4. 'How old?'

'No one knows. It is a long story, and no one can tell it properly.
Shall I tell you as much as I know?'

'Yes, do, please, mother!' and the two settled themselves at her feet.

5. 'Well,' she began, 'once upon a time there was a great stir at the
bottom of the sea. The heat and gas under the ground broke through and
pushed out everything that was in the way.

6. 'Stones, ashes, and dust came flying up through the water, and then
fell back into the water again. When all was quiet, they settled down at
the bottom of the sea, and became mud.

7. 'All this happened many times, till there was a great deal of mud.
Then, little by little, the mud was covered up by other things.'

8. 'What sort of things?'

'Dead fish, perhaps, and shells, and sand and mud that had been brought
by rivers into the sea. These things lay on the top of the mud and
weighed it down.

9. 'The heat under the bottom of the sea still kept up, and made the mud
very hot, and baked it through. At last it gave a great push, and heaved
the mud up above the water, so that it became dry land.

10. 'In other ways it was made harder and harder, until it was turned