Otherwise, this tale would never be
told.
For Corrus and Dulnop, after having satisfied themselves that the
wondrous flowering flower would live as long as they continued to feed
it, had immediately decided to carry it home. To do so they first tried
building the fire on a large piece of bark. Of course it burned through,
and there had been more delay. Finally Corrus located a piece of slate,
so large that a small fire could be kept up without danger of spilling.
The two men had hurried straight for the village. Not once did either of
them dream what a magnificent spectacle they made; the two skin-clad
aborigines, bearing the thing which was to change them from slaves into
free beings, with all the wonders of civilization to come in its train.
Behind them as they marched, if they but knew it, stalked the principles
of the steam engine, of the printing-press, of scientific agriculture
and mechanical industry in general. Look about the room in which you sit
as you read this; even to the door-knobs every single item depends upon
fire, directly or indirectly. But Corrus and Dulnop were as ignorant of
this as their teeth were devoid of fillings.
Not until then did it occur to the four watchers on the earth that there
was anything premature about the affair.
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