"I should rather encourage those who go to do it," said Alice, demurely, repeating one of their familiar jokes.
"And your great-grandfather, Seth, is the Hunt who discovered Hunt's Reef in the Philippines. I am afraid you cannot place it on the map."
"I know I cannot," said Seth, bravely.
"No," said the old gentleman. "But all the same the reef is there. I came to an anchor in the 'Calypso,' waiting for a southwest wind, in sight of the breakers over it. And I wish we had the pineapples the black people sold us there.
"All the same the New Englanders are good for something. Ten years hence, you boys will be doing what your fathers are doing,—subduing the world, and making it to be more what God wants it to be. And you will not work at arms' length, as they did, nor with your own muscles."
"We have Aladdin's lamp," said Mary, laughing.
"And his ring," said Susie. "I always liked the ring one better than the lamp one, though he was not so strong."
"He is prettier in the pictures," said George.
"Yes," said the Colonel; "we have stronger Genii than Aladdin had, and better machinery than Prince Camaralzaman."
"I heard some one say that Mr. Corliss had added twenty-seven per cent to the working power of the world by his cut-off," said Fergus.