first day was taken up with the
chopping and slashing of vegetable serpents, the tearing out of roots
that writhed as if with conscious life, the shearing away of all manner
of haunted leafage, all those dense fierce growths with which Nature
loves to proclaim her luxuriant victory over the work of man's hands--as
soon, so to say, as his back is turned for a moment--like a stealthy
savage foe ever on the watch in the surrounding darkness and only
waiting for the hushing of human voices, for the cessation of human
footsteps, to rush in and overwhelm.

"'I passed by the walls of Balclutha and they were desolate'" quoted the
"King," touched, as a less reflective mind must have been, by this
sinister triumph of those tireless natural forces that neither slumber
nor sleep.

"Here," said he, "is the future of London and Paris--in miniature. The
flora and fauna will be different. There will be none of these nasty
centipedes" (he had just crushed one with his foot), "and oaks, beeches,
and other such friendly trees will take the place of these outlandish
monstrosities. That pretty creature, the wild rose, will fill the
desolation with her sweet breath, but the incredible desolation will be
there; and as we here to-day watch this gum-elemi tree, flourishing
where the good Teach 'gloried and drank deep,' so the men of future days
will hear the bittern booming in the Rue de la Paix and their children
will go a-blackberrying in Trafalgar Square. Selah!"

Two days we were at it with axe and machete--wearisome work which gave
Tom and me occasion to exchange memories of the month we had put in
together on the Dead Men's Shoes. We smiled at each other, as the other
fellows groaned and sweated. It seemed child's play to us, after what we
had gone through.

"They should have been with us, Tom, shouldn't they? They'd have known
what work is;" and I added, for the fun of watching his face: "I wonder
whether we'll find any gentlemen playing poker downstairs, Tom."

"God forbid, sar! God forbid!" he exclaimed, with a look of terror.

The next step was the clearing away of the mounds of fallen masonry and
various rubbish, which still lay between us and our fortune--tedious
preliminaries which chafed the boyish heart of the "King." To tell the
truth, I believe we had both expected to uncover a glittering hoard with
the first stroke of the pick.

"'And metals cry to me to be delivered!'" quoted the "King,"
whimsically, fuming as he took