“I come to discuss with you a dream which I understand you have done us Chinese the honor to dream about us.” I had not mentioned my dream to a soul. How had he heard of it? I never once dreamt that I was dreaming again. “You, too, I understand, are a philosopher,—the greatest philosopher, if common fame may be relied on, throughout the length and breadth—” I gave my hand a deprecatory wave. “Don’t mention it,” said I. “Throughout the length and breadth of Henrico County,—_Hanraker_, as the natives call it.” “You are strong on geography.” “It is made my business by my government to know America. But let’s to our discussion. But is not your office rather close quarters? Might I beg you to walk with me?” “Where shall we go?” I asked, when we reached the sidewalk. “What do you say to Rocketts?” “Rocketts!” I exclaimed; “you _are_ strong on geography!” “Rocketts?” said he, with a bland smile; “who does not know that it is the port of Richmond, just as the Piraeus was that of Athens?” I cannot imagine why I put all these fine phrases in his mouth, unless it was because I had read in the papers, not long before, that the Parisians pronounced the manners of the Chinese embassy perfect. And here I may remark, for the benefit of science, that though the thermometer was at ninety in the shade, I was not conscious of the heat during our long walk. Yet—and it shows that it costs a fat man something even to dream of toil—yet, when I awoke, my brow looked as though I had been earning my bread, whereas a lawyer, as we know, confines himself to earning some other fellow’s. “And now, Mr. Yang Kee,” said he, as we took our seats in a corner of the docks of the Old Dominion Line, “and now for this very remarkable dream of yours; and permit me to begin by observing that, the central conception of your dream being vicious, the whole business falls to pieces.” I threw my eyebrows into the form of a couple of interrogation-points. “You have been at the pains of dreaming that your people are to conquer mine through the instrumentality of armed colonization. Those days, when entire nations—men, women, and children—migrated, sword in hand, are over. Instead of migration we have emigration,—the movement of individuals instead of the movement of tribes; in place of the Helvetii—” “Mr. Kee, your learning amazes me!” “It’s all in Confucius,” said he, modestly. “Instead of the Helvetii devastating Gaul, the Swiss waiter lies in ambush against the small change of Christendom. It is no longer warrior against warrior, but man against man. It is not a question of—” Mr. Kee hesitated, and a subtle smile played over his features. “Go on,” said I. “These are the days, I was going to say, of the survival of the fittest, rather than the fightest.” “Go it, Ying!” cried I; at the same time fetching him a rouser between the shoulders with my rather heavy hand. In my enthusiasm I had forgotten his high rank. I began to stammer out an apology.