“I’ve heard a lot to-day,” said Robin. “They were all talking about it all the time, and I meant to tell you myself, only I saw Jones and Jerry coming, and thought, perhaps, we should hear something more if we listened.”
They clambered over to their corner and made themselves comfortable. Robin lay on his back, but Meg leaned on her elbows, as usual, with her cheeks resting on her hands. Her black elf-locks hung over her forehead, and her big eyes shone.
“Rob,” she said, “go on. What’s the rest?”
“The rest!” he said. “It would take a week to tell it all, I should think. But it’s going to be the most wonderful thing in the world. They are going to build a place that will be like a white, beautiful city, on the borders of the lake—that was why I called it the City Beautiful. It won’t be on the top of a hill, of course——”
“But if it is on the edge of the lake, and the sun shines and the big water is blue and there are shining white palaces, it will be better, I believe,” said Meg. “What is going to be in the city?”
“Everything in the world,” said Robin. “Things from everywhere—from every country.”
“There are a great many countries,” said Meg. “You know how it is in the geography. Europe, Asia, and Africa, as well as America. Spain and Portugal and France and England—and Sweden and Norway and Russia and Lapland—and India—and Italy—and Switzerland, and all the others.”
“There will be things—and people—brought from them all. I heard them say so. They say there will be villages, with people walking about in them.”
“EVERYTHING IN THE WORLD,” SAID ROBIN.