ays, thanks to you, but there's no saying what might happen
if I hadn't anything to do. What's that kind of saying about idleness?"

"Idleness is the root of all evil."

"Yes, that's it, Phil. Give me plenty to do, and I'll be better able to
keep that promise I made yer."

Accordingly Phil and Tony laid out a couple of shillings in a guide, and
commenced systematically to investigate the sights of London, commencing
with the Tower, where a regiment of Guards was quartered, and turning
their attention next to the British Museum, which itself occupied
several days.

"We must do the thing thoroughly," said Phil, as, book in hand, he and
Tony strolled through one of the larger rooms. "I'll tell you what will
be a good plan. We'll pay a visit to the map room, look up a certain
country, and then investigate whatever curios there happen to be from
that part."

"I'm with yer, Phil," Tony answered cheerfully, wishing to please his
companion, and secretly imbued with a firm determination to make up as
much as possible for his ignorance. "But you'll have to show me
everything. I don't suppose I'd be able to tell the difference between
a map of France and one of England. You'd better start with the lot,
and point 'em out one by one."

Anxious to improve his humble friend, Phil took up his education in this
way with zest, and spent hours in scanning a map of the world. So
deeply interested did they become that on the second day they did not
observe that a little man, dressed in respectable black, and wearing a
large white stock, had stolen up behind them, and with smiling face, and
eyes which peered through a pair of glasses, was peeping over their
shoulders and listening with interest to the harangue which Phil was
delivering for the benefit of Tony.

"There's the Black Sea, communicating with the Mediterranean by means of
this narrow channel," Phil was remarking, as he placed his finger on the
Dardanelles, and ran it up and down to show the communication between
the two seas. "There's Turkey, and there's Russia; and it's between
those two countries that war is imminent."

"Then Russia and the Czar, or whatever he's called, ought to be ashamed
of theirselves, that's all I've got to say," answered Tony with disgust.
"See what a size the first one is. Why, the other's only a baby."

"She'll fight for all that, Tony, so people say, but why or for what I
don't know. Russia wants something, and Turkey says `No'. Ru