STRANGE ADVENTURES IN NATURE'S WONDERLANDS

THE ADVENTURES
OF A GRAIN OF DUST

BY
HALLAM HAWKSWORTH

AUTHOR OF "THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF A PEBBLE"

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
NEW YORK CHICAGO BOSTON

Copyright, 1922, by
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Printed in the United States of America
C

[Pg v]

JUST A WORD

I don't want you to think that I'm boasting, but I dobelieve I'm one of the greatest travellers that ever was;and if anybody, living or dead, has ever gone through withmore than I have I'd like to hear about it.

Not that I've personally been in all the places or takenpart in all the things I tell in this book—I don't mean tosay that—but I do ask you to remember how long it ispossible for a grain of dust to last, and how many otherfar-travelled and much-adventured dust grains it mustmeet and mix with in the course of its life.

The heart of the most enduring grains of dust is a littleparticle of sand, the very hardest part of the original rockfragment out of which it was made. That's what makeseven the finest mud seem gritty when it dries on yourfeet. And the longer these sand grains last the harderthey get, as you may say; for it is the hardest part thatremains, of course, as the grain wears down. Moreover,the smaller it gets the less it wears. If it happens to bespending its time on the seashore, for example, the verysame kind of waves that buffet it about so, waves that,farther down the beach hurl huge blocks of stone againstthe cliffs and crack them to pieces, not only do not wearaway the sand grains, to speak of, but actually save themfrom wear. The water between the grains protects them;like little cushions. And the sand in the finer dust grains[Pg vi]carried by the wind is protected by the material thatgathers on its surface.

Why, if a pebble of the size of a hickory-nut may beages and ages old—almost in the very form in which yousee it,[1] think what the age of this long-enduring part of agrain of dust must be.

Then remember what the ever-changing material on thesurface of these immortal grains is made of; the dust particlesof plants and animals, of buried Cæsars and stillolder ancients, such as those early settlers of Chapter II.

Finally, if what we call flesh and blood can think andtalk, why not a grain of dust? In fact, what is flesh andblood but dust come back to life? Says the poet—and thepoets know:

You see it's as likely a thing as could happen—thiswhole story.

The Grain of Dust.

(Per H. H.)

CONTENTS