Goodwill to all, now sounds the glorious theme.
Through the smallest of the human race,
Was delegated this act of ‘grace.’”
At the close of the marriage ceremony, the Dosch with his family quickly regained the fossæ of Mr. Welson’s ears, the sinuosities of which were made to resound with the prophetic responses, causing the eyes of the owner thereof to turn with an instinctive strabism toward the organ subject to the impression of Manatitlan vocalism. While his eyes were in their retroverted position they attracted the attention of Lovieta and Lavoca, who had recalled their wondering gaze for curious inquiry, causing them to exclaim in a voice: “O Don Guillermo, what makes you squint so?” Then, without waiting for an answer, they continued, glancing at the reflected figures of the Manatitlans in the microscopic field, “How much larger your little folks are than ours, and how beautifully they sing.”
But Mr. Welson’s attention was too strongly diverted to give more than an abstracted answer to his pets. At the close of the prophetic jubilee, the Dosch answered, from the interpretation of Mr. Welson’s thoughts: “We do certainly feel, from the docility shown by the leading members of the corps, as if the wedge of rational thought had opened a passage through the cycled round of folly for the ejection of the many self-inflicted causes of misery, which have made life with your race a penal infliction. The educated substitution of thought for impulsive impression from the senses, which at present holds ruling sway, would interpose a shield to prevent the emblematic union of head and tail, for the vortex extinction of material civilization, and degradation for the reënactment of savage barbarism through a long series of dark ages. There is certainly a happy forecast inaugurated by this union, which reminds us of our provincial success in raising human Animalculans to become in reality Animalcumans; a distinction which our neophytes are emulous of having conferred from self-approving merit. If it was not for the selfish fighting disposition of Christian nations and sects, which inclines them to instinctive patriotism and holy wars, advantage might be taken of their superstitious reverence for things ancient, to attract them hitherward as pilgrims, for their own behoof.”
Here the ears of the Dosch caught the subdued tones of familiar voices, which from their peculiar method of construing terms he quickly recognized, causing him to expostulate in this wise: “I hear the voices of your old sailor companions, Jack and Bill; is it fitting that their honest sincerity should alone be welcomed by their Kyronese admirers? If their quaint, unsophisticated bluntness has been able to recognize the truthful simplicity of Heraclean example, it will prove a greater acquisition for the encouragement of hope than your own; as they represent a class embalmed with the stupidity of erratic animal indulgence, which subjects them to the vilest servitude ever imposed by the arbitrary few upon the unthinking masses of humanity. Indeed, with the exception of the self-imposed penalties of your Giga women’s vanity, they suffer more abjectly from the fiat of hereditary usage than the veriest slave that ever winced under the lash of the taskmaster.”
Mr. Welson and Dow soon added a glow of grateful contentment to the weather-beaten faces of the two sailors, by extending to them a cordial welcome, which was increased to manifestations of “weakness,” from the warmth of the Heracleans’ affectionate reception. There was something so uniquely attractive in the instinctive attachment of these strange beings, who had wandered away from their element, that they had enlisted a strong interest long before the possible existence of a human Animalcuman had been conjectured; or an idea of the practicability of a preferred affection had been suggested, in exaltation above the instinctive type rendered “famous” by the fabled “friendship” of the legendary Damon and Pythias. Mr. Welson had tested the fealty of their attachment in a variety of ways on board of the Tortuga, with a constant result in confirmation of its disinterested integrity.
Finding themselves the centre of attraction, which was seasoned with manifold tokens of affectionate sincerity, they were fain to have recourse to their “pocket-swabs, to clear the leakage from the run on scuppers of their eyes,” with an occasional sounding of their nostril pumps, to divert the emotional overflow from its natural course. Correliana, in a transparent glow of radiant joy, for the relief of their “filling condition, that water-logged” the speech of the “honest tars,” asked Jack in good English, if he did not prefer his present success in “drawing fire,” to the method he adopted with the Indians? The question produced a sudden revulsion, which Bill seconded with a nudge and a whisper, that could have been heard in a gale: “Say, Jack, her leddyship had you there with the pint of a marlin.”
Taken aback, Jack gave a short, subdued hitch to his waistband and mouth, and then replied, with the latter reefed into a smile: “You see, m’rm, your leddyship, w’re now on a peaceful tack, for w’ve come to sign the articles and enter our name as landsmen, if he cares to ship us at a venture, and take us in tow for the v’yage of life, and mayhap for t’ other.” Then hesitating, to gather courage, which was gained by an extra hitch of his waistband, he resumed: “You see, m’rm, if so be your father would ‘low us to splice, we’d like to port our helm in Heraclea for life.”
Understanding the tenor of the sailor’s petition, by the fond glances exchanged by himself and mate, with the two Kyronese maidens, who had attended upon them while acting as guards or gate-keepers, she addressed the Dosch in Latin, asking if it was agreeable to his judgment to have their request complied with; pleading her own assurance of their constancy from the disinterested affection they had shown toward each other. The Dosch not only expressed his full approbation, but desire that they should be immediately united. This decision receiving the prætor’s sanction, and willing approval of the maiden’s parents, and, above all, the blushing self-bestowal of the affiants, whose inclinations were consulted by Cleorita and Oviata, it was resolved to consummate the union at once, if the sun had not declined in its arc sufficient for the casting of a shadow. Placing them in position as quickly as possible, it was found that, with haste, the emblematic ceremony could be accomplished in a union without shadow. But when the sailors were asked for their family names, it was found that from long habit in using only their “Christian” names in addressing each other, they were at a loss in deciding to which of the surnames, Smith or Jones, they were personally entitled from parental endowment, although aware that one or the other had been inherited as a nominal adjunct to Jack and Bill. As they could not recollect to which they were separately entitled, the Dosch, from the urgency of the emergency, was fain to accept the only alternative of the dilemma, and in the formulistic style, peculiar to Giga understanding, consummated the ties by propounding: “You, Bill Smith or Jones, in mutual troth do plight your vows in constancy for life to Anonymosimia Doycymba, and you, Jack Jones or Smith, yours to Meerisia Abdosia?”