r.

[Illustration: Viewing Our Earth from Jupiter.]

I spent another hour examining the ponderous machinery that was
required to swing this mammoth instrument and to adjust it when scanning
the heavens.

By this time my four companions were convinced that I was not an idiot,
and I could see by their strange manner that they were regarding me as a
spirit.

I gave my directions to the astronomer, and beheld the cylinder,
two-hundred feet in length and twenty feet in diameter, swing around
until it pointed toward a little flickering light that shone like a
distant star.

I looked into the eye-piece, managed to get the tube pointed accurately,
and then requested the astronomer to focus the lenses so as to bear upon
the planetary light in range.

He knew at once the planet I had singled out. He called it Zo-ide. After
the focusing was completed, I looked and, behold, I could readily
discern many of the physical features of my own world.

"That is my homeland," I cried triumphantly. "I live on Zo-ide, or
Earth, as we call it."

Of course my listeners were incredulous, but I proceeded to explain to
them as I looked through the telescope:

"That dark ridge to the left is called 'the Rocky and Andes Mountain
Systems'. The shining belt on the central portion is the 'Mississippi
River'. The rough ridge to the right is 'the Allegheny System' of
mountains." Then I indicated the location of our larger cities. As I
pointed to New York, I saw a mere speck moving. I was convinced that it
was one of our large steamships, and as I so explained the astronomer
looked at me with absorbing interest.

He informed me that he had often seen the moving of the spots, and
thought they were some cloud formations peculiar to our world. But I
insisted on the steamship explanation and proceeded to describe an ocean
liner, for these Jupiterites are not familiar with oceans of cold water
on which float numerous craft.

I was then a royal guest, and passed a most felicitous night with these
four celebrities. We talked of the more powerful telescope that the
government of Jupiter was manufacturing, and of the still greater views
it promised to reveal.

Then I informed them of our system of science. They were astonished at
the great civilization extant on Zo-ide, or our Earth.

I told them that a subtile power lay dormant in the atoms and molecules
of matter, which could be released and utilized, and that we in our
world called it "electri