"Why, look at the color of my eyes and skin--would this green tint be
suitable for me to wear?"

"Oh, is that the reason!" cried I, immensely relieved. "I think, Edra,
you would look very beautiful in any color that is on the earth, or in
the rainbow above the earth. But am I so different from you all?"

"Oh yes, quite different--have you never looked at yourself? Your skin
is whiter and redder, and your hair has a very different color. It will
look better when it grows long, I think. And your eyes--do you know that
they never change! for when we look at you closely they are still
blue-gray, and not green."

"No; I wish they were," said I. "Now I shall value my clothes a hundred
times more, since you have taken so much pains to make them--well, what
shall I say?--harmonize, I suppose, with the peculiar color of my mug.
Dash it all, I'm blundering again! I mean--I mean--don't you know----"

Edra laughed and gave it up. Then we all laughed; for now evidently my
blundering did not so much matter, since I had shed my outer integument,
and come forth like a snake (with a divided tail) in a brand new skin.

Presently I missed Yoletta from the room, and desiring above all things
to have some word of congratulation from her lips, I went off to seek
her. She was standing under the portico waiting for me. "Come," she
said, and proceeded to lead me into the music-room, where we sat down on
one of the couches close to the dais; there she produced some large
white tablets, and red chalk pencils or crayons.

"Now, Smith, I am going to begin teaching you," said she, with the grave