Chapter XVI: The Earth Home

In the centre of a wide expanse of tableland, walled at a distance by mountain chains, stood the great stone palace which Regan had built for their home.

It was founded on a rise of solid rock, which had been surrounded by three wide terraces, rising each twenty feet above the other. In width these terraces were one hundred feet.

At the foot of the terrace, on the south side, was a great lake, artificially formed, from whence the earth used in the terraces had been removed.

Upon the lower terrace was set a forest of the silver fringe trees; these drooped over the stone sides and made graceful shades in the still lake. Along the edges of the terrace were set colossal glass vases, which were draped with veils of dark green satiny leaves and wealth of rose-hued blossoms. In the second terrace were only crimson leaved trees, and a row of giant white statues stood along the wall, thrown into brilliant relief by the color behind them.

The third terrace had only the deep purple velvet of the pansy tree. Above this rose, pure white, the columns of the many-pillared palace, which, about its roof, was decorated with glass panels and numerous light-spired minarets. At one side rose a glass tower with a dome overlaid with solid gold.

Regan would have been glad to have built a vast golden-domed roof for it all, but he must remember the instability of his star; he must build for earthquake, cyclone, flood and snow.

Within this palace were suits of great cool rooms, some furnished and decorated, some left for Rondah to furnish as suited her best. Above all these, upon the walled, flat roof, was a lake of water, wherein was an artificial glass island, upon which was a golden temple; from this place Rondah could see the whole vale. At the north was the restless, smoky sea; at the east the rows of manufactories on the distant hills, their tall chimneys smoking ceaselessly; at the south the great silvery lake with its surrounding parks, and, beyond, the houses of the city; at the west the mountains and their forests, with the western sunsets.

How miraculous the change! From a small house in a hamlet in an earthly wilderness to the capitol of another world; from nothingness to supreme power; from loneliness to happiness!

“I wonder,” whispered Rondah, “shall we be always so happy, Regan and I? These bird people are always so, but I doubt if men and women of our Earth leave, except by death, their misery inherited. Perhaps, perhaps,” mused Rondah. “But it seems more reasonable to me that trouble will come to us here!”

Ah, Rondah!

Blindly she groped after the great law, of which she had one mental glimpse. She could not understand it, but with the unfailing intuition of a woman she felt its presence. People of Earth, wherever they live, must know sorrow.

All glorious and serene the star sailed now, aglow with endless radiance and sunny warmth. Its path was toward the sun.

Regan dreaded the winter and its dangers. Ahead was storm, cold, earthquake, Jupiter.

The elf men, the new race, had begun to be insubordinate; they were as fond of demolishing as were the bird men of building. They often, from mere caprice, tore down magnificent structures when they were left unprotected.

“But nothing is too much trouble to endure now that you are here, Rondah!” Regan said. “Until you came the star was dark!”

“And Earth was dark! It is not the sun which lightens human hearts!” answered Rondah.