Another gave a better theory which was at length accepted. He said that
no doubt I belonged to a company that had emigrated long, long ago from
one of the valleys.

After all their pains I satisfied their ruling desire by speaking. They
knew not what to say as I gave them a general description of the world
from which I came.

Purposely I used their most cultured forms of expression. At once I rose
to a high level in their estimation and they gradually accepted my words
as true. With absorbing interest they listened to every syllable and,
when I paused, their questions fell upon me in wild profusion. On my
account the schools were abandoned, all the leading teachers of five
elevations became my astonished auditors, and after every period of
sleep I was confronted by still other classes of specialists, some from
more distant elevations.

Finally, feigning ignorance, I asked where they obtained their
sustenance, as I had not seen one field in cultivation. They told me the
whole history of the toilers in the valley as already recounted, and how
the curtain magnates received their tributes which were sufficient to
feed all the people of the elevations.

"What right," I asked, "has any one to form a monopoly on sunlight or
rain which are free bounties from above?"

"There can be nothing wrong about that," came the positive answer. "Any
man who was wise enough to think of such a splendid system of
valley-covers surely deserves all the benefit that can be secured from