of the near approach, made it still a novelty to the great mass of even our more curious sightseers. None of us three had been there, although both old Brown and myself had been previously as far as Vulcan on business, and our junior as far as Mercury. The natural consequence of such comparative few making the sun passage was a very high passage-money; and just here we had old Brown's most formidable objection, seeing that, from Vulcan to the sun, the comparatively few millions of miles cost quite the double of the far greater distance from Earth to Vulcan. One must not, however, forget the enormous expenditure required in cross-electric protective energy for this shorter voyage; for White, who had so often successfully made it, had guaranteed the most assuring arrangements in that way.
We bade cordial adieus to the bright and intelligent Venusians. Our hand-shaking has come quite into vogue with them, although they still laugh at the odd-looking custom all the same as at first. Passing Mercury's orbit, we descried the little planet in the near offing, toiling along in our direction. And now, as we approach little Vulcan, the dimensions and fierce power of the sun are something to notice, and to afford us some warning of what a still nearer approach, even beyond Vulcan himself, may look and feel like. With every million or two of miles' approach, the careful old White added a charge extra to our anti-light and anti-heat cross-electric protector surroundings, thus keeping us always in safety and comfort.
