But alas! my visions and my dreams were to be dashed aside. The Recorder's pleasant, happy face was, I found, not due to the cause I supposed. He was simply reading my thoughts, and smiling at their folly.
After we had been travelling for about half an hour, he said to me, pointing to the southward:—"There are the docks I am taking you to see. There are some of the vessels of our naval fleet. Don't you see them?"
I answered: "I see neither ships nor docks. Your vision, you must remember, is much stronger than mine. I certainly see a large sheet of water, like a big ornamental sea full of islands, but where are the docks, the ships, the tar, the pitch, the sheds, the goods, the sailors, the lumpers, the planks, the dirty water, yes, and the nasty smells?"
"My son," he replied, "These things that you have named are all gone—they are all things of the past. You ancients could not do anything without smoke and dirt, pitch and tar. You made your docks very cesspools for
