en called
the tortoise of the skies, but that comparatively it was rapid in its
motion, and had become a near neighbor. He was a good deal excited at
first, having somehow the impression that this new planet traveled out
beyond the nearest fixed star; but then he remembered that the distance
to that first solar neighbor was estimated in trillions, not billions,
and that our little system, even with its new additions, was a child's
handbreadth on the plane of the sky. He had brought along a small book
called The Pith of Astronomy--a fascinating little volume--and he read
from it about the great tempest of fire in the sun, where the waves of
flame roll up two thousand miles high, though the sun itself is such a
tiny star in the deeps of the universe.

If I dwell unwarrantably on this phase of Mark Twain's character, it is
because it was always so fascinating to me, and the contemplation of
the drama of the skies always meant so much to him, and somehow always
seemed akin to him in its proportions. He had been born under a flaming
star, a wanderer of the skies. He was himself, to me, always a comet
rushing through space, from mystery to mystery, regardless of sun and
systems. It is not likely to rain long in Bermuda, and when the sun
comes back it brings summer, whatever the season. Within a day after our
arrival we were driving about those coral roads along the beaches, and
by that marvelously variegated water. We went often to the south shore,
especially to Devonshire Bay, where the reefs and the sea coloring seem
more beautiful than elsewhere. Usually, when we reached the bay, we got
out to walk along the indurated shore, stopping here and there to look
out over the jeweled water liquid turquoise, emerald lapis-lazuli, jade,
the imperial garment of the Lord.

At first we went alone with only the colored driver, Clifford Trott,
whose name Clemens could not recollect, though he was always attempting
resemblances with ludicrous results. A little later Helen Allen, an
early angel-fish member already mentioned, was with us and directed the
drives, for she had been born on the island and knew every attractive
locality, though, for that matter, it would be hard to find there a
place that was not attractive.

Clemens, in fact, remained not many days regularly at the hotel. He kept
a room and his wardrobe there; but he paid a visit to Bay House--the
lovely and quiet home of Helen's parents--and prolonged it from day to
day, a