shed; then rising, I said, "So
now, dear friends, a last and long good-bye to each other. We have been
close friends for many years and have many pleasant memories of the
times we have spent together; but, remember, our thoughts may still
unite us, though sundered by many million miles of space, and dwelling
upon different worlds!

"When I was on the earth I was living upon a star of the heavens; here,
upon Tetarta, I am still upon a star of the heavens, but also along with
the only living being to whom I have been united by ties of blood and
loving kinship.

"It is, as Merna once said, only a change of dwelling-places, and our
kindly Martian friends are delighted to keep me here. It is hard to part
from you, but do not wonder if I say--'Here I will live! here I will
die!'"

Then with many, many a lingering handshake and words of mutual love and
affection, we old friends bade each other an eternal adieu.

As he reached the doorway M'Allister--as truehearted a Scot as ever his
country produced--turned towards me, and with upraised hand, glistening
eyes, and lips quivering, exclaimed, "Mon, you are doing the right
thing, but I never thought I would feel a parting with an old friend so
much as I do this! God bless you, Professor!"

CHAPTER XXVIII

LAST WORDS TO MY READERS

As I have decided to stay here upon Mars, and have just taken leave of
my two dear old friends, I will now address a few last words to those
who may read this record of our trip to Mars, and then seal up the
packet ready for John to take with him.

In the course of my conversations with Merna's tutors, I learnt much
about the past history of the Martian people; and they told me that it
dates back to such a remote antiquity that, as compared with theirs,
ours is only the history of an infancy!

Mars, being a much smaller globe than the earth, cooled down and became
habitable aeons before the earth reached that stage; and at the time when
the earlier inhabitants of our world were living in woods and
caves--slowly and painfully fashioning for themselves weapons and tools
out of chipped flint-stones--there existed upon Mars a people who had
then arrived at a full and vigorous civilisation.

What wonder then that, with all these past ages of development and the
incentive which the present physical condition of the planet supplies
them, the Martians of the present day are in all respects, whether
physically, morally, or intellectually, far