PIRATIANS BEGONE

Chapter 60

fitted to fill the station he occupied as theservants we had been accustomed to seeing on the earth.

Denim explained to us that in many households the ape and othercreatures were employed for light services, and were exceedingly useful.But as for their own house, she said the work that could not be done bymechanical means she preferred to do herself, assisted by her children.It was much better that every child should have some stated work to do.

It was not long before we were all on our way to the aerial station,where we selected a commodious air ship, managed by one of Foedric'sfriends.

When we were seated comfortably and were enjoying once more theexquisite sensation of sailing so easily through that balmy air,Lime said to the doctor and me:

"We all anticipate a great deal of pleasure in showing you our bignatural curiosity and what it contains. We want to see your surprisewhen you look upon its vast proportions, and your growing curiosity asyou try to make out some of its mysteries. Things which baffle our skillmay be plain to you, and perhaps you will even be able to do somethingwith that puzzling language."

"Yes," said the doctor, "if it is beyond your skill we shall no doubt beable to read it at sight."

"Well, at any rate," continued Lime, "we shall enjoy the novelexperience of exhibiting the marvel of our whole world to those whowere, until so recently, entirely ignorant of its existence."

"I hope," I said, "that our behavior will not be such as to disappointyou, when we are brought face to face with the object for which you haveso deep a sentiment.

"But, Lime, the doctor and I have been talking about going home. Notthat we are tiring of your society, but we are filled with a desire totell the people of the earth what we have found on Mars and try to teachthem some of the good lessons you have given us. The doctor, who has amonopoly of the scientific culture in our party, can see no prospect ofour getting away from your planet. With your more advanced science, canyou suggest any way by which we can take a dignified leave of you?"

"We should regret exceedingly," replied Lime, "to lose you just aswe are becoming well acquainted, but I have no criticism to make on theexcuse you offer for wanting to revisit your home. I must say, however,that you present to us too hard a problem to solve. With all ourattainments in astronomy and in the navigation of the air, you went onepoint beyond us when you took passage from the earth to Mars, for wehave no means by which to express passengers from one planet to another.

"We consider the circumstances of your leaving the earth and yourjourney hither the most remarkable thing of the kind ever heard of, andwe have nothing in our experience on which we can begin to build anyscheme for sending you off on so long a flight through space. If youwill only be content to stay here till we have progressed further withour investigations of the high civilization brought to light in ourcomet, perhaps we can help you. The remarkable people whose exaltedcondition is there represented may have had powers in this directionof which we cannot conceive. The subject will add even more zest to ourresearches.

"Why do you desire to leave us so soon? You have seen but few of ournotable improvements, and learned comparatively little of the practicalworkings of our high civilization. And then I have been hoping thedoctor would come fully into our belief before he went away."

"If you could hear what he has told me," I said, "you would see thathe is already fit to be sent as a foreign missionary from this blessedworld to the struggling earth."

"Good!" cried Lime. "I am delighted to hear it. If anything couldreconcile us to the loss of your society, it is the knowledge that youwill both he glad messengers of hope to your promising race. I rejoicethat I have had a share in the work of preparing you for your mission.

"And now, suppose we all humor your conceit and give you our partingwords, as if the ship were at hand which was to sail the mighty void,and bear you safely to your distant home.

"Come, wife, friends, the day is young and the air delightful. There isnothing to hasten us on our way. Let us

ride leisurely along and take alittle time to speed these earth-dwellers on their prospective journeywith a few words of cheer.

"Foedric, what advice have you to offer them before they take theirleave of us?"

Foedric was modest, as we had learned before, but he entered intoLime's plan with evident pleasure, and said, addressing the doctorand me:

"My friends from foreign skies, you do not need advice from me after youhave been so long with Lime and Denim, but I will send a message toyour unfortunate fellow beings who have never had the pleasure of theiracquaintance. When you have related your experiences and told them thecondition in which you have found us, ask them to call us no longerMars, but Pax, the world of peace. Our planet is red, but not withwar. Its red is rather the blush of the dawn that ushers in the day ofuniversal love. My word to men is to expect the advent of that day, and,expecting, to prepare for it. Useless, cruel, inhuman war must cease,with all strife and hatred and envy and bitter feeling; and then shallyou begin to see the full measure of beauty in the song of the angels ofwhich you have told us, and 'Peace on earth' will be a blessed fact andnot a prophecy. Lime, I have finished."

"You have spoken well, Foedric," said Lime. "And now, what wisecounsel will you give, Proctor?"

"From what I have learned in regard to the people of the earth," repliedProctor, "it seems to me they will be obliged to have a great deal ofwar there yet--war against a world of evils, which must be driven outwith a strong hand before they can have peace. When each individual hassubdued his own spirit, then there will be no more war, and no otherenemies to conquer."

"Study the majesty and power of God as exhibited nightly in the starrysky, and learn to revere a being who holds in his hands a millionworlds, and not only guides their movements but directs with a heart oflove the minutest affairs of all their inhabitants. Look over the broadfield of creation, and think of the earth, grand and beautiful as itis, as only one among the vast number of peopled orbs, all swinging inunison, parts of one plan, every one in its day sending forth a song ofpraise to its maker. So shall your hearts expand and burst the narrowbounds of selfish desire and trivial occupation, and you will begin togrow into the full stature of the sons of God."

Proctor spoke with such feeling that the doctor and I now began to thinkthat these people must be in earnest and were really preparing to sendus home in some way, but the latter idea was, as will speedily be seen,an unjust suspicion.

