come to see me there, but I had to be here this week looking
after election matters in my district. In Whoppington all the hotels
are full of contractors and men looking for commissions in the army,
and promoters and investors, all with an eye to the Cubapines. You can
just see how the war has brought prosperity!"

"I should have liked to see Whoppington very much," said Sam, "but I
suppose I must wait till I come back. It must be very different from
other cities. You must feel there as if you were at the center of
things--at the very mainspring of all our life, I mean."

"You've hit the nail on the head," said his uncle. "Whoppington holds
up all the rest of the country. There is the Government that makes
everything go. There's no business there to speak of; no manufacturing,
no agriculture in the country round--nothing to distract your attention
but the power of the Administration that lies behind all the rest.
Just think what this country would be without Whoppington! Just imagine
the capital city sinking into the ground and what would we all do? Even
here at Slowburgh what would be left for us?"

"Wouldn't we have breakfast to-morrow morning, papa?" asked the little
girl in his lap.

"Er-er-well, perhaps we might have breakfast----"

"Wouldn't we have clothes, papa?"

"Perhaps we might have--but no, we couldn't either; it's the tariff
that gives us our clothes by keeping all foreign clothes out of the
country, and then we shouldn't have er-er----"

"It would upset the post-office," suggested Sam, coming to the rescue.

"Yes, to be sure, that is what I meant. It would cause a serious delay
in the mails, that's certain."

"And then there would be no soldiers," added Sam.

"Of course. How stupid of me to overlook that. How would you like to
see no soldiers in the street?"

"I shouldn't like it at all, papa."

"Yes, my dear boy," he proceeded, turning to Sam, "I would not want to
have it repeated in my district, but I confess that I am always
homesick for Whoppington when I am here. That's the real world there.
There's the State Department where they manage all the foreign affairs
of the world. What could we do without foreign affairs? And the
Agricultural Department. How could we get in our crops without it? And
the Labor Department. Every man who does a day's work depends on the
Labor Department for his living, we may say. And the----"

"The War Department," said S