ber castles stand above villages on the Rhine. Far up the harbor, by the dry-docks, a mud-colored raft, pointed at both ends, supported two squat, mud-colored turrets and a giddy flag, much too big for it, that was just beginning to be known and feared in the far East. The French, English, German, and Russian war-ships were there on a hurry call, because it seemed that some one was threatening some one else's sphere of influence, and the four capitals of China (which are Paris, London, Berlin, and St. Petersburg) wanted to find out whose sphere of influence it was that was being threatened, why it was being threatened, and by whom. After that England would stick her jaw into Russia's face, and her elbow into Germany's ribs. Germany would hit out a scheme for announcing universal peace from the top of the Mount of Olives; Russia would catch a yellow statesman by the pig-tail and make him dance, and France would either plan a noble revenge for herself or jump up and down, clap her hands, and say:
