ear London,
and be abandoned there; and that then the whole world should relapse
into barbarism, and remain so for a thousand years, and afterwards there
should come a revival of science and civilization, and people should
come here to see the ruins of the Coliseum, and go to London to see
those of the great ship, I think they would consider the ship the
greater wonder of the two."

"I think they would," said Rollo, "if they understood it all as well."

"They could not be easily made to believe, I suppose," said Mr. George,
"that such an immense structure, all of iron, could have been made, and
launched, and then navigated all over the world just by the power of the
maze of iron beams and wheels, and machinery, which they would see in
ruins in the hold."

"Uncle George," said Rollo, "what curious bricks the Romans used!"

So saying, Rollo pointed to the bricks in a mass of masonry near where
they were standing. These bricks, like all those that were used in the
construction of the building, were very flat. They were a great deal
longer and a great deal wider than our bricks, and were yet not much
more than half as thick. This gave them a very thin and flat appearance.
Instead of being red, too, they were of a yellow color.

These bricks had not originally been used for outside works, but only
for filling in the solid parts of the walls, and for forming the arches.
But the stones with which the brick masonry had been covered and
concealed having been removed, the bricks were of course in many places
brought to view.

After looking about for some time, Rollo found a brick with two letters
stamped upon it. It was evident that the letters had been stamped upon
the clay in the making of the brick, while it was yet soft. The letters
were P. D.

"Look, uncle George!" said Rollo; "look at those letters! What do you
suppose they mean?"

"That is very curious," said Mr. George; and so saying he proceeded to
examine the letters very closely.

"They were evidently stamped upon the brick," he said, "when it was
soft. Perhaps they are the initials of the maker's name."

"I mean to look and see if all the bricks are stamped so," said Rollo.

So Rollo began to examine the other bricks wherever he could find any
which had a side exposed to view; but though he found some which
contained the letters, there were many others where no letters were to
be seen.

"Perhaps the letters are on the under side," said Rollo. "I mean to