In Chapter 3, Van wakes up after he, Jeff, and Terry have been knocked out and kidnapped by the Herlandians. He uses imagery to describe the "absolute physical comfort" of the bed where he awakens, foreshadowing his discovery that the Herlandians have a highly advanced society:
The most prominent sensation was of absolute physical comfort. I was lying in a perfect bed: long, broad, smooth; firmly soft and level; with the finest linen, some warm light quilt of blanket, and a counterpane that was a joy to the eye. The sheet turned down some fifteen inches, yet I could stretch my feet at the foot of the bed, free but warmly covered.
Van lingers over the luxurious feeling of a bed that not only fits him, but leaves room for him to stretch without sticking his feet out the bottom. The bed is "long, broad, smooth," and "firmly soft and level." Mattresses today tend to be larger and more uniformly comfortable than they used to be due to innovation and the wider availability of materials that can be used to optimize them. Even if Van sleeps on a very comfortable mattress at home, it is unlikely that he has been doing so while traveling around with Jeff and Terry. Nor has he likely been sleeping on "the finest linen," with blankets that are not only comfortable but also beautiful and expansive. The way he describes how it feels to wake up and stretch in this warm bed invites the reader to long for a journey to Herland, just to sleep in the bed.
Van is a prisoner in Herland, but waking up feeling so safe and cozy is the first of many pleasant surprises. This land of women, which he expected to have few resources and only the most basic of social systems, turns out to far exceed his expectations. It is not that they have developed flashy technology or the most booming of economies. Rather, they have perfected simple but necessary things like the comfort of a bed, not to mention self-sustaining agriculture.
