that mysterious wine, and talked of many things until at last something
set us on the subject of astronomy, a study I found my dapper gallant
had some knowledge of--which was not to be wondered at seeing he dwelt
under skies each night set thick above his curly head with tawny planets,
and glittering constellations sprinkled through space like flowers in
May meadows. He knew what worlds went round the sun, larger or lesser,
and seeing this I began to question him, for I was uneasy in my innermost
mind and, you will remember, so far had no certain knowledge of where
I was, only a dim, restless suspicion that I had come beyond the ken of
all men's knowledge.

Therefore, sweeping clear the board with my sleeve, and breaking the
wafer cake I was eating, I set down one central piece for the sun, and,
"See here!" I said, "good fellow! This morsel shall stand for that sun
you have just been welcoming back with quaint ritual. Now stretch your
starry knowledge to the utmost, and put down that tankard for a moment.
If this be yonder sun and this lesser crumb be the outermost one of our
revolving system, and this the next within, and this the next, and so on;
now if this be so tell me which of these fragmentary orbs is ours--which
of all these crumbs from the hand of the primordial would be that we
stand upon?" And I waited with an anxiety a light manner thinly hid,
to hear his answer.

It came at once. Laughing as though the question were too trivial,
and more to humour my wayward fancy than aught else, that boy circled
his rosy thumb about a minute and brought it down on the planet Mars!

I started and stared at him; then all of a tremble cried, "You trifle
with me! Choose again--there, see, I will set the symbols and name them
to you anew. There now, on your soul tell me truly which this planet is,