ut no
failure! Failure? Why, what did those who called it so expect? Did they
expect that the great capital of the great Republic should spring into
full-grown existence as quickly as a hamlet around a railway station, or
village at a steamboat landing? Great ideas require a long time for
their complete embodiment. And those who sneered at Washington were as
little capable of foreseeing its future as the idlers about the
steamboat wharf were of foretelling the fortunes of the modest-looking
youth, in country clothes, who stood there gazing thoughtfully upon the
city.

"Can you tell me the nearest way to Pennsylvania Avenue?" at length he
asked of a bystander.

"Just set your face to the north and follow your nose for about a mile,
and you'll fetch up to the broadest street as ever you see; and that
will be it," was the answer.

With this simple direction Ishmael went on until he came to the avenue,
which he recognized at once from the description.

The Capitol, throned in majestic grandeur upon the top of its wooded
hill at the eastern extremity of the Avenue, and gleaming white in the
rays of the morning sun, seeming to preside over the whole scene, next
attracted Ishmael's admiration. As his way lay towards it, he had ample
time to contemplate its imposing magnificence and beauty.

As he drew near it, however, he began to throw his eyes around the
surrounding country in search of Judge Merlin's house. He soon
identified it--a large old family mansion, standing in a thick grove of
trees on a hill just north of the Capitol grounds. He turned to the
left, ascended the hill, and soon found himself at the iron gate leading
to the grounds.

Here his old acquaintance, Sam, being on duty as porter, admitted him,
and, taking him by a winding gravel walk that turned and twisted among
groves and parterres, led him up to the house and delivered him into the
charge of a black footman, who was at that early hour engaged in opening
the doors and windows.

He was the same Jim who used to wait on the table at Tanglewood.

"Good-morning, Mr. Ishmael, sir," he said, advancing in a friendly and
respectful manner, to receive the new arrival.

"The judge expected me this morning, Jim?" inquired Ishmael, when he had
returned the greeting of the man.

"Oh, yes, sir; and ordered your room got ready for you. The family aint
down yet, sir; but I can show you your room," said Jim, taking Ishmael's
carpetbag from him, and leading the