, and Jeff, still malicious, enlightened them further.

"I've always thought it was a pathetic sight, both ways--to see a man or
a woman taking a dog to walk--at the end of a string."

"Have you bred them to be as neat in their habits as cats are?" was the
next question. And when Jeff told them of the effect of dogs on sidewalk
merchandise and the streets generally, they found it hard to believe.

You see, their country was as neat as a Dutch kitchen, and as to
sanitation--but I might as well start in now with as much as I
can remember of the history of this amazing country before further
description.

And I'll summarize here a bit as to our opportunities for learning it.
I will not try to repeat the careful, detailed account I lost; I'll just
say that we were kept in that fortress a good six months all told, and
after that, three in a pleasant enough city where--to Terry's infinite
disgust--there were only "Colonels" and little children--no young women
whatever. Then we were under surveillance for three more--always with a
tutor or a guard or both. But those months were pleasant because we were
really getting acquainted with the girls. That was a chapter!--or will
be--I will try to do justice to it.

We learned their language pretty thoroughly--had to; and they learned
ours much more quickly and used it to hasten our own studies.

Jeff, who was never without reading matter of some sort, had two little
books with him, a novel and a little anthology of verse; and I had one
of those pocket encyclopedias--a fat little thing, bursting with facts.
These were used in our education--and theirs. Then as soon as we were up
to it, they furnished us with plenty of their own books, and I went in
for the history part--I wanted to understand the genesis of this miracle
of theirs.

And this is what happened, according to their records.

As to geography--at about the time of the Christian era this land had
a free passage to the sea. I'm not saying where, for good reasons. But
there was a fairly easy pass through that wall of mountains behind us,
and there is no doubt in my mind that these people were of Aryan stock,
and were once in contact with the best civilization of the old world.
They were "white," but somewhat darker than our northern races because
of their constant exposure to sun and air.

The country was far larger then, including much land beyond the pass,
and a strip of coast. They had ships, commerce, an army, a ki