bit, as one man carved a
door post here and another fitted a window there, each planning his own
part. Not so with the sky scraper. It grew in haste. Its parts were made
in factories scattered the country over. Each factory was ready with a
part, and the railroad was ready swift to bring them to its feet. The
sky scraper grew in haste. For it the many worked as one.

Planned by those who command and reared by those who obey, in an
enormous city men built this enormous building. Deep they built it, deep
into the ground; high they built it, high into the air. And now they
use this building built by them. The sky scraper houses an army of ten
thousand men. All day they clamber up and down its core like insects in
a giant tree. They buzz and buzz, and then go home.

[Illustration]

But there with the shadowy silent streets at its feet stands the lofty
sky scraper. On its head there glows a monstrous light. The rays pierce
through the fogs. And when the storm is screaming wild, the light
struggles through to the frightened boats tossing on the mountain waves.
The storm howls and beats on the sides of the lofty lacy tower with the
shining light on top. The storms beat on its side, the tower leans in
the wind, the tower of steel and of stone leans and leans a full two
feet. Then when the blast is past, this tower of steel and of stone
swings back to straightness again.

And so in the enormous city men built this enormous building. Deep they
built it, deep into the ground; high, they built it, high into the air.
Now that it is finished, the men who walk about its feet forget how deep
into the ground it reaches. But they can never forget how high into the
blue it soars. Their necks ache when they throw back their heads to see
to the top. For of all the buildings in the world this sky scraper is
the highest.

END

End of Project Gutenberg's Here and Now Story Book, by Lucy Sprague Mitchell

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