(_A Page of Mythology written up to Date._)
The Traveller from the Earth left his balloon and trod the cloud that
seemed prepared to receive him. As he did this there was a peal of
laughter which echoed far and wide.
"Where am I?" asked the explorer in English, for he was British-born.
"You have come to the head-quarters of waggery," returned the Resident,
recovering from a violent fit of merriment. "We are never dull here, we
have so much to amuse us."
"Indeed! And how is that?"
"Why, I take a delight in effecting the most comical transformations
imaginable. By the simplest means I can cause an inhabitant of the
Earth to change his costume five times in as many hours. The jest is
provocative of limitless mirth, especially amongst the doctors and the
undertakers."
"And what are the simplest means?"
[Illustration]
"Why, I will serve up on Monday a sun worthy of the most fiery day
in an unusually sultry August. On Tuesday I will send a gale and
hailstones, suggestive of the arctic regions at Yule-tide. On Wednesday
I will resume the oppressive heat until streams dry up, and water rises
to a premium. Then on Thursday I will cover the ground with snow, and
finish up the week with a deluge."
The Stranger raised his hat and answered, "The Clerk of the Weather, I
presume?"
"Quite so," was the immediate response. "And now you must leave me to
my work, or Englishmen will have nothing to talk about."
And the balloon once more continued its progress amidst a perfect salad
of the elements.
"Very amusing," thought the Traveller, and then he added aloud,
speaking incidentally the opinion of all his countrymen, "but
distinctly inconvenient!"
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[Illustration: MERELY A SUGGESTION.
_Mr Punch_ (_to the Shahzada_). "WOULDN'T YOUR HIGHNESS LIKE TO SEE
THE NORTH POLE?"
["At the weekly meeting of the Balloon Society on the 6th inst., Herr
S. A. ANDRÉE read a paper on the projected Polar balloon
expedition.... He intended, he said, to go to Spitzbergen and wait for
a southerly wind, which would take him very quickly into the Polar
regions."
_Pall Mall Gazette, August 7, 1895._]
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