Page 206 - Adventures in shadow-land

import it, and pay in exchange with oysters and
looking-glasses. The sea ladies dreis in the most

beautiful things you can imagine, that i$f when
they dress at all, for in warm weather they gene­

rally make their appearance in a light suit of their
own hair with a zone and necklace of pearls or
jewels.

This country that I am writing about has a re­
publican form of government, and is very prosper­

ous and comfortable. It is a long time since any
foreign power has made war upon it, and it has
had time to grow and develop its resources. But

at the time of which I write they had just finished
a seven, years' war with the king of a country lying

to the east who had tried to annex the sea repub­
lic to his own dominions. This monarch had

counted on a very easy conquest because die re­
public kept a very small army, not big enough
really to keep down the sharks. Moreover, there

was a large “ Peace Society” in the country, every
member of which had maintained repeatedly, in

the most public manner, that it was the duty of
every member to be invaded and killed a dozen
times over rather than lift up his hand in war