with her characteristic swiftness,
descended upon the town, and soon was safely anchored to several large
trees in the center of it. It proved to be the thrifty little town of
L----r, of between three and four thousand inhabitants. Silver Cloud was
drawn to within fifty or sixty feet of the earth, and the voyagers
rapidly descended in the cage to the main street.

That all the men, women, and children crowded to the vicinity of the
globe, and that our friends were the cynosure of thousands of wondering
eyes will be readily believed. And the glistening sphere that gently
oscillated in the breeze above the city excited the unbounded
astonishment and praise of all. Newspaper reporters gathered eagerly
about the party, and plied them with questions concerning their trip and
adventures. All, of course, were acquainted with the facts concerning
their sailing from Washington four months previously, and a few of them
had witnessed that notable event. The travelers were informed that they
had been mourned as lost for many weeks past, and Government was fitting
out a party to seek them as soon as possible. The general opinion was,
that the globe had collapsed or exploded, and that the foolhardy
explorers had all perished in the forests of Upper Canada. This was the
accepted theory, and nothing could exceed the severity with which the
editors of the papers politically opposed to the administration censured
it for the extravagance and all-round idiocy of the whole "Aluminum
Bubble Scheme," as they termed it. Dr. Jones was voted a lunatic, and
the balance of the party was commiserated in the "Ahs!" and "Dear me's!"
and "Poor things!" of the whole nation.

And we can well imagine that the telegraph wires were kept busy that day
all over the land. And the papers which in their previous issues had
inveighed so cuttingly and mercilessly against the Government and Dr.
Jones, and everybody in any way connected with the Aluminum Globe
Bubble, now came out in flaming double headings, under telegraphic
dispatches and in editorials, sounding the praises of Dr. Jones and
company in unbounded terms of commendation. They had always predicted
their speedy and triumphant return, so they had, etc.

Telegrams and phonograms poured in upon them until they were really
unable to attend to them. Very numerous were the offers of engagements
to Dr. Jones and Professor Gray for a course of lectures at liberal
prices.

"I was satisfied, Professor, that