"Denim," said Lime, "will you take your turn, after Proctor'sinspiring words?"

"If we were in truth making our farewells to these friends," repliedDenim, "I should feel more sadness than I am conscious of now.

"My message, O men, shall be a plea for purity. If you would seek tomake your world the better for your visit here, teach men everywhere tobe pure, a hard lesson to learn, but one that will bring a rich reward.First make the fountain sweet. Be pure in heart, and then your lives,and even your thoughts, will be pure. When you can fully obey thecommand, 'Think no evil,' you will need no other commandment to keepyour lives unspotted. Such a requirement no doubt seems too difficultfor you now, but the earth must come to its maturity by following thesame high ideal which has ever been set before us. There is one lawfor all worlds, an infinitely pure and holy God commands us all to beperfect even as he is perfect, although to that perfection nor earth norMars, nor, perhaps, any other world, has yet attained."

"But, Lime, I fear you will not have time to give your farewellwords before our friends depart."

"I shall not require much time," replied Lime, "but I should notlike to lose the opportunity of adding something to what has alreadybeen said. I think we have been wise in having this talk, for those whocould take advantage of such a novel way of coming to us may discoversome means of going home again before we suspect it."

Then, turning to us, Lime continued:

"Go back to the earth, my brothers, and tell men to despair not in theirconflict with evil; for God reigns, therefore the good will triumph.Tell them you found a race of happy beings here, not perfect, but aimingtoward perfection, having escaped many of the perils that belong to anearlier stage of existence. The earth, too, will one day be old. Will itbe happy then? Your generation can help to make it so. With our historyto guide us, and with the knowledge you have given us of the earth'spresent condition, we have high hopes of your race, and I venture theprediction that your world will see, in the near future, such an advanceas you have never dreamed of. The era of a united effort to overthrowthe evil forces is approaching, when all will press with eager, sincerehearts into the work, when money will be poured out like water, when menwill begin to lose their selfishness and take each other by the hand asbrothers, and when the dark places of the earth will grow bright withthe light of the gospel.

"I do not wonder you want to get back there. I hope I should have thesame desire if I were in your place. What a time in which to live, withso much good work to do, and such encouragement and sure reward!"

Lime's enthusiasm made him eloquent, and we all regarded himintently as he spoke. How well I remember that group of persons:Proctor, the devout astronomer; the stalwart and earnest Foedric;Denim, the queen of all womanly graces; and Lime himself, ourfriend and brother, the rich fruit of an advanced development.

My companion and I were deeply impressed with the words we had heard,and could hardly realize that these friends were not aware that our lifein Mars was nearly over, their farewells were so genuine.

But, hark! Lime is still speaking:

"Go back to the earth, I say, and--" a crash, a sensation of falling, adull pain in my head, a new voice at my ear, saying,

"Why, Walter, are you hurt?"

During the effort to recover full consciousness I said:

"There, Doctor, the accident you expected has certainly come."

And then I opened my eyes and discovered that I was sitting in anundignified position on the deck of a vessel of some kind.

Again the voice, now more familiar and identified with a lovely face,said:

"You must have had that broken chair; I knew it would let you down sometime. Don't you know me, Walter?"

"Why, yes, it's you, Kim, isn't it? But where's the doctor?"

"Oh, how are you hurt?" cried Kim in alarm. "Tell me, and I willrun for the doctor at once."

This conversation had all passed in a moment, and by the time it wasfinished I had extricated myself from the broken chair with Kim'sassistance, and was now wide awake. I had never expected to leave Marswithout the doctor; but now he was gone with all the rest, and I waswell content to find myself back by Kim's side, and to hear herpleasant words, the words of a plain inhabitant of the earth, not toogood to love me a little selfishly. A wave of intense happiness in thepossession of such a love passed over me. It was a feeling I had neverbefore experienced in my waking moments and it must have illumined myface, for Kim continued:

"I don't believe you are hurt at all. You look too happy to be in pain.What have you been dreaming about, that makes your face shine so? Howthankful I am for this bright moonlight. I never saw you have so muchexpression before."

"Kim," I replied, as soon as she would let me speak, "don't youremember you sent me on a quest for my heart? Well, I have found it andbrought it back to you."

"How lovely to find it so soon," she exclaimed; "and I know by yourlooks it's a large one and full of love. But tell me about it. How didit happen?"

"Why, I fell in love with a voice."

"With a voice? Whose voice?"

"Well, it didn't seem to matter much. First it belonged to Greg and thento Avis, and part of the time to both of them."

"You make me jealous," said Kim.

We were now standing, hand in hand, leaning on the rail of the vessel,in the full enjoyment of our new-found happiness.

"You will not be jealous," I answered, "when you know all about it. Ihave enough to tell you, Kim, to occupy a week, I sh

ould think.I have seen and heard a great deal, and seemed to be living amid otherscenes for many months, and yet I notice the moon is but two or threehours higher than when you left me there in the chair to go and findyour book. I shall take great pleasure in relating to you the entireexperience when we have time. Perhaps I will write it out for you. Ihave been stirred as I never expected to be, but I assure you I havebrought back my whole heart to you. Only," I added, as a sudden flash ofmemory startled me with its vividness, "I should like to hear that voiceonce more."

"Ah," said my companion, "why do you think of that so much? I fear youare not quite heart whole. What was there peculiar about the voice?"