His eyes remained fixed upon the shifting rainbows bending and vanishing in the spray. There was no moving him, and I gave in for another five minutes. “Do you think it probable, Job, that the waters of Niagara strike on the axis of the world?” No answer. “Job!” “What?” “Do you think his Majesty's half of the cataract is finer than ours?” “Much.” “For _water_, merely, perhaps. But look at the delicious verdure on the American shore, the glorious trees, the massed foliage, the luxuriant growth even to the very rim of the ravine! By Jove! it seems to me things grow better in a republic. Did you ever see a more barren and scraggy shore than the one you stand upon?” “How exquisitely” said Job, soliloquizing “that small green island divides the fall! What a rock it must be founded on, not to have been washed away in the ages that these waters have split against it!” “I'll lay you a bet it is washed away before the year two thousand—payable in any currency with which we may then be conversant.” “Don't trifle!” “With time or geology do you mean? Is'nt it perfectly clear, from the looks of that ravine, that Niagara has _backed up_ all the way from Lake Ontario? These rocks are not adamant, and the very precipice you stand on has cracked, and looks ready for the plunge. It must gradually wear back to Lake Erie, and then there will be a sweep I should like to live long enough to see. The instantaneous junction of two seas, with a difference of two hundred feet in their levels will be a spectacle—eh, Job?” “Tremendous!” “Do you intend to wait and see it, or will you come to breakfast?” He was immovable. I left him on the rock, went up to the hotel and ordered mutton-chops and coffee, and when they were on the table, gave two of the waiters a dollar each to bring him up _nolens-volens_. He arrived in a great rage, but with a good appetite, and we finished our breakfast just in time to meet Miss ——, as she stepped like Aurora from her chamber.