it it the longest day I live. Don't b'lieve I
breathed oncet all night.

_Second Victim._--Yes, it was slightly aromatic, I confess,--'Sabaean
odors from the spicy shores of Araby the Blest,'--you know what Milton
says. But there's one great comfort: this thick night-air is so very
healthy, you know. I think you made a very great mistake, Mr. Rink, in
not inhaling it thoroughly. I kept pumping it in all night, from a sense
of duty, at forty bellows-power.

_First Victim._--(Rising, and dragging up to the mountain-crib the
artillery of a ghostly face, and training it point-blank at Second
Victim.)--Young man, don't trifle!

_Second Victim._--Pardon me, Sir, I am not trifling, I have sound
reasons for what I say. Your education, Sir, has apparently been
neglected. Wait one moment, and I'll give you a new idea, which will
contribute materially to your happiness. You will at once admit, I take
it, that oxygen and carbonic acid stand at opposite poles in their
relations to the respiratory system; also, that said dock-smell was a
mixture of carbonic acid of various kinds, and of different degrees of
intensity; and, lastly, that animal and vegetable life are complements
of each other,--correlatives, so to speak.

_First Victim._--Sartin: that's Natur' an' common sense.

_Second Victim._--Now, then, plants naturally absorb carbonic acid and
give off oxygen during daylight. At night, the process is reversed: then
they absorb oxygen and give off carbonic acid. In a similar, but reverse
way, man, who was plainly intended to inhale oxygen and exhale carbonic
acid in his waking hours, should, in his sleeping hours, in order to be
consistent with himself and with Nature, inhale only dense carbonic acid
and exhale oxygen. Men and plants make Nature's see-saw: one goes up as
the other goes down. Hence it follows as a logical sequence, that the
truly wise man, who seeks to comply with the laws of Nature, and to
fulfil the great ends of his existence, will choose for his
sleeping-apartment the closest quarters possible, and will welcome the
fumes which would be noisome by day. For my part, therefore, I feel
profoundly grateful even for one night of this little crib. It has
already done much for me. I feel confident that it has contributed
greatly to my span of life. I am deeply beholden to the owners, to the
captain, yea, to all the crew. And for the blessed dock-smell I shall
ever be thankful:--

"'T were worth ten years of