ents they saw his huge head and
shoulders hanging out over the side wall; his hand and arm reached down
towards them and they heard his great voice roaring.

"Come on--somebody else."

The Very Young Man went next, with Loto. Nothing unusual marked their
growth, and without difficulty, helped by the Chemist's hands reaching
down to them, they climbed out of the pit.

In an hour more the entire party was in the valley, standing beside the
little circular opening out of which they had come.

The Very Young Man found himself beside Aura, a little apart from the
others, who gathered to discuss their plan for growing out of the
valley.

"It isn't much of a trip, is it, Aura?" the Very Young Man said. "Do you
realize, we're nearly there?"

The girl looked around her curiously. The valley of the scratch appeared
to them now hardly more than a quarter of a mile in width. Aura stared
upwards between its narrow walls to where, several thousand feet above,
a narrow strip of gray-blue sky was visible.

"That sky--is that the sky of your world?" she exclaimed. "How pretty it
is!"

The Very Young Man laughed.

"No, Aura, that's not our sky. It's only the space in the room above the
ring. When we get the size we are going to be finally, our heads will be
right up in there. The real sky with its stars will be even then as far
above us as your sky at Arite was above you."

Aura breathed a long sigh. "It's too wonderful--really to understand,
isn't it?" she said.

The Very Young Man pulled her down on the ground beside him.

"The most wonderful part, Aura, is going to be having you up there." He
spoke gently; somehow whenever he thought of this fragile little
girl-woman up in his strange bustling world, he felt himself very big
and strong. He wanted to be her protector, and her teacher of all the
new and curious things she must learn.

The girl did not reply at once; she simply met his earnest gaze with her
frank answering smile of understanding.

The Chemist was calling to them.

"Oh, you Jack. We're about ready to start."

The Very Young Man got to his feet, holding down his hands to help Aura
up.

"You're going to make a fine woman, Aura, in this new world. You just
wait and see if you don't," he said as they rejoined the others.

The Chemist explained his plans to them. "This valley is several times
deeper than its breadth; you can see that. We cannot grow large enough
to jump out as we did out of the pit; we