Our
own humor is so very different."
"Ah," I said; "what is your humor like?"
"I could hardly tell you, I'm afraid; I've never been much of a humorist
myself."
Again a cold doubt of something ironical in the man went through me, but I
had no means of verifying it, and so I simply remained silent, waiting for
him to prompt me if he wished to know anything further about our national
transformation from bees perpetually busy into butterflies occasionally
idle. "And when you had made that discovery?" he suggested.
"Why, we're nothing if not practical, you know, and as soon as we made
that discovery we stopped killing ourselves and invented the summer
resort. There are very few of our business or professional men now who
don't take their four or five weeks' vacation. Their wives go off early in
the summer, and, if they go to some resort within three or four hours of
the city, the men leave town Saturday afternoon and run out, or come up,
and spend Sunday with their families. For thirty-eight hours or so a hotel
like this is a nest of happy homes."
"That is admirable," said the Altrurian. "You are truly a practical
people.
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