nd them.
Those spectres foreshadow grim fate; they are Lawlessness, Ruin,
Starvation;
To the Thunderer dismal defeat, to the conquerors blank desolation.

The Sage looked serious.

These things, mused he, are an allegory, perhaps, but of a
significance not wholly Saturnian.

[Illustration]

"Saturn, old boy" said he, "cannot what sentimentalists call 'the
Dismal Science,' which as you say has been banished hither, do
anything to help you out of this hobble?"

"The Dismal Science," responded Saturn, whose panaceas of Unrestricted
Competition, Free Combination, Cheap Markets, Supply and Demand,
&c., have landed its disciples in Sweating Dens on the one side and
Universal Strikes on the other, can hardly offer itself as a cure for
the New Socialism. Like Rhea of old, when asked for food, it proffers
a stone."

"Ah!" quoth Father TIME, "you manage these things much better on the
Earth, doubtless."

"Doubtless," replied the Sage, drily, as he and Father TIME took their
departure.

* * * * *

VISIT TO MARS.

[Illustration]

So Mr. PUNCH, holding TIME by the forelock, continued his journey.

"Where are we now?" asked the more elderly gentleman.

"My good friend," replied the Sage of Fleet Street, "we are
approaching Mars, which as you know, or should know (if your education
has been completed under the supervision of the School Board) is
sometimes called the Red Planet."

"So I have often heard. But why?"

"That is what we shall soon discover. But now keep quiet, as we have
arrived."

With the gentlest of gentle shocks _Mr. Punch_ and his companion
found themselves on a mound, which they soon recognised as a mountain.
Looking below them, they saw masses of scarlet, apparently in motion.
It was then that TIME regretted that he had not brought with him his
telescope.

"It would have been so useful," he murmured, "and if a little bulky,
what of that? Surely _Mr. Punch_ is accustomed to make light of
everything?"

"See, some one is approaching," observed the Sage of Fleet Street,
whose eye-sight was better than that of his companion. And sure
enough a lively young officer at this moment put in an appearance,
and saluted.

"Glad to see you both," said he; "and, by order of the General
Commander-in-Chief, you are to make what use you please of me. I am
entirely at your service."

"Why, you speak English!" exclaimed _Mr. Punch_.

[Illustration]

"That is so!" r