“Oh, Great Bona!” gasped Godfrey, in dismay, while the others roared with laughter. “There will be a Noah’s Ark soon! We shall have to stay here for years to go through every variety of living thing on the face of Jupiter!” and he sat down quite overcome, glaring round at the laughter of his companions. Werran could not understand it, but then he never could understand laughter, for the Martians do not laugh. It seemed to him so strange that the Earthians should crease their faces and make noises and hold their sides when they were pleased. He kept his face perfectly serene under the influence of both pleasure and pain, for it was considered bad form on Mars to alter the expression in the slightest degree, no matter what the circumstances. Consequently, he was amazed that his companions—who seemed to him refined and educated—should occasionally lose all self-control and give themselves up to peculiar contortions of the features, often ending in tears and a holding of the sides. Nor could he understand why they seemed nonplussed at his request to bring out _all_ the animals. They had none on Mars, and his idea of what an animal was seemed very vague. “There’s nothing for it but waiting to see what they’ll bring us,” said Ross, laughing. In a few hours the Jovians brought some hundreds of animals, native to the locality, but it was impossible for Godfrey to make a selection, as not one of them bore any resemblance to Earth animals, and there were no grubs or any form of caterpillar amongst them. They were of all sizes, from that of a mouse to a mammoth, and of endless variety; all seemed extremely friendly, looking trustfully at the strangers in passing, and Godfrey averred he saw one of them deliberately wink at him, but when the others looked, the creature’s eyes were filled rather with sadness and reproach than with frivolity, though it seemed to brighten up when Godfrey was charged with maligning it, but this might have been fancy. “There’s your Noah’s Ark, Godfrey, my boy,” said Dennis. “All the varieties of animals in the kingdom are at your feet, take your choice, only get a little one! that frisky one there would fill the saloon.” “It’s all very well for you fellows to stand there and chaff,” replied Godfrey, shortly. “It’s a great pity three great hulking fellows like you cannot employ your time to better advantage! If these are specimens of Jovian bugs we’d better get back home again, for there are no apparatus here to deal with any of that lot.” “Werran!” exclaimed Gilbert, laughing, “just ask them if they’ve any nice little grubs to trot out for our friend here, there’s a good chap! tell them these insects are too full-grown for him, and not the right kind.”