The Project Gutenberg EBook of Micro-Man, by Forrest James Ackerman

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Title: Micro-Man

Author: Forrest James Ackerman

Release Date: May 29, 2010 [EBook #32579]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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MICRO-MAN

BY WEAVER WRIGHT

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Fantasy Book Vol. 1
number 1 (1947). Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Sidenote: _The little man dared to venture into the realm of the
Gods--but the Gods were cruel!_]

The early morning streetcar, swaying and rattling along its tracks, did
as much to divert my attention from the book I was reading as the
contents of the book itself. I did not like Plato. Comfortable though
the seat was, I was as uncomfortable as any collegiate could be whose
mind would rather dwell upon tomorrow's football game than the immediate
task in hand--the morning session with Professor Russell and the book on
my lap.

My gaze wandered from the book and drifted out the distorted window,
then fell to the car-sill as I thought over Plato's conclusions.
Something moving on the ledge attracted my attention: it was a scurrying
black ant. If I had thought about it, I might have wondered how it came
there. But the next moment a more curious object on the sill caught my
eye. I bent over.

I couldn't make out what it was at first. A bug, perhaps. Maybe it was
too small for a bug. Just a little dancing dust, no doubt.

Then I discerned--and gasped. On the sill, there----it was a man! A man
on the streetcar's window sill----a _little_ man! He was so tiny I would
never have seen him if it hadn't been for his white attire, which made
him visible against the brown grain of the shellacked wood. I watched,
amazed as his microscopic figure moved over perhaps half an inch.

He wore a blouse and shorts, it seemed, and sandals. Something might
have been hanging at his side, but it was too small for