erienced a tremor
of the frame and looked surprised, they grinned with satisfaction; when
he quivered convulsively they also quivered with suppressed emotion.
Ah! Benjy had learned by that time from experience to graduate very
delicately his shocking scale, and thus lead his victim step by step
from bad to worse, so as to squeeze the utmost amount of fun out of him,
before inducing that galvanic war-dance which usually terminated the
scene and threw his audience into fits of ecstatic laughter.

These were the final rejoicings of the wedding day--if we except a dance
in which every man did what seemed best in his own eyes, and Butterface
played reels on the flute with admirable incapacity.

But there came a day, at last, when the inhabitants of Flatland were far
indeed removed from the spirit of merriment.

It was the height of the Arctic summer-time, when the crashing of the
great glaciers and the gleaming of the melting bergs told of rapid
dissolution, and the sleepless sun was circling its day-and-nightly
course in the ever-bright blue sky. The population of Flatland was
assembled on the beach of their native isle--the men with downcast
looks, the women with sad and tearful eyes. Two india-rubber boats were
on the shore. Two kites were flying overhead. The third boat and kite
had been damaged beyond repair, but the two left were sufficient. The
Englishmen were about to depart, and the Eskimos were inconsolable.

"My boat is on the shore,--"

Said Benjy, quoting Byron, as he shook old Makitok by the hand--

"And my kite is in the sky,
But before I go, of more,
I will--bid you--all--good-b--"

Benjy broke down at this point. The feeble attempt to be facetious to
the last utterly failed.

Turning abruptly on his heel he stepped into the _Faith_ and took his
seat in the stern. It was the _Hope_ which had been destroyed. The
_Faith_ and _Charity_ still remained to them.

We must draw a curtain over that parting scene. Never before in human
experience had such a display of kindly feeling and profound regret been
witnessed in similar circumstances.

"Let go the tail-ropes!" said Captain Vane in a husky tone.

"Let go de ropes," echoed Butterface in a broken voice.

The ropes were let go. The kites soared, and the boats rushed swiftly
over the calm and glittering sea.

On nearing one of the outer islands the voyagers knew that their tiny
boats would soon be shut out from view, and they rose