toward me in an urgent appeal.

"How soon shall we see you again?"

"No more forever, unless you see me in that widest expanse of life which
in our world we call Heaven. There the pure of all worlds will gather
and commingle in delightsome fellowship forever."

I was then urged beyond all etiquette to tarry a short period and visit
certain parts of their world. But I informed them that I had seen more
of their world than they imagined, and that the object of my visit had
been reached.

CHAPTER XX.

Brief.

One of the medium sized worlds that revolve around Alcyone sustains the
shortest lived human beings of our universe. It is seldom that any of
the creatures reach more than four years of age according to our
standards of time. They are nearly as large as we and relatively much
lighter in weight. All the periods of physical growth are
correspondingly decreased. Children walk four or five weeks after birth,
and are capable of receiving regular instruction at the age of five
months.

Strange as it may seem, this sphere, which for convenience we will call
Brief, revolves very slowly on its axis, so that our world makes fifteen
times as many revolutions as this planet.

It requires but little arithmetic to figure out that the people of Brief
do not see the sun rise very often. When it does appear in the morning
sky, all the public signals blow and the people appear in one or
another of their places of worship. This beautiful custom has been in
practice for over three thousand years. The worship is not sun worship,
but a genuine service of thanksgiving to Him who ruleth over the sun and
supplies it with fuel to burn. It appears that on all worlds everything
is regulated in accordance with the length of human life. On this world,
of Brief all vegetables mature in periods so short that one marvels when
he hears it. Think of cereals reaching maturity in seven or eight of our
days, or during one day of Brief. Early in the morning certain crops are
planted and are harvested at night. Two or more days are required for
maturing other crops. Actually the people of Brief raise their crops
with less labor than is required amongst us.

If you were permitted to look upon the public and private life of this
incredible world, your first sensation would be dizziness, not to
mention the weirdness of all sights that would confront you at every
turn. People would seem to be in a mad rush, and it would appear that
all busin