The old clergyman, too, did not come back. The green roof of hisschool was gone, and his teaching-chair had vanished. The children didnot come; but autumn came, and winter came, and then spring also. Inall this change of seasons the Dryad looked toward the region where,at night, Paris gleamed with its bright mist far on the horizon.
  Forth from the town rushed engine after engine, train after train,whistling and screaming at all hours in the day. In the evening,towards midnight, at daybreak, and all the day through, came thetrains. Out of each one, and into each one, streamed people from thecountry of every king. A new wonder of the world had summoned themto Paris.
  In what form did this wonder exhibit itself?
  "A splendid blossom of art and industry," said one, "hasunfolded itself in the Champ de Mars, a gigantic sunflower, from whosepetals one can learn geography and statistics, and can become aswise as a lord mayor, and raise one's self to the level of art andpoetry, and study the greatness and power of the various lands."
  "A fairy tale flower," said another, "a many-coloredlotus-plant, which spreads out its green leaves like a velvet carpetover the sand. The opening spring has brought it forth, the summerwill see it in all its splendor, the autumn winds will sweep itaway, so that not a leaf, not a fragment of its root shall remain."
  In front of the Military School extends in time of peace the arenaof war- a field without a blade of grass, a piece of sandy steppe,as if cut out of the Desert of Africa, where Fata Morgana displays herwondrous airy castles and hanging gardens. In the Champ de Mars,however, these were to be seen more splendid, more wonderful than inthe East, for human art had converted the airy deceptive scenes intoreality.
  "The Aladdin's Palace of the present has been built," it was said."Day by day, hour by hour, it unfolds more of its wonderful splendor."
  The endless halls shine in marble and many colors. "MasterBloodless" here moves his limbs of steel and iron in the greatcircular hall of machinery. Works of art in metal, in stone, inGobelins tapestry, announce the vitality of mind that is stirring inevery land. Halls of paintings, splendor of flowers, everything thatmind and skill can create in the workshop of the artisan, has beenplaced here for show. Even the memorials of ancient days, out of oldgraves and turf-moors, have appeared at this general meeting.
  The overpowering great variegated whole must be divided into smallportions, and pressed together like a plaything, if it is to beunderstood and described.
  Like a great table on Christmas Eve, the Champ de Mars carried awonder-castle of industry and art, and around this knickknacks fromall countries had been ranged, knickknacks on a grand scale, for everynation found some remembrance of home.
  Here stood the royal palace of Egypt, there the caravanserai ofthe desert land. The Bedouin had quitted his sunny country, andhastened by on his camel. Here stood the Russian stables, with thefiery glorious horses of the steppe. Here stood the simplestraw-thatched dwelling of the Danish peasant, with the Dannebrogflag, next to Gustavus Vasa's wooden house from Dalarne, with itswonderful carvings. American huts, English cottages, French pavilions,kiosks, theatres, churches, all strewn around, and between them thefresh green turf, the clear springing water, blