uppermost, and the column of self-valuation is all the time going up and
down. Number Seven is very much like other people in this respect,--very
much like you and me.

This train of reflections must not carry me away from Number Seven.

"If I can't get a chance to boss this planet for a week or so," he began
again, "I think I could write its history,--yes, the history of the
world, in less compass than any one who has tried it so far."

"You know Sir Walter Raleigh's 'History of the World,' of course?" said
the Professor.

"More or less,--more or less," said Number Seven prudently. "But I don't
care who has written it before me. I will agree to write the story of
two worlds, this and the next, in such a compact way that you can commit
them both to memory in less time than you can learn the answer to the
first question in the Catechism."

What he had got into his head we could not guess, but there was no little
curiosity to discover the particular bee which was buzzing in his bonnet.
He evidently enjoyed our curiosity, and meant to keep us waiting awhile
before revealing the great secret.

"How many words do you think I shall want?"

It is a formula, I suppose, I said, and I will grant you a hundred words.

"Twenty," said the Professor. "That was more than the wise men of Greece
wanted for their grand utterances."