and yet----"

"Go on," said the Major.

"I see a vision of broken railway arches and ruined farms. I see a
vision of a people surfeited with prosperity and freedom grown
factious, so that now one party must command a strong majority ere they
can pass a law the goodness of which no one denies. I see a bankrupt
exchequer, a drunken Governor, an Irish ministry, a----"

"Come down out of that," roared the Major, "before I pull you down.
You're a pretty fellow to come out for a day's pleasure! Jeremiah was a
saint to him," he added, turning appealingly to the rest of us. "Hear
my opinion, 'per contra,' Doctor. I'll be as near right as you."

"Go on, then," said the Doctor.

"I see," began the Major, "the Anglo-Saxon race--"

"Don't forget the Irish, Jews, Germans, Chinese, and other barbarians,"
interrupted the Doctor.

"Asserting," continued the Major, scornfully, "as they always do, their
right to all the unoccupied territories of the earth."

("Blackfellow's claims being ignored," interpolated the Doctor.)

"And filling all the harbours of this magnificent country----"

("Want to see them.")

"With their steamships and their sailing vessels. Say there be gold
here, as I believe there is, the time must come when the mines will be
exhausted. What then? With our coals we shall supply----"

("Newcastle," said the Doctor, again.)

"The British fleets in the East Indies----"

"And compete with Borneo," said the Doctor, quietly, "which contains
more coal than ever India will burn, at one-tenth the distance from her
that we are. If that is a specimen of your prophecies, Major, you are
but a Micaiah after all."

"Well," said the Major, laughing, "I cannot reel it off quite so quick
as you; but think we shall hardly have time for any more prophesying;
the sun is getting very low."

We turned and looked to westward. The lofty rolling snow-downs had
changed to dull lead colour, as the sun went down in a red haze behind
them; only here and there some little elevated pinnacle would catch the
light. Below the mountain lay vast black sheets of woodland, and nearer
still was the river, marked distinctly by a dense and rapidly-rising
line of fog.

"We are going to have a fog and a frost," said the Major. "We had
better hurry home."

Behind all the others rode Alice, Sam, and myself. I was fearful of
being "de trop," but when I tried to get forward to the laughing,
chattering, crowd in front, these two young lovers ra