And when the train has emerged from the tunnel, and you have emerged from the train, he says: "Now there's no doubt that we are going to get home—unless we are smashed up in a taxi, on the way."
And when the taxi stops at your front door, and you bid him farewell before he continues on his way to his own front door, he says: "Now you're going to get home for sure—unless the elevator drops."
And when the elevator has not dropped, but has transported you in safety to the door of your apartment, and you have searched out the old key, and have unlocked the door, and entered, and found happiness within, then you wonder to yourself as I once heard a little boy wonder, when he had gone out of his own yard, and had found a number of large cans of paint, and had upset them on himself:
"I have a very happy home," he said, reflectively. "I wonder why I don't seem to stay around it more?"
FOOTNOTES
[1] From "Historic Towns of the Southern States."
[2] See chapter on Colonel Taylor and General Lee.
[3] The Merrimac, originally a Federal vessel of wooden construction, was sunk by the Union forces when they abandoned Norfolk. A Confederate captain, John M. Brooke, raised her, equipped her with a ram, and covered her with boiler plate and railroad rails. She is called the first ironclad. While she was being reconstructed John Ericsson was building his Monitor in New York. The turret was first used on this vessel. It is worth noting that at the time of the engagement between these two ships the Monitor was not the property of the Federal Government, but belonged to C. S. Bushnell, of New Haven, who built her at his own expense, in spite of the opposition of the Navy Department of that day. The Government paid for her long after the fight. It should also be noted that the Merrimac did not fight under that name, but as a Confederate ship had been rechristened Virginia. The patriotic action of Mr. Bushnell is recalled by the fact that, only recently, Mr. Godfrey L. Cabot, of Boston, has agreed to furnish funds to build the torpedoplane designed by Admiral Fiske as a weapon wherewith to attack the German fleet within its defenses at Kiel.