"Oh!" she seemed to herself to cry, "what are you doing? How do
you all come here?"

"We are from all the nations who are friends, brethren," said the
voices; "we all bring our stores: the sugar, rice, cotton of the
West; the silk and coffee and spices of the East; the tea of China;
the furs of the North: it is all exchanged from one to the other,
and should teach us to be all brethren, since we cannot thrive one
without the other."

"It all comes to our country, because we are clever to work it up,
and send it out to be used in its own homes," said the Highlander;
"it is English and Scotch machines that weave your cottons, ay, and
make your tools."

"No; it is America that beats you all," cried Leonidas; "what had
you to do but to sit down and starve, when we sent you no cotton?"

"If you send cotton, 'tis we that weave it," cried the Scot.

Lucy was almost afraid they would come to blows over which was the
greatest and most skilful country. "It cannot be buying and selling
that make nations love one another, and be peaceful," she thought.
"Is it being learned and wise?"

"But the Prussian boys are studious and wise, and the French are
clever and skilful, and yet they have had that dreadful war: I
wonder what it is that would make and keep all these countries
friends!"