which had been completed less than three years before, and
which secured Robert's admiration for its height and impressiveness.

The aspect of the whole town was a mixture of English and Dutch, but
they saw many sailors who were of neither race. Some were brown men
with rings in their ears, and they spoke languages that Robert did not
understand. But he knew that they came from far southern seas and that
they sailed among the tropic isles, looming large then in the world's
fancy, bringing with them a whiff of romance and mystery.

The sidewalks in many places were covered with boxes and bales brought
from all parts of the earth, and stalwart men were at work among
them. The pulsing life and the air of prosperity pleased Robert. His
nature responded to the town, as it had responded to the woods, and
his imagination, leaping ahead, saw a city many times greater than the
one before his eyes, though it still stopped far short of the gigantic
reality that was to come to pass.

"It's not far now to Master Hardy's," said Willet cheerfully. "It's
many a day since I've seen trusty old Ben, and right glad I'll be to
feel the clasp of his hand again."

On his way Willet bought from a small boy in the street a copy each of
the _Weekly Post-Boy_ and of the _Weekly Gazette_ and _Mercury_,
folding them carefully and putting them in an inside pocket of his
coat.

"I am one to value the news sheets," he said. "They don't tell
everything, but they tell something and 'tis better to know something
than nothing. Just a bit farther, my lads, and we'll be at the steps
of honest Master Hardy. There, you can see where fortunes are made and
lost, though we're a bit too late to see the dealers!"

He pointed to the Royal Exchange, a building used by the merchants at
the foot of Broad Street, a structure very unique in its plan. It
consisted of an upper story resting upon arches, the lower part,
therefore, being entirely open. Beneath these arches the merchants met
and transacted business, and also in a room on the upper floor, where
there were, too, a coffee house and a great room used for banquets,
and the meetings of societies, the Royal Exchange being in truth the
beginning of many exchanges that now mark the financial center of the
New World.

"Perhaps we'll see the merchants there tomorrow," said Willet. "You'll
note the difference between New York and Quebec. The French capital
was all military. You saw soldiers everywhere, but this