Curious! However, the ordinary Martian is
gamy, good company, full of happiness, with a considerable fancy for
jokes, absurdly addicted to music, and as credulous as a child. Somehow,
Dodd, a good deal of my earthly nature has stuck to me, and I revel in a
dual life. I have my Martian side, but I can't, and this life can't,
knock the old foibles of the world you left, out of me yet. I may get
the proper sort of exultation in time, but just now I've imported
considerable human horse sense.'
"He looked at me whimsically; I walked away, and watched the receding
city.
"The motion of our white boat was so smoothly rapid, that soon, and
almost unnoticed we had threaded all the many lanes, windings, and locks
that led to the broad canals some twenty miles from the city. We had
passed laden barges, flat and storied boats carrying excursions or
freight, and trains of smaller craft crowded with fruit brought in from
distant farms for the great population of the City of Light. The scene
assumed a fairy-like unreality as night settled down, and the boats
swarming with light, or else carrying a few red lanterns, passed us
while their occupants or owners chanted the lonely lullaby of the
Martians, which begins: 'Ana cal tantil to ti.'
"It was yet to me all a wonderful dream, from which each moment I
dreaded awakening. It was all so beautiful!
"I sat again with Chapman under the canopy, talking of the earth.
Strange Mystery! Here we were with our earth memories yet vivid,
recalling incidents of life in New York City, and summoning amid all the
appealing charm of this strange new life, the little, sordid variances
and trials, vexations and minor sufferings that had marred his own life
on earth.
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