o a sense of calm and many things besides."

"Yes," answered Cortlandt, "but, while plausible, it does not convince.
The pleasures of age are largely negative, the old being happy when
free from pain."

"Since the highest joy of life," said Ayrault, "is coming to know our
Creator, I should say the old, being further advanced, would be the
happier of the two. I should never regard this material life as
greatly to be prized for itself. You remember the old song:
"'O Youth! When we come to consider
The pain, the toil, and the strife,
The happiest man of all is
The one who has finished his life.'

"I suspect," continued Ayrault, "that the man who reaches even the
lowest plane in paradise will find far more beautiful visions than any
we have here."

As they had but little rest the night before, they were all tired. The
warm breeze swayed the long dry grass, causing it to give out a soft
rustle; all birds except the flitting bats were asleep among the tall
ferns or on the great trees that spread their branches towards heaven.
There was nothing to recall a picture of the huge monsters they had
seen that day, or of the still more to be dreaded terror these had
borne witness to. Thus night closes the activities of the day, and in
its serene grandeur the soul has time to think. While they thought,
however, drowsiness overcame them, and in a little while all were
asleep.

The double line of protection-wires encircled them like a silent guard,
while the methodical ticking of the alarm-clock that was to wake them
at the approach of danger, and register the hour of interruption,
formed a curious contrast to the irregular cries of the night-hawks in
the distance. Time and again some huge iguanodon or a hipsohopus would
pass, shaking the ground with its tread; but so implicit was the
travellers' trust in the vigilance of their mechanical and tireless
watch, that they slept on as calmly and unconcernedly as though they
had been in their beds at home, while the tick was as constant and
regular as a sentry's march. The wires of course did not protect them
from creatures having wings, and they ran some risk of a visitation
from the blood-sucking bats. The far-away volcanoes occasionally sent
up sheets of flame, which in the distance were like summer lightning;
the torrents of lava and crashes that had sounded so thunderous when
near, were now like the murmur of the ocean