forward!" he shouted, at the head of his battalion.

Then came the roll of the drum, and they all marched past the window.

"Rosita," said Stephano to his cousin, "you are free, and we are going
to be happy; but never let us forget Lieutenant Dulaurier!"

_The Queer Side of Things._

The N. P. M. C

[Illustration]

Let us return for a space to the two spirits William and James, whose
conversations we described in past numbers. Some readers may possibly
recall how the spirit James, while wandering through the darkness of
unoccupied Space (about five-and-twenty billions of eons before the
commencement of Eternity), conceived a wild idea of the possibility of
the existence of worlds--worlds occupied by an impracticability called
"man." It will be recollected how the wiser spirit William cast
well-merited ridicule upon this insanely impossible phantasy of a
disordered mind; nay, even condescended to crush, by perspicuous and
irrefutable logic, the grotesque and preposterous idea.

Very well; it is now William's turn.

"James," he said one day as they chanced to sight each other in the
awful solitude of Space, "I have been thinking over that world of yours,
and your crowning absurdity, 'man.' Pray do not become too inflated with
weak conceit at my condescending to think about such trivialities; for
the fact is, any subject of thought--however hopelessly foolish--is a
relief amid the tediousness of Space. Well, I have been reflecting upon
that characteristic which you conceive as distinguishing your puppet
'man'--I allude to _intelligence_. I think you suggested that he would
possess intelligence?"

James only fidgeted uneasily, and made a feeble sign of affirmation.

"Very well," continued William. "Now, I have been putting two and two
together, and have found out the nature of that quality which you
mistake for intelligence; its true name is 'low cunning.' Every fresh
piece of absurdity which you have told me touching the tricks of your
queer creatures has supplied new evidence of this. Your creatures were
to feed upon the substance of the 'world' on which they lived, and, ever
increasing in numbers, would logically in course of time find there was
not a mouthful apiece. I think we agreed about that? Well, let us
consider that period, some time before the creatures should actually
become exterminated by the natural evolution of events--the time when
all the eatable products of their world would be growing