avenly bodies.

I prolonged my investigations without becoming visible, taking note of
numberless facts of interest which will ever be a source of pleasure and
value to me. At length, however, I concluded to take advantage of a
privilege and power I possessed and, becoming visible, I entered a quiet
room in the presence of a very distinguished man. He was by far the most
highly educated person on the Moon.

I was more surprised than he, for I expected that he would be greatly
agitated at my unaccountable appearance. Imagine my surprise when he sat
motionless, gazing firmly into my face which to him was out of harmony
with all ideas of correct form.

I was the first to speak, and although he had manifested outwardly such
self possession, I soon learned that it was a mere show of stoicism in
the presence of one whom he thought to be a spirit. In an incredibly
short time we were on easy speaking terms and I was gaining the object
of my visit.

Among the many things of interest that I learned from this famous
character were facts concerning the history of the Moon. According to
the information he gave me, I figured that human life had existed on the
Moon thousands of years before its appearance on the Earth.
Scientifically I could not account for this on any other ground than
that the Moon, being a much smaller orb, cooled off sufficiently to
sustain life on its surface long before any form of life could exist on
our Earth.

The Moonities of the old era were a prosperous and progressive people,
far outshining their successors who now occupy the sphere. After making
history for several thousand years, the human race had grown to one
hundred million in numbers, and civilization had reached a surprising
degree of perfection.

In those long-ago ages the Moon was a much more fertile garden than now.
Luxury and refinement were enjoyed by the favored sons of that period,
and no one dreamed of the horrible fate that was to sweep practically
the whole race into the regions of death. My intelligent informer used
excessive language in trying to picture the unequaled catastrophe that
put an end to the old era.

My interest was unbounded, and with awed breath I continued listening as
he described the cause of this great and terrible cataclysm.

"It all occurred about five thousand years ago," he said. "The Moon was
shaken by subterraneous rumblings, followed by fiery ejections, covering
a period of nearly one and one-half wago