Every one was well-dressed and comfortable and at peace, and I felt that
our hotel was in some sort a microcosm of the republic.
We involuntarily paused, and I heard the Altrurian murmur: "Charming,
charming! This is really delightful!"
"Yes, isn't it?" I returned, with a glow of pride. "Our hotel here is a
type of the summer hotel everywhere; it's characteristic in not having
anything characteristic about it; and I rather like the notion of the
people in it being so much like the people in all the others that you
would feel yourself at home wherever you met such a company in such a
house. All over the country, north and south, wherever you find a group of
hills or a pleasant bit of water or a stretch of coast, you'll find some
such refuge as this for our weary toilers. We began to discover some time
ago that it would not do to cut open the goose that laid our golden eggs,
even if it looked like an eagle, and kept on perching on our banners just
as if nothing had happened. We discovered that, if we continued to kill
ourselves with hard work, there would be no Americans pretty soon."
The Altrurian laughed. "How delightfully you put it! How quaint! How
picturesque! Excuse me, but I can't help expressing my pleasure in it.
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