The three visitors had forgotten about their shining complexions, until one of the natives pointed in comparison to his own white skin and to the face of Ross. Poor Ross nearly died with mortification, for he was fair and clear-skinned—that peculiar clearness which often accompanies chestnut hair—and of all these things he was vain. It was his only weakness, and to be suddenly recalled to fact by so personal a reference humiliated him terribly. He tried to make them understand, and in part succeeded by rousing their curiosity without convincing them; so thinking he would be in good company, he, by signs, persuaded several of them to bathe in the sea, which was not difficult, seeing they were fond of it. Ross then managed to make them comprehend that they had to dry in the sun, which they also did willingly enough, little thinking of the surprise he had in store for them in the change that was coming, for he determined they should repeat his experiences and get blued, but he was a little disappointed to find their linen to be still soft and not at all sticky, nor were the people stiffened in their clothing as the visitors had been, and to the touch their hair was still soft and loose. However, these matters were mere details and Ross proceeded with his joke, grimly determined to blue his victims as effectively as he and his friends were dyed. When they came to the stream he tried to persuade them to lie still in it, in their clothing, but they did not see this at all, and only the desire of the chief personage to please the visitors caused them to comply with Ross’s request, and there they stayed, minute after minute, in their clothing, for about half an hour, at the end of which time their skins were undyed and their linen was white as before. At last they got up and squeezed the water out of their clothing, feeling that it was a funny sort of joke, the point of which neither they nor their companions could see—nor could the visitors, and poor Ross, who had run the whole entertainment, both looked and felt foolish and, if possible, bluer than ever, especially when the people seemed to ask for an explanation of his joke and evidently considered the strangers a true specimen of those living on Earth.