tell me where it is?"

Mr. Bombus considered a moment, And then asked, "Do you know where Now
is?"

Betty thought a minute, and then replied, "I suppose it is Here, sir."

"Right!" assented the old gentleman, promptly. "Now, if you had said
There, it would have been wrong; for Then is There. You see, this is
the way: When we have lived in Now until it is all used up, it changes
into Then, and, instead of being Here, is There. I hope it's plain to
you. Well, you asked me where By-and-by was. That 's the very thing
about it: it never was, not even _is_; it's always _going to be_, and
it's generally a rather long way from Now; so, if you know where Now
is, you can make your own calculations as to the distance of By-and-by."

"But I don't know anything about calculating distances," said Betty,
dolefully.

"It does n't matter," remarked Mr. Bombus; "for even if you did you
could n't apply it in this case. But we 're getting on in our journey.
Yes, indeed, we seem to be really getting on."

"Why, I should hope so!" returned Betty. "It seems to me I never flew
so fast in all my life before and for such a long time. If we were n't
getting on, I think I should be discouraged. We seem to be almost
running a race, we go so quickly."

"We are running a race," observed Mr. Bombus.