Page:Baron Trump's marvellous underground journey.pdf/87

Rh CHAPTER X

and I were more than pleased with our new friends, Doctor Nebulosus, Sir Amber O'Pake, and Lord Cornucore, although so eager were they to make us thoroughly comfortable, that they overdid the matter at times, and left me scarcely a moment to myself in which to make an entry in my notebook. They were extremely solicitous lest in my ignorance I should set down something wrong about them.

"For," said Sir Amber O'Pake, "now that thou hast found the way to this under world of ours, little baron, I feel assured that we shall have a number of visitors from thy people every year or so, and have already issued orders to have extra beds made as soon as the wood can be quarried."

Doctor Nebulosus gave me a very interesting account of the various ailments which the Mikkamenkies suffer from. "All sickness among our people, little baron," said he, "is purely mental or emotional; that is, of the mind or feelings. There is no such thing as bodily infirmity among us. Wine and strong drink are unknown in our world, and the food we eat is light easily digested. We are never exposed to the danger of breathing a dust-laden atmosphere, and while we are an active and industrious people, yet we sleep a great deal; for, as our laws forbid the use of lamps or torches, except for the use of those toiling in the dark chambers, it is not possible for us to ruin our health by turning night into day. We go to bed the