《As It Was In the Beginning 》作者：- A. Bertram Chandler【EPUB】

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AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING In my last incarnation but fourteen said the Mate I was Chief Officer of Noahs Ark ... What was it like asked the Fourth Mate. Wet said the Mate. I tell you I should hate to have to go through it all again. And thestowage problems ... You young beggars growl enoughabout having to make a few separations in a hold of frozen meat — have you ever thought whatit must have been like with live meat Mind you — it didnt bother us any if the sheep and thegoats got mixed but lions and Iambs and such had to be watched. And I got blamed of coursewhen the leopards and the pumas and the panthers ganged up on the pair of sabre-toothed tigers — thats why theyre extinct. I told the Old Man that it was a pity thatit wasnt those cats with funny tufted ears that got wiped out and he asked why and I saidthat it would have given the paelaeontologists of the future a lot of fun speculating about the missing lynx. Mr. Shem hesaid and I can remember it as though it were yesterday I would impress upon you that radio will not be invented for another six thousandyears and that puns which will doubtless drive studio audiences to hysteria are out of placeaboard my Ark. But all this of course was after we had become waterborne while we were drifting aimlesslyand wondering if any of us would ever see land again. It was a long trip that. Its the beginning of it that sticks in my memory most of all though —every time that I see a New Zealand list of cargo bookings Im reminded of it. But its a loteasier in these days—then the Mate had to make the tally as well as attending to the stowage.There I was outside in the rain and it was raining too Ive never seen anything like itsince with a great long sheet of papyrus ticking off the animals as they marched up thegangway