On the fourth pebble out the ancient Martians were not in any important sense disturbed by the contact with Earth.  The nymphs of the race still bounced joyously around the surface of Mars, learning to live, and eight out of nine of them dying in the process.  The adult Martians, enormously different in body and mind from the nymphs, still huddled in or under the faerie, graceful cities, and were as quiet in their behavior as the nymphs were boisterous - yet were even busier than the nymphs, busy with a complex and rich life of the mind.