You can well imagine how they lingered in saying good-bye and would not be satisfied until he had promised that he would visit them when they were settled in the new homes they were going to prepare when they returned to Earth.
“Now, Mercury, what can I give you?” asked the old man. “I know that material things are not desired by those who live in space, and as a person cannot give a slice of his brains, the only valuable thing here, I am at a loss to know what to give you to show how much I appreciate your kindness in bringing these young people to me.”
“The pleasure of being with you all has been sufficient recompense for me,” replied Mercury, “and if you do not mind I should like to return and learn from you some of the wonderful secrets of nature you possess.”
“Come, my dear fellow, and come often. I would be delighted to teach you anything I know, for I am getting to be an old man and some times feel that I have done my share of work and would be glad to leave in younger hands the tasks and studies that are still unfinished.”
For a long time after our party had started for Neptune they felt quiet and subdued. Ione did not talk and Harold forgot to tease. They had traveled in silence for some distance when Ione in a revery said, “Neptune, god of the waters. I wonder if we will find the planet’s Satellite Island nearly all water and its inhabitants floating about in gondolas or queer-shaped barges and boats, as the Venetians do.”
“I expect we will,” said the Princess, “and I have the funniest feeling, as if when I reach there I shall have reached the end of space and can look over the edge as I should if the universe were a plate and Neptune a big ball on its rim.”
“Oh! you queer girl!” exclaimed Ione. “You have the funniest ideas sometimes. You make me laugh.”
“I should think you would be afraid our ‘wishes’ would get out of order and we would get stuck in space like a balky horse or, if our magic robes failed to work, that we would go whirling and speeding through space like a comet,” said Harold.
“Harold, you are the worst tease I ever knew,” said the Princess.
“Well, isn’t it true that all things wear out with constant use? We have kept wishing, wishing, and wishing that we might be first in this place and then in that, or that we could see this or the other thing until I should think our robes would at least be threadbare.”