_D._ So is his bite!

_F._ Well, well; I must walk out and take the air. [_Going_]

_D._ Yes, pa, (and see that you don't take anything else!) Now, then!
for a grand look for my Charmer! Really, I am getting quite Earthly!
[_Looks through the instrument a few moments_] Why, what is this? Oh,
pshaw! I see! I've got JUPITER by mistake! I mistook one of his Belts
for a new Belt Railroad. It would have been a Big Thing, that railroad;
not less than 75,000 miles long, as I figure it. Perhaps those Belts
_are_ Railroads! Perhaps they have Rings there, as they have at Saturn,
only less conspicuous. JUPITER is rather a Slushy planet, if I am
correct in regard to its Specific Gravity; of about the consistency,
perhaps, of the New-York Poultice Pavement I've been reading about. I
should think that JUPITER'S lack of gravity and consistency would make
him a favorite with Aldermen--not the less for having so many
Satellites. I wonder if the New Charter is the celebrated Magna Charter
under a new name? Probably it is no better. Oh, dear! the annoyance of
living so far away! Nothing here attracts me. The distant, the
unattainable, is all I think or care about!

F. [_Coming in quietly._] What's that, HELENE, about the charms of
the Unattainable? You don't seem to see any thing very attractive in
MERCURY or MARS!

_D._ Well, some things may be both unattainable and undesirable. That's
the case with the little thieving god MERCURY, and that big red-skinned
Prize-Fighter, MARS. I can't understand, however, why these disreputable
deities should he worshipped in your favorite New-York.