raybody," I said, "I suppose we are nearly ready for the first
comer."

"Oh yes; we're always ready; but then the first comer is not." I
had not said much to him during the latter months as to Crasweller,
in particular. His name used formerly to be very ready in all my
conversations with Graybody, but of late I had talked to him in
a more general tone. "You can't tell me yet when it's to be, Mr
President? We do find it a little dull here."

Now he knew as well as I did the day and the year of Crasweller's
birth. I had intended to speak to him about Crasweller, but I wished
our friend's name to come first from him. "I suppose it will be some
time about mid-winter," I said.

"Oh, I didn't know whether it might not have been postponed."

"How can it be postponed? As years creep on, you cannot postpone
their step. If there might be postponement such as that, I doubt
whether we should ever find the time for our inhabitants to come. No,
Graybody; there can be no postponement for the Fixed Period."

"It might have been made sixty-nine or seventy," said he.

"Originally, no doubt. But the wisdom of the Assembly has settled all
that. The Assembly has declared that they in Britannula who are left
alive at sixty-seven shall on that day be brought into the college.
You yourself have, I think, ten years to run, and you will not be
much longer left to pass them in solitude."

"It is weary being here all alone, I must confess. Mrs G. says that
she could not bear it for another twelve months. The girl we have has
given us notice, and she is the ninth within a year. No followers
will come after them here, because they say they'll smell the dead
bodies."

"Rubbish!" I exclaimed, angrily; "positive rubbish! The actual clay
will evaporate into the air, without leaving a trace either for the
eye to see or the nose to smell."

"They all say that when you tried the furnaces there was a savour of
burnt pork." Now great trouble was taken in that matter of cremation;
and having obtained from Europe and the States all the best machinery
for the purpose, I had supplied four immense hogs, in order that
the system might be fairly tested, and I had fattened them for the
purpose, as old men are not unusually very stout. These we consumed
in the furnaces all at the same time, and the four bodies had been
dissolved into their original atoms without leaving a trace behind
them by which their former condition of life might be recognised.
But a