rs, specimens are taken out and sent to the city, and the goods
themselves are stored in the warehouses.

"Now, we will suppose a person wishes to buy some of these goods to make
up a cargo. Perhaps it is a man who is going to send a ship to Africa
after elephants' tusks, and he wants a great variety of goods to send
there to pay the natives for them. He wants them in large quantities,
too, enough to make a cargo. So he makes out a list of the articles that
he wishes to send, and marks the quantities of each that he will
require, and gives the list to the agent. This agent is a man who is
well acquainted with the docks and the brokers, and knows where they
keep the specimens. He buys the articles and sends them all on board the
ship that is going to Africa, which is perhaps all this time lying close
at hand in the docks, ready to receive them. As fast as the goods are
delivered on board the African ship, the captain of it gives the agent a
receipt for them, and the latter, when he has got all the receipts,
sends them to the merchant; and so the merchant knows that the goods are
all on board, without ever having seen any of them."

"And then he pays the agent, I suppose, for his trouble," said Rollo.

"Of course," said Mr. George; "but this is better than for him to
attempt to do the business himself; for the agent is so familiar with
the docks, and with every thing pertaining to them, that he can do it a
great deal better than the merchant could, in half the time."

"Yes," said Rollo, "I should think he could."

"Then it makes the business very easy and pleasant for the merchant, I
suppose," said Mr. George. "All that he requires is a small office and a
few clerks. He sits down at his desk and considers where he will send
his ship, when he has one ready for sea, and what cargo he will send in
her; and then there is nothing for him to do about it but to make out an
inventory of the articles and send it to the agent at the docks, and the
business is all done very regularly for him.

"Only," continued Mr. George, "it is very necessary that he should know
how to plan his voyages so as to make them come out well, with a good
profit at the end, otherwise he will soon go to ruin."

Mr. George and Rollo sat near the drawbridge talking in this manner for
about half an hour. Then the men began to return from their dinner; and
very soon afterwards the quays, and slips, and warehouses were all alive
again with business and bu