fterwards to a Prussian, they were stopped till he called
an officer who looked at their papers and let them go on.
Mr. Seaman had taken charge of Leonidas, and given him the best
dinner he had eaten for a long time, but as he was going to another
city to other hospitals, he could not keep the boy with him; so he
had put him in charge of a friend who was going to London, to send
him down to Mrs. Bunker.
Fear of Lucy's rash was pretty well over now, and she was to go home
in a day or two; so the children were allowed to be together, and
enjoyed it very much. Lucy told about her dreams, and Leonidas had
a good deal to tell of what he had really seen on his travels. They
wished very much that they could both see one of these wonderful
dreams together, only--what should it be?
CHAPTER XVII.
THE DREAM OF ALL NATIONS.
What should it be? She thought of Arabs with their tents and horses,
and Leonidas told her of Red Indians with their war-paint, and
little Negroes dancing round the sugar-boiling, till her head began
quite to swim and her ears to buzz; and all the children she had
seen seemed to come round her, and join hands and dance.
Oh, such a din! A little Highlander in his tartans stood on a barrel
in the middle, making his bagpipes squeal away; a Chinese with a bald
head and long pigtail beat a gong, and capered with a solemn face;
a Norwegian herd-boy blew a monstrous bark cow-horn; an Indian
juggler twisted snakes round his neck to the sound of the tom-tom;
and Lucy found herself and Leonidas whirling round with a young
Dutch planter between them, and an Indian with a crown of feathers
upon the other side of her.
"Oh!" she seemed to herself to cry, "what are you doing? How do
you all come here?"
"We are from all the nations who are friends, brethren," said the
voices; "we all bring our stores: the sugar, rice, cotton of the
West; the silk and coffee and spices of the East; the tea of China;
the furs of the North: it is all exchanged from one to the other,
and should teach us to be all brethren, since we cannot thrive one
without the other."
"It all comes to our country, because we are clever to work it up,
and send it out to be used in its own homes," said the Highlander;
"it is English and Scotch machines that weave your cottons, ay, and
make your tools."
"No; it is America that beats you all," cried Leonidas; "what had
you to do but to sit down and starve, when we sent you no cotto
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