herine wheels in the front garden, and will grow up into a beautiful
and respectable young lady. This naturally gives Harris an interest in
all beautiful girls up to the age of thirty-five or thereabouts; they
remind him, so he says, of home.

We had ridden for about two miles, when we noticed, a little ahead of us
in a space where five ways met, a man with a hose, watering the roads.
The pipe, supported at each joint by a pair of tiny wheels, writhed after
him as he moved, suggesting a gigantic-worm, from whose open neck, as the
man, gripping it firmly in both hands, pointing it now this way, and now
that, now elevating it, now depressing it, poured a strong stream of
water at the rate of about a gallon a second.

"What a much better method than ours," observed Harris, enthusiastically.
Harris is inclined to be chronically severe on all British institutions.
"How much simpler, quicker, and more economical! You see, one man by
this method can in five minutes water a stretch of road that would take
us with our clumsy lumbering cart half an hour to cover."

George, who was riding behind me on the tandem, said, "Yes, and it is
also a method by which with a little carelessness a man could cover a
good many people in a good deal less time than they could get out of the
way."

George, the opposite to Harris, is British to the core. I remember
George quite patriotically indignant with Harris once for suggesting the
introduction of the guillotine into England.

"It is so much neater," said Harris.

"I don't care if it is," said George; "I'm an Englishman; hanging is good
enough for me."

"Our water-cart may have its disadvantages," continued George, "but it
can only make you uncomfortable about the legs, and you can avoid it.
This is the sort of machine with which a man can follow you round the
corner and upstairs."

"It fascinates me to watch them," said Harris. "They are so skilful. I
have seen a man from the corner of a crowded square in Strassburg cover
every inch of ground, and not so much as wet an apron string. It is
marvellous how they judge their distance. They will send the water up to
your toes, and then bring it over your head so that it falls around your
heels. They can--"

"Ease up a minute," said George. I said: "Why?"

He said: "I am going to get off and watch the rest of this show from
behind a tree. There may be great performers in this line, as Harris
says; this particular artist appears