e Very Young Man.

"It seems in the living about the same as your twenty-four hours; it
occupies probably about the interval of time of ten hours in your world.

"You see," the Chemist went on, "we ordinarily eat twice between each
time of sleep--once after rising--and once a few hours before bedtime.
Workers at severe muscular labor sometimes eat a light meal in between,
but the custom is not general. Time is generally spoken of as so many
meals, rather than days."

"But what is the arbitrary standard?" asked the Doctor. "Do you have an
equivalent for weeks, or months or years?"

"Yes," answered the Chemist, "based on astronomy the same as in your
world. But I would rather not explain that now. I want to take you,
later to-day, to see Lylda's father. You will like him. He is--well,
what we might call a scientist. He talks English fairly well. We can
discuss astronomy with him; you will find him very interesting."

"How can you tell time?" the Very Young Man wanted to know. "There is no
sun to go by. You have no clocks, have you?"

"There is one downstairs," answered the Chemist, "but you didn't notice
it. Lylda's father has a very fine one; he will show it to you."

"It seems to me," began the Doctor thoughtfully after a pause, reverting
to their previous topic, "that without sickness, under such ideal living
conditions as you say exist here, in a very short time this world would
be over-populated."

"Nature seems to have taken care of that," the Chemist answered, "and as
a matter of fact quite the reverse is true. Women mature in life at an
age you would call about sixteen. But early marriages are not the rule;
seldom is a woman married before she is twenty--frequently she is much
older. Her period of child-bearing, too, is comparatively
short--frequently less than ten years. The result is few children, whose
rate of mortality is exceedingly slow."

"How about the marriages?" the Very Young Man suggested. "You were going
to tell us."

"Marriages are by mutual consent," answered the Chemist, "solemnized by
a simple, social ceremony. They are for a stated period of time, and are
renewed later if both parties desire. When a marriage is dissolved
children are cared for by the mother generally, and her maintenance if
necessary is provided for by the government. The state becomes the
guardian also of all illegitimate children and children of unknown
parentage. But of both these latter classes there are very few.