the ice-making machinery, the private brewery, and the motor-truck
used to transport supplies. In a corner of the garden they found
the children playing.

"It's a good thing the children enjoy playing with empty bottles,"
said Bleak. "It's getting to be quite a problem to know what to do
with them. I'm using some of them to make a path across the lawn,
bury them bottom up, you know.

"But you ask how I like it? I would never admit it before Jerry,
because the good fellow expects more of me than I am able to
fulfill, but as a matter of fact this is hardly a one-man job.
There ought to be at least seven of us, each to go on duty one day
a week. No--you see, being a kind of government museum, I don't
even get Sundays off because lots of people can only get here that
day. Next after Mount Vernon and Independence Hall, I get more
visitors than any other national shrine. And almost all of them
expect me to have a go at their favorite drink while they're
watching me. Being what you might call the most public spirited
man in the country, I have to oblige them as much as possible. But
I doubt whether I shall be a candidate for reelection.

"I think the government has rather overestimated my capacity," he
continued. "They import a shipload of stuff from abroad every
month, and send an auditor here to check over my empties. I've
been hard put to it to get away with all the stuff. I've had to
fall back on your old plan of using wine to irrigate the garden.
It's had rather a dissipating effect on the birds and insects,
though. Really, you ought to spend an evening here some time. The
birds sing all night long: they have to sleep it off in the