Page:A thousand years hence. Being personal experiences (IA thousandyearshen00gree).djvu/401

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"Bother the whole subject!" repeated Brown, interrupting me. But, alas! the original energy thrown into the sentence had entirely vanished. The words were there, but the spirit was gone. So I ported my helm, to avoid the visible breakers, and wait and woo some more promising opportunity.

We duly reached, on our return, the Upper Solardom border, repassed the gateway, this time without the slightest interference or even notice, and after a stroll through the far more active, varied, and genial scenes of the "Lower Life" outside, we re-embarked, to rejoin White and his company on their return home via Mercury. While we retraced aloft the vast solar landscape, I was this time busy over my notes of all that had occurred, so as to secure my description whilst all was still fresh on the mind. I was thus occupied till within some six hours of our destination, when, throughly wearied out in spite of all the excitement, I lay down to rest and was promptly fast asleep. Then followed—

I dreamt that another thousand years had swept over our earth, bringing us from the present 2882 to the year of grace 3882, with all its wonders of still additional and ever-increasing population and advanced and still ever-advancing science. We had then honeycombed our earth far towards the centre in order to make room for the multitudes of human beings: while outwards, again, we had occupied all