Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 53 — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PLAYING WITH TIME — “Did your experiment go well?” he asked. David knelt slowly on the bright grass, with no shadow about him, and with his face turned towards the Being in his darkness. He placed his hands together before his face, but his eyes he kept open. “I am praying to you,” he said. “I am praying that you will put me back now five months ago before all the mischief in my life had broken.” The Being seemed to sag. His voice was shrill with sadness. “‘No,”’ he said. “‘No. You would try to change the completed past. And that you must not do.” *“Great Creature,’ David mumbled, “‘let me go back to do one thing; no, no, not to do, but to undo—only a little thing.” “It was only a little thing you did to the mountain stream,”’ said the Being sternly. “But this is to do with my brother, Lloyd,” said David. “Just between the two of us.” “When you went back ten ' days to alter the stream, you made ten days’ accumulation of consequences—ten days of flood water—drowned pas- tures and ruined a farm. If I turn you back five ms,onth what, yes, what, indeed, may you not do to history.”’ “Tl keep it between Lloyd and me,’ David implored. *‘Just us two—that can’t make a new world or break an old one. You see, Lloyd and me are only little people.” *“You see what happened to the stream,” said the Being. *“Mark this well. Time, like any other limb of nature, overdoes the repair of its fractures.” “Please,” said David. “Please, you are kind—I beg of you.” The Being looked thought- ful. “In my dying world, there is room for pity, but none for kindness. I want to know what it is like to be kind. Very well, I will turn you back five months, as you ask; but I warn you, Time will not be gracious to him who tampers with the store of past events.” As David rose to his feet he became again involved in, and whisked about by, the whirring noise he now knew so well. When it stopped, he found himself standing in the shadow of a doorway. Before him stood his brother, Lloyd, holding in his arm the girl— the hussy who would have 105 conicloooks.com)