gradually passed away, those who remained naturally drew nearer together
until at last the remnant of the population of the globe were all gathered
in the little village where we were now living. Here the process still
went on, and year after year saw a constantly diminishing number. A few
years before our arrival Mona's last companion, a girl of her own age, had
died, and ever since then this tuneful creature, possessed of the most
sunny disposition we had ever known, had lived alone, with the knowledge
that there was not another living being in all the moon.

"So you see," she sang, "I was as glad to find you as you were to hear
me."

"But," asked the doctor, "how did you know we were out there, nearly ready
to be blown off into space?"

"I didn't know it till I saw you. I went out to try to discover what was
the matter with my old world. For some time I had had the queerest
sensations imaginable. I was accustomed to being out of doors a great
deal, and I first began to notice that I could walk and run more easily
than before. I was becoming rather sprightly for one who was so soon to
pass off this deserted stage. Then everything I took up seemed to be
growing marvelously light, and I began to have a feeling that I must hold
on to all my movable possessions, to keep them from getting away. After
this unaccountable state of things had existed for a while, there came,
one day, a terrible shock, which threatened to crack the moon's skull and
rattle its fragments down upon my head. This was followed at intervals by
similar or lighter shocks, and it was all so exceedingly unusual that I
became very curious to know what was happening. Then all was quiet for
many days, but when at length the quakings began again my natural instinct
of self-preservation told me I ought not to take the risk of another such