bout for several hours.

_Harry._--And does nobody go there that has not several friends? Because
Master Tommy said that people went to Ranelagh to meet their friends.

Mr Barlow smiled at this question, and answered, "The room is generally
so crowded, that people have little opportunity for any kind of
conversation. They walk round the room in a circle, one after the other,
just like horses in a mill. When persons meet that know each other, they
perhaps smile and bow, but are shoved forward, without having any
opportunity to stop. As to _friends_, few people go to look for them
there; and if they were to meet them, few would take the trouble of
speaking to them, unless they were dressed in a fashionable manner, and
seemed to be of _consequence_."

_Harry._--That is very extraordinary, indeed. Why, sir, what can a man's
dress have to do with friendship? Should I love you a bit better if you
were to wear the finest clothes in the world; or should I like my father
the better if he were to put on a laced coat like Squire Chase? On the
contrary, whenever I see people dressed very fine, I cannot help
thinking of the story you once read me of Agesilaus, king of Sparta.

_Tommy._--What is that story? Do let me hear it.

_Mr Barlow._--To-morrow you shall hear it; at present we have read and
conversed enough; it is better that you should go out and amuse
yourselves.

The little boys then went out, and returned to a diversion they had been
amusing themselves with for several days, the making a prodigious
snowball. They had begun by making a small globe of snow with their
hands, which they turned over and over, till, by continually collecting
fresh matter, it grew so large that they were unable to roll it any
farther. Here Tommy observed that their labours must end, "for it was
impossible to turn it any longer." "No," said Harry, "I know a remedy
for that." So he ran and fetched a couple of thick sticks about five
feet long, and giving one of them to Tommy, he took the other himself.
He then desired Tommy to put the end of his stick under the mass, while
he did the same on his side, and then, lifting at the other end, they
rolled the heap forward with the greatest ease.

Tommy was extremely surprised at this, and said, "How can this be? We
are not a bit stronger than we were before; and yet now we are able to
roll this snowball along with ease, which we could not even stir
before." "That is very true," answered Harry, "but