d
power, both now and ever. Amen.'"
Dolly slipped off Mr. Eberstein's knee and retook her old place by the
fire; where she sat turning from one passage to another of those she
had been reading. Mr. Eberstein watched her, how the ribbon markers of
the Bible were carefully laid in two of the places, and a couple of
neat slips of paper prepared for the others.
"What have you been doing to-day, Dolly?" he asked at length.
"We went to see the water works."
"Oh, you did! And what did you think of the water works?"
"We went up to the top and walked about. Do the people in Philadelphia
want so much water as all that?"
"They want a great deal more. The Fairmount works give only enough for
part of the city."
"That is taking a great deal of trouble to get water."
"It would be worse trouble to do without it."
"But why don't people all live in the country, as we do at home? then
they would have water for nothing."
"Humph! That would answer, Dolly, if people were contented with water;
they all want wine. I mean, my child, that most people are not
satisfied with simple doings; and for anything more they must have
money; and they can make money faster in cities. Therefore they build
cities."
"Is _that_ what they build cities for?" said Dolly.
"Largely. Not altogether. A great many things can be better done where
people are congregated together; it is for the convenience of trade and
business, in many kinds and in many ways. What have you been doing
since you came home from the water works?"
"O Uncle Edward!" said Dolly, suddenly rising now and coming to him,
"Aunt Harry has opened for me her old bookcase!"
"What old bookcase? I didn't know she had an old bookcase."
"Oh yes; the one where she keeps the books she had when she was as old
as I am."
"And as young, eh? Well, what is in that bookcase? is it a great find?"
"O Uncle Edward, there is a great deal in it! It is wonderful. Books I
never saw, and they look so interesting!"
"What, for instance? Something to rival Plutarch's Lives?"
"I don't know," said Dolly; "you know I have not read them yet. There
is 'Sandford and Merton;' I was reading in that, and I like it very
much; and the 'Looking Glass' is another; and 'Rosamond' I am sure is
interesting. Oh there is a whole load of them."
"Well I am glad of it," said Mr. Eberstein. "That is the right sort of
stuff for your busy little brain; will not weigh too heavy. Now I
suppose you will be
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