careful
about this little stream which now adds so much pleasantness to the country
side? It would always be easy to manage this little river. Ah! I forgot,
though,« she said, as her eye caught mine, »in the days we are thinking of
pleasure was wholly neglected in such matters. But how did they manage the river
in the days that you -« Lived in she was going to say; but correcting herself,
said: »in the days of which you have record?«
    »They mismanaged it,« quoth I. »Up to the first half of the nineteenth
century, when it was still more or less of a highway for the country people,
some care was taken of the river and its banks; and though I don't suppose any
one troubled himself about its aspect, yet it was trim and beautiful. But when
the railways - of which no doubt you have heard - came into power, they would
not allow the people of the country to use either the natural or artificial
waterways, of which latter there were a great many. I suppose when we get higher
up we shall see one of these; a very important one, which one of these railways
entirely closed to the public, so that they might force people to send their
goods by their private road, and so tax them as heavily as they could.«
    Ellen laughed heartily. »Well,« she said, »that is not stated clearly enough
in our history-books, and it is worth knowing. But certainly the people of those
days must have been a curiously lazy set. We are not either fidgety or
quarrelsome now, but if any one tried such a piece of folly on us, we should use
the said waterways, whoever gainsaid us: surely that would be simple enough.
However, I remember other cases of this stupidity: when I was on the Rhine two
years ago, I remember they showed us ruins of old castles, which, according to
what we heard, must have been made for pretty much the same purpose as the
railways were. But I am interrupting your history of the river: pray go on.«
    »It is both short and stupid enough,« said I. »The river having lost its
practical or commercial value - that is, being of no use to make money of -«
    She nodded. »I understand what that queer phrase means,« said she. »Go on!«
    »Well, it was utterly neglected, till at last it became a nuisance -«
    »Yes,« quoth