Page:Clement Fezandié - Through the Earth.djvu/247

Rh continued twinkling, and the bright moon looked down at him as if laughing at his stupefaction.

But if our hero was astonished to find it was night-time, his feelings may be imagined when, on emerging from the car, he found that the islet was covered with several inches of snow, which sparkled in the moonlight as though it, too, participated in the enjoyment at our hero's surprise.

And well might William rub his eyes, and well might he feel bewildered and imagine that some elf was playing its tricks upon him. He had left Australia at eleven o'clock in the morning, and his trip seemed to have lasted but fifty minutes; yet it was night-time when he reached the United States! He had left Australia on a sultry midsummer's day, with the thermometer at 100° in the shade; yet he arrived in the United States in midwinter, the ground being covered with several inches of snow! Truly our hero might well be forgiven for believing himself suddenly transported back into the days of the fairies.