovered that it gave greater heat and therefore more quickly turned the water into steam. as each year passed, he thought he was nearing the goal, but as yet he had not reached it and sometimes he was despairing.
one day, the boiler burst. he himself was struck on the forehead by a fragment of iron and received a deep wound; but his grandson and assistant was killed before his eyes.
they all came running up with wailing and lamentations. but two-legs wiped the blood from his face and stood long and gazed at the burst boiler. then he turned and looked at the dead man:
“poor fellow!” he said. “he would so much have liked to live and see the great work finished. now he had to die; and indeed he had a fine death, for he died for the greater prosperity of his brethren. bury him and set a monument over his grave.”
they took him and were about to carry him away, but two-legs stopped them and said:
“wait a minute ... i must have one in the place of him who died: is there any of you that will help me? he knows the lot that awaits him: death, perhaps, and disappointment for many years, before we succeed, and scorn from the blockheads who do not understand.”
seven at once applied. for, though they were certainly afraid, they felt attracted by the mystery and the danger; and there was no greater honour in the tribe than to stand by two-legs.
so he chose one of them, took him into his house and initiated him into his secrets, while the others carried the dead man away and buried him.
8
the years passed. one day, the people saw two-legs stand outside his house and wave his arms and shout aloud. they ran from every side to hear what he wanted.
“i have found it, i have found it,” he shouted.
he took the elders indoors and showed them a great iron cylinder which he had constructed. at the top of the cylinder was a hole which joined another cylinder. in the first cylinder was a piston, also of iron, which fitted so accurately that it could just slide up and down; and it was smeared with oil so that it might slide as easily as possible. at the bottom of the cylinder was the boiler with the water and under the boiler the furnace.
two-legs lit a fire in the furnace, the water turned to steam and the steam went up to the top cylinder and lifted the piston right up to the top end of the cylinder. there it escaped through the hole into the cylinder beside it, where it was cooled and became water again and ran down into the boiler and was once more heated by the fire and turned into steam.
but, when the steam had escaped through the hole, the piston slid down again to the bottom of the cylinder, was lifted up by fresh steam and rose and fell again; and this went on as long as the fire burnt in the furnace.
“look, look!” said two-legs; and his eyes beamed with pride and delight. “see, i have caught steam and imprisoned him in this cylinder. when i make a fire in the furnace, he rises out of the water and lifts the piston to the top of the cylinder. then he has done my bidding and turns to water in the other cylinder until i once more bid him turn to steam and lift the piston. see ... see ... i have caught steam and made him my servant, like the ox and the horse and the wind!”
“we see it right enough, father two-legs,” said one of the tribe. “but we don’t understand what you mean to use your servant for. tell us, was it worth while, on this account, for you to live shut up in your house for so many years, while we have had to dispense with your wise counsel?”
“you do not understand,” said two-legs. “go away and come back again this day twelvemonth: then you shall see what i use my new servant for. when i have shown you, you can continue the work yourselves. i tell you, so great is the new servant’s strength and cleverness that, if you learn to use him properly, the whole face of the earth will be changed.”
thereupon he went into the house and shut his door.
he sat contentedly and looked at his new engine:
“ho, ho, dear steam!” he said. “i have you now. i can call you forth and turn you off. i can make you strong and i can make you weak. the more fire, the more water, the more steam. and you must always remain inside the cylinder and do my bidding. i can make the cylinder long and i can make it short; i can make the piston heavy and i can make it light: you must needs draw it up and down, my good steam.”
“you call me good,” said the steam. “on the day when i burst the mountain and destroyed all your land, you called me bad. now i told you that i was neither good nor bad. i am what i am. you have caught me and, if you can use me, then use me!”
two-legs laughed merrily and rubbed his hands. he lit the furnace and poured water into the boiler and sat and watched how the piston slid up and down:
“yes, what shall we use you for now?” he said. “shall we put you to the carriage instead of the horse? i think you might get along the road at a very different pace. shall i use you to draw the ship? then you can run close to the wind and need not care a pin for him. shall i let you turn the stones in the mill?... oh, there are a thousand things that you must do for me!”
two-legs put out the fire. then he fastened a rod to the piston and to the rod he joined another, which was fastened to the axle of a wheel. he lit the fire under the boiler and, behold, the piston went up and down, the rod moved and the wheel whirred!
he made a carriage, put the whole steam-engine on the carriage and connected the rod with the wheel. he himself stood at the back of the carriage, where the furnace was, lit the fire and heaped on coal. the wheels turned and the carriage ran along the road.
the people of the tribe came hurrying from everywhere and stared in amazement at the strange turn-out. most of them ran to one side and screamed in terror of the dangerous monster and said that it must end badly. only the cleverest understood the value of it and looked at the new carriage and talked about it.
“father two-legs,” said one of the elders, “you must not drive that carriage. we fear that it will go badly and the steam burst the engine and kill you, as it once killed your assistant.”
“it was just his death that taught me to be careful,” said two-legs. “come and see.”
then he explained to them how he had calculated the strength of the steam and the quantity of the steam which he should use to drive his carriage.
the more steam there was, the faster the piston slid up and down, the faster the wheels turned, the faster the carriage moved. the stronger the boiler was and the cylinder, the more steam it could hold without bursting.
but in one part of the boiler there was a hole, which was covered with a valve, fastened by a hinge. the valve was just so heavy that the steam could not lift it when there was as much as there should be and as the engine could bear. but, as soon as more steam came, then the valve became too light and rose and the superfluous steam rushed out of the hole.
“father two-legs is the cleverest of us all,” they said.
but two-legs stepped down from the carriage:
“i give it to you,” he said. “now you can settle for yourselves how you mean to use it. some of you can go on searching, as i did, and invent new things. the smiths can bring their tools and their ingenuity. the steam-engine is yours and you can do with it what you please.”
then he went into his house and sat down anew to look out over the world and think.
but the cleverest of the tribe set to work on the steam-engine. as the years passed, they invented first one improvement and then another, so that it worked ever more safely and smoothly.
they laid rails over the ground, so that the steam-carriage ran at a pace of which none had ever seen the like and drew a number of heavily loaded coaches after it. a man could now make a journey in a few days or weeks which formerly had taken him[132] months and years. the produce that grew at one end of the earth was now sent quickly and cheaply to the other.
they put the steam-engine in ships, where it turned paddle-wheels, so that the ships ran against wind and current. they used it to thrash the corn in the barn, to grind it in the mill: there was no end to the objects for which they were able to use it.
the steam-engine had changed the face of the earth, as two-legs had foretold.
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