Note: This is a scene-setting piece in at least one of the later editions of The Weathermonger. For example, it isn't in the 1970 (reprint 1974) Puffin. It is possibly first published 1986. [to be investigated ... clarkmci] The piece is similar to the piece "The Beginning" in the 1985 omnibus The Changes Trilogy - the first 2 paragraphs seem the same, the rest includes some of the other text but some has been deleted and more added at the end. (Presumably reworked to suit the single title - which is chronoogically last in the trilogy - rather than the whole omnibus.) ...[clarkmci]