"Just so," assented the youth. "I've lived some, and seen a good many such ravens at second hand. By the way, strange how that man with the weed, you were inquiring for, seemed to take me for some soft sentimentalist, only because I kept quiet, and thought, because I had a copy of Tacitus with me, that I was reading him for his gloom, instead of his gossip. But I let him talk. And, indeed, by my manner humored him." "You shouldn't have done that, now. Unfortunate man, you must have made quite a fool of him." "His own fault if I did. But I like prosperous fellows, comfortable fellows; fellows that talk comfortably and prosperously, like you. Such fellows are generally honest. And, I say now, I happen to have a superfluity in my pocket, and I'll just----" "----Act the part of a brother to that unfortunate man?" "Let the unfortunate man be his own brother. What are you dragging him in for all the time? One would think you didn't care to register any transfers, or dispose of any stock--mind running on something else. I say I will invest." "Stay, stay, here come some uproarious fellows--this way, this way." And with off-handed politeness the man with the book escorted his companion into a private little haven removed from the brawling swells without. Business transacted, the two came forth, and walked the deck. "Now tell me, sir," said he with the book, "how comes it that a young gentleman like you, a sedate student at the first appearance, should dabble in stocks and that sort of thing?" "There are certain sophomorean errors in the world," drawled the sophomore, deliberately adjusting his shirt-collar, "not the least of which is the popular notion touching the nature of the modern scholar, and the nature of the modern scholastic sedateness." "So it seems, so it seems. Really, this is quite a new leaf in my experience." "Experience, sir," originally observed the sophomore, "is the only teacher." "Hence am I your pupil; for it's only when experience speaks, that I can endure to listen to speculation." "My speculations, sir," dryly drawing himself up, "have been chiefly governed by the maxim of Lord Bacon; I speculate in those philosophies which come home to my business and bosom--pray, do you know of any other good stocks?" "You wouldn't like to be concerned in the New Jerusalem, would you?" "New Jerusalem?" "Yes, the new and thriving city, so called, in northern Minnesota. It was originally founded by certain fugitive Mormons. Hence the name. It stands on the Mississippi. Here, here is the map," producing a roll. "There--there, you see are the public buildings--here the landing--there the park--yonder the botanic gardens--and this, this little dot here, is a perpetual fountain, you understand. You observe there are twenty asterisks. Those are for the lyceums. They have lignum-vitae rostrums." "And are all these buildings now standing?" "All standing--bona fide." "These marginal squares here, are they the water-lots?"