simple questions that I would ask you in my

ignorance of

your orb ? "

Certainly, certainly, little one!"

"Well, first, I want to know," I said, "how much larger you are than our world?

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Eighty-two times, my dear; anything else?" How is it that you are so dim?—is it because you are so very far away from the Sun that you get but a small portion of his heat and light?"

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Merely three hundred and seventy times less than you do;—yes, that's all, my dear!" answered Uranus.

"Does it take you very long to travel round the Sun ?" I pursued.

"It would seem a long time to you, little one, -a very long time; my year is the length of eighty-four of my dear Terra's years; more than, perhaps, your lifetime!"

"That is a long time!" I exclaimed, “but you have satellites, haven't you?"

'Yes, my dear,-four. Can't you see them?” I looked very carefully, but could not be certain that the minute points I fancied I saw were real bodies, or the results of my imagination.

G

"I am not sure, but do tell me about them, all

the same."

far from

"My nearest, which is only half as me as your Moon from you, is Ariel. He and his brother Umbriel (my next), the gods of light and shade, were very badly treated, on our all leaving my dear Terra, by the other deitiesve-ry badly; for my son Saturn's rude boys, Jupiter and Neptune, and my great-grandson, Mars, all pounced upon the best planets immediately, never thinking in their selfishness of the lesser gods. I at once sent for Ariel and Umbriel here, and they are very attentive and civil to me, ve-ry atten―tive! My other two attendants are, that pretty little tease Titania and her husband Oberon, Queen and King of the Fairies. Titania is a good deal more here now than on your Earth; the fact is, she was so upset by the death of your great poet Shakespeare, whom she allowed to write about her in his play of the Midsummer Night's Dream,' that she has never had the same interest in your Earth since."

6

"Thank you very much, Father of the gods, or your great kindness."

There is

"Not at all,-not-at-all, my dear. one more thing; I forgot to tell you one fact about my attendants, and it is a custom in which none of the other planets nor their satellites share, namely, in their circuits round me they travel backwards, or the opposite way from all the others."

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Very wonderful!" I exclaimed.

Uranus was now fast disappearing from view; and afraid to lose a good chance, I said—

"Greatest of all great grandfathers, will you favour me by relating what you see on this Earth?"

"To be sure, I will, little one !

I will. Perhaps to-morrow night."

To--be-sure,

CHAPTER XVIII.

WHAT URANUS SAW.

A TRUE CHILD STORY.

FOUND Uranus soon after my first interview, and reminding him of his promise. This is

what he said to me

"I am very fond of all young things, children especially, and watch over them with great interest, so I will tell

you

"A TRUE CHILD STORY.

'Many of your years ago I looked into the drawing-room in one of your country houses. It was evening time of the day you call Sunday, and though the lamp was lighted, the curtains were not drawn, so I could

peep

in.

"Two children with their elder sister were look

ing at pictures in a large book of scenes from the

life of your great Christian Saviour. They were by different artists, and in nearly all the CHRIST was depicted with a glory of varied form round His sacred head.

"At last there came a picture in which your LORD was painted as sitting amongst His disciples in the Temple, but scarcely to be distinguished from any other person.

"Suddenly the youngest child turned to her elder sister, on whose knee she was sitting, and said—

"Why hasn't Desus Kiste got a sun on His head?'

“The sister smiled, and was at a loss to give other explanation than she supposed the artist had forgotten to draw it;-but she kissed the little one, thinking how pleased CHRIST must be with the simple childish love, so careful that the proper honour should be shown even to His picture; and she inwardly breathed a prayer that the child, through the storms of life, might keep ever fresh in her heart His honour and glory.

"As if in sweet answer to her petition, in the middle of the night she saw, by the dim firelight,