new that
the bags contained coffee by the kernels that were spread about them all
over the ground. Then they passed by long rows of barrels, which seemed
to be filled with sugar. Mr. George walked by the side of the barrels,
but Rollo jumped up and ran along on the top of them. Then came casks of
tobacco, and next bars of iron and steel, and then some monstrous square
logs of mahogany.

Mr. George and Rollo walked on in this manner for a quarter of a mile,
and at length they came to one of the drawbridges. This drawbridge led
over a passage way which formed a communication from one basin of the
dock to another. It was a very long and slender bridge of iron, made to
turn on a pivot at one end. There was some machinery connected with it
to work it.

"I wish they would come and turn this drawbridge away," said Rollo. "I
want to see how it works."

"Perhaps they will after dinner," said Mr. George.

"Let us sit down, then, here somewhere," said Rollo, "and wait."

So Mr. George and Rollo, after crossing the drawbridge, sat down upon
some of the fixtures connected with the machinery of the bridge.

From the place where they sat they had a good view of the whole interior
of the dock. They could see the shipping, the warehouses, the forests of
masts, the piles of merchandise, and the innumerable flags and signals
which were flying at the mast heads of the vessels.

"It is a wonderful place," said Rollo; "but I don't understand how they
do the business here. Whom do all these goods belong to? and how do they
sell them? We have not seen any body here that looks as if he was buying
any thing."

"No," said Mr. George. "The merchants don't come here to buy the goods.
They buy them by samples in the city. I will explain to you how they
manage the business. The merchants who own ships send them to various
parts of the world to buy what grows in the different countries and
bring it here. We will take a particular case. Suppose it is coffee, for
instance. The merchant never sees the coffee himself, perhaps. The
captain or the supercargo reports to him how much there is, and he
orders it to be stored in the warehouses here. Then he puts it into the
hands of an agent to sell. His agent is called a broker. There are
inspectors in the docks, whose business it is to examine the coffee and
send specimens of it to the broker's office in the city. It is the same
with all the other shiploads that come in. They are examined by
inspecto