When a highly civilized Martian visits an anthropologist's home, the Professor is delighted to discover a startling resemblance between human and Martian private taboos. But his excitement turns to comic unease when the visitor vanishes into the bathroom and remains there far too long, drawing the family into a spiral of concern, speculation, and barely contained alarm. The Professor's scholarly curiosity, his wife's blunt skepticism, and the children's plainspoken remarks transform an ordinary domestic delay into a sharp satire of cultural misunderstanding. As the household debates whether to respect the Martian's privacy or intervene, their worries range from illness to bizarre alien habits. A cautious inquiry eventually reveals the truth: the Martian is not in distress, but bathing according to customs shaped by his own planet's ideas of comfort, water, and sleep. By morning, he emerges refreshed and cheerful, puzzled that humans do not sleep in water as he expected. Warm, ironic, and slyly observant, the story finds humor in the gaps between cultures and suggests that real interplanetary contact depends on patience, humility, and a sense of humor. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.