Now came the lesson in geography.  I had known it, had studied it faithfully that morning.  It treated of the state from which she had so lately come.  But, now, all knowledge of it fled me, save that on the map it was a large, clumsy state, though yellow, the color of her hair.  Was it to be bounded like any cheaper state?  Did it have principal products, like Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and other ordinary states?  Its color was rightly golden; had it not produced her?  But other products,—­iron, coal, wheat,—­these were stuffs too base to fellow in the same mind with her.  Had it principal industries, like any red, or green, or blue state on that pedantic map?  I could no longer recall them.  Formally confronted with this problem, I muttered shamefully again that day in the valley of Humiliation.  There was, I knew, a picture at the top of the page in which strong, rugged men toiled at various tasks; but the natures of these had escaped me.  Were they mining coal or building ships, catching fish or ploughing furrows in God’s green earth?  Out of my darkness I stammered, “Principal industries, agriculture and fish-building—­”

“That will do, Calvin!  You may remain after school to-night.”  I had never less liked the way she said this, as if it were a boon at which I would snatch, instead of a penalty imposed.

Solon Denney followed me, glibly enumerating the industries of a great and busy state.  But I could not listen.  Phantom-like in my poor mind floated a wordless conviction that, however it might once have been, the state would immediately abandon its industries now that she had come away from it.  I beheld its considerable area desolated, the forges cold, the hammers stilled, the fields overgrown, the ships rotting at their docks, the stalwart mechanics drooping idly above their unfinished tasks.  It was not possible to suppose that any one could feel, in a state which she had left, that interest which good work demands.

My disgrace brought me respite for fresh adventure.  I was let alone.  The world could still be peopled; even Solon Denney might survive a little time, for another picture in the same geography now reproduced itself in my inflamed mind—­the picture of a South Sea island, a sandy beach with a few indolent natives lolling, negligent of tasks, in the shade of cocoanut palms.  Here, on the outer reef, I wrecked an excellent steamship.  Over the rail sprang a stalwart lad, not out of his teens, with a lovely golden-haired girl in his arms.  With strong, swift strokes, he struck out for the beach, notwithstanding his burden.  The other passengers, a hazy and quite uninteresting lot, quickly went down; all save one, a coarse, swaggering youth with too much self-possession whom I need not name.  He, too, sprang over the rail, but, nearing the beach, a justly enraged providence intervened and he was bitten neatly in two by a famished and adroit shark.

With some interest I watched his blood stain the lucid green waters, but it was soon over.  Then I bore my fainting burden to the dry sands and revived her with cocoanut milk and breadfruit, while the natives crowded respectfully about and made us their king and queen on the spot.  We lived there forever.  How flat of sound were it to say that we lived happily!