when a boy been noted for a love of study, and now when he could no
longer walk, he turned his attention to literary pursuits. Masusaelili
took an interest in the unfortunate young man, and allowed him at first
to be brought occasionally to the studio which the reader has already
visited, and later to become an assistant in his researches. Peters and
Pym felt very kindly to the poor fellow, and evinced their regard by
inventing and making for him a sort of chair on two main wheels and a
small third wheel, upon which he could sit and guide himself with ease
and comfort from place to place in the city, and that, too, with quite
as great speed as he had in the past been able to attain by walking. The
last thing heard of him by Peters was, that he had begun a history of
the Hili-lite people, from the settlement of Hili-li to 1828. And this
reminds me to say that, to Pym and Peters, one of the strangest things
in Hili-li was their count of time, which appeared the same as our own.
It was not in fact the same, however, though Peters insists that it was;
for whilst we, of course, count time according to the Gregorian
calendar, the Hili-lites must have counted time according to the Julian
calendar. This would have placed the Hili-lites about eleven days in
arrear of Pym's count--a difference which, under the circumstances,
Peters might easily have overlooked.

"Not many weeks after the rescue of Lilania, she and Pym were married
according to the usual form of Hili-li. The wedding ceremony was a very
quiet one. I have thought that perhaps the customs of Hili-li might
account for the lack of any festivity; and, again, that the Ahpilus
incident may have precluded all social gaiety at such a time, the
injured man being still in a precarious condition."

Here Bainbridge paused for a moment, took a turn or two across the
floor, relit the long-neglected cigar that he held in his fingers,