"
"I don't know that I think much about gossamer," said Mr. Moggridge.
"Well, moonbeams, then. But Fred is different. Ever since he left
Chicago he has been talking about that tea. I wonder you never heard
him."
"I have not, to my knowledge."
"No? Well, at last, finding it couldn't be bought in England, he sent
across for a chest. We had the invoice a few days ago, and here it
is."
Mrs. Goodwyn-Sandys produced a scrap of paper, and went on--
"You see, it's coming in a ship called the _Maryland_, and ought to
be here about this time. Well, Fred was looking through his
telescope before breakfast this morning--he's always looking through
a telescope now, and knows, I believe, every rig of every vessel in
the world--when he calls out, 'Hullo! American barque!' in his short
way. Of course, I didn't know at first what he meant, and mixed it
up with that stuff--Peruvian bark, isn't it?--that you give to your
child, if you have one, and do not let it untimely die, or something
of the sort. But afterwards he shouted, 'I shouldn't wonder if she's
the _Maryland_;' and then I understood, and it struck me that it
would be so nice to come to you and pay the 'duty,' or whatever you
call it, on the tea, and at the same time, if you were very good, you
would take me over the ship with you, and show me how you did your
work.
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