and work we hate, but today we are all new and fresh, and if ever you
are to ask questions now is certainly the time. Come with me to the
city yonder, and as we go I will answer the things you wish to know;"
and I went with him, for I was humble and amazed, and, in truth, at that
moment, had not a word to say for myself.

All the way from the plain where I had awoke to the walls of the city
stood booths, drinking-places, and gardens divided by labyrinths of
canals, and embowered in shrubberies that seemed coming into leaf
and flower as we looked, so swift was the process of their growth.
These waterways were covered with skiffs being pushed and rowed in every
direction; the cheerful rowers calling to each other through the leafy
screens separating one lane from another till the place was full of their
happy chirruping. Every booth and way-side halting-place was thronged
with these delicate and sprightly people, so friendly, so gracious,
and withal so purposeless.

I began to think we should never reach the town itself, for first my
guide would sit down on a green stream-bank, his feet a-dangle in the
clear water, and bandy wit with a passing boat as though there were
nothing else in the world to think of. And when I dragged him out of
that, whispering in his ear, "The town, my dear boy! the town! I am
all agape to see it," he would saunter reluctantly to a booth a hundred
yards further on and fall to eating strange confections or sipping
coloured wines with chance acquaintances, till again I plucked him by
the sleeve and said: "Seth, good comrade--was it not so you called your
city just now?--take me to the gates, and I will be grateful to you,"
then on again down a flowery lane, aimless and happy, wasting my time
and his, with placid civility I was led by that simple guide.