"Is that what they build cities for?" said Dolly.
"Largely. Not altogether. A great many things can be better done where people are congregated together; it is for the convenience of trade and business, in many kinds and in many ways. What have you been doing since you came home from the water works?"
"O Uncle Edward!" said Dolly, suddenly rising now and coming to him, "Aunt Harry has opened for me her old bookcase!"
"What old bookcase? I didn't know she had an old bookcase."
"Oh yes; the one where she keeps the books she had when she was as old as I am."
"And as young, eh? Well, what is in that bookcase? is it a great find?"
"O Uncle Edward, there is a great deal in it! It is wonderful. Books I never saw, and they look so interesting!"
"What, for instance? Something to rival Plutarch's Lives?"
"I don't know," said Dolly; "you know I have not read them yet. There is 'Sandford and Merton;' I was reading in that, and I like it very much; and the 'Looking Glass' is another; and 'Rosamond' I am sure is interesting. Oh there is a whole load of them."
"Well I am glad of it," said Mr. Eberstein. "That is the right sort of stuff for your busy little brain; will not weigh too heavy. Now I suppose you will be reading all the time you are in the house."