p's progress.

Dazed, he raised his head and looked unexpectedly into a lovely face
made the more attractive by an expression only given by a sense of duty
unselfishly done.

"I--I wish'd you'd call me Cousin Copernicus," he said for the fifth
time.

She picked up one of the sheets on which he had been scribbling as
though she had not heard him, and said:

"Why, dear me! How comes it you have so much figurin' to do?"

"Well," he began, in a querulous tone, "it beats all creation how many
things a feller has to work out at once! Ye see, I've got a rope forty
foot long that's got to tie the Panchronicon to the North Pole while we
swing 'round to cut meridians. Now, then, the question is, How many
times an hour shall we swing 'round to get to 1892, an' how long's it
goin' to take an' how fast must I make the old thing hum along?"

"But you said eighteen hours by the clock would do it."

"Well, I jest guessed at that by the time the future man an' I took to
go back five weeks, ye know. But I can't seem to figur it out right."

Phoebe seated herself at the table and took up a blank sheet of paper.

"Please lend me your pencil," she said. "Now, then, every time you
whirl once 'round the pole to westward you lose one day, don't you?"

"That's it," said Droop, cheerfully. "Cuttin' twenty-four meridians----"

"And how many days in twenty-two years?" Phoebe broke in.

"You mean in six years."

"Why, no," she replied, glancing at Droop with a mischievous smile,
"it's twenty-two years back to 1876, ain't it?"

"To '76--why, but----"

He caught sight of her face and stopped short.

There came a pleased voice from one of the state-rooms.

"Yes, we've decided to go all the way back, Mr. Droop."

It was Rebecca.

She came forward and stood beside her sister, placing one hand
affectionately upon her shoulder.

Droop leaned back in his chair with both hands on the edge of the table.

"Goin' all the way! Why, but then----"

He leaped to his feet with a radiant face.

"Great Jumpin' Jerusha!" he cried.

Slapping his thigh he began to pace excitedly up and down.

"Why, then, we'll get all the big inventions out--kodak an' phonograph
and all. We'll marry Joe Chandler an' set things agoin' in two shakes
fer millions."

"Eight thousand and thirty-five," said Phoebe in a quiet voice,
putting her pencil to her lips. "We'll have to whirl round the pole
eight thousand and thirty-five times."

"Whose goin' to keep