care of the Moores, that they might for- ward them. But the next night showed that this had not been necessary.
Friday night George and the oth- ers went on for a quarter of an hour. Then they would rest, saying, " two," "three," or whatever their next signal time would be. Before morning I had these despatches :
14. " Write to all hands that we are doing well. Langdon's baby is named lo, and Leonard's is named Phebe."
How queer that was ! What a co- incidence ! And they -had some hu- mor there.
15 was: "Our atmosphere stuck to us. It weighs three tenths of an inch our weight."
1 6. " Our rain-fall is regular as the clock. We have made a cistern of Kilpatrick."
This meant the spherical chamber of that name.
17. " Write to Darwin that he is all right. We began with lichens and have come as far as palms and hemlocks."
These were the first night's mes- sages. I had scarcely covered the eye- glasses, and adjusted the equatorial for the day, when the bell announced the carriage in which Polly and the children came from the station to relieve me in my solitary service as janitor. I had the joy of showing her the good news. This night's work seemed to fill our cup. For all the day before, when I was awake, I had been haunted by the fear of famine for them. True, I knew that they had stored away in chambers H, I, and J the pork and flour which we had sent up for the workmen through the summer, and the corn and oats for the horses. But this could not last forever.
Now, however, that it proved that in a tropical climate they were forming their own soil, developing their own palms, and eventually even their bread- fruit and bananas, planting their own oats and maize, and developing rice, wheat, and all other cereals, harvesting these six, eight, or ten times for aught I could see in one of our years, why then, there was no danger of famine for them. If, as I thought, they carried up with them heavy drifts of ice and snow in the two chambers which were not covered in when they started, why, they had waters in their firmament quite sufficient for all pur- poses of thirst and of ablution. And what I had seen of their exercise showed that they were in strength suf- cient for the proper development of their little world.
Polly had the messages by heart be- fore an hour was over, and the lit- tle girls, of course, knew them sooner than she.
Haliburton, meanwhile, had brought
out the Shubael refractor (Alvan Clark),
and by night of Friday was in readiness
to see what he could see. Shubael of
course gave him no such luxury of de-
tail as did my fifteen-inch equatorial.
But still he had no difficulty in making
out groves of hemlock, and the circular
openings. And although he could not
make out my thirty-seven flies, still
when 10.15 came, he saw distinctly the
black square* crossing from hole Mary
to the edge, and begin its Dervish
dances. They were on his edge more
precisely than on mine. For Orcutt
knew nothing of Tamworth, and had
thought his best chance was to display
for No. 9. So was it that, at the same
moment with me, Haliburton also was
spelling out Orcutt & Co.'s joyous
" Hurrah."
" Thtephen," lisps Celia, " promith that you will look at yon moon [old Thornbush] at the inthtant I do." So was it with me and Haliburton.
He was of course informed long be- fore the Moores' messenger came, that, in Orcutt's judgment, twenty feet of length were sufficient for his signals. Orcutt's atmosphere, of course, must be exquisitely clear.
So, on Saturday, Rob. and Haliburton pulled up all their cambric and arranged it on the Flat again, in letters of twenty feet, in this legend :
RAH. AL WEL.
Haliburton said he could not waste flat or cambric on spelling.
