"You cut America in two?"

"Nature has taken that responsibility. Each part of the world being
necessarily an insulated continent, an enormous island, it is too much
to ask me to confound the northern and southern continents of America,
hung together by a thread--a thread which messieurs the engineers"--he
bowed airily to my companion--"have very probably severed by this
time."

The honest professor passed his hand over his forehead. "The deuce!"
he said. "That is logic perhaps. Still, sir, I think it is rather
hardy in you to double America and annihilate Europe, when Europe
discovered America."

"The Europeans did not discover America," replied the young
philosopher. "The Americans discovered Europe."

The professor of geography remained stunned: the homoeopathist gave
utterance to a cry--one of admiration, doubtless.

"An American colony was settled in Norway long before the arrival of
Columbus in Santo Domingo: who will contradict me when Humboldt says
so? Only read your _Cosmos_!"

"The dickens! prodigious! prodigious!" repeated the man of blue. The
young silver coat went on:

[Illustration: THE BLESSING OF THE BÂB.]

"I have been three times around the world, professor. The terrestrial