nd to grasp mine. I laughed aloud when I recognized the person as
James Harper! Another was Richmond; another, one of my associates in the
editorial corps. I was perfectly amazed, and set up a hilarious shout,
which they echoed in great glee. We started forth, a convivial party. The
atmosphere hung in heavy masses around the houses, like the morning mists
about the base of a mountain.

We did not walk on the ground; the air was solid enough to bear us. I
felt that we were rising above the city. My senses seemed magnified. The
comprehension of all I did was very acute. We kept along the earth's
atmosphere for quite a distance.

"Let us sail out," said I, at last.

"We cannot yet; we must wait till we reach the current. If we go outside
of that, we may be lost in the intense cold and the poisonous gases, or
we may be swallowed up in the vortex of some flaming comet," answered my
wise companions.

The statement looked very reasonable, so I allowed myself to be
guided and we soon found ourselves in a great belt of light of a pale
rose-color, in which we sailed seemingly without any effort, moving the
hands and arms at times and at other times folding them across our
breasts.

As we advanced the channel in which we moved increased in depth and
brilliancy of color, and I grew more and more exhilarated. Finally we
paused and commenced to descend. The air was very luminous, radiating and
scintillating like the flashing of diamonds, and so electric that the
concussion of sound vibrated like the peal from some distant organ.

Looking down through the glittering atmosphere that surrounded me, I
perceived what appeared to be the uplifting peak of a mountain. A halo of
light rested upon its summit, and we seemed drawn toward it with a gentle
force.

This mountain, I was informed, was one of a magnetic chain which belts
the spirit world. In color and material it was like an opal.

I was told that a peculiar sympathy existed between it and the human
spirit. When individuals on earth are in juxtaposition with this mountain
they feel a strange yearning for the spirit home.

Now then the mysterious riddle is solved, thought I; and this must be the
spiritual north pole!

We soon stood upon _terra-firma_, if these translucent rocks could be
called _terra-firma_ which rose in glittering and polished peaks all
around us. They were wonderfully iridescent, so that no bed of
gorgeously-colored flowers could have filled the eye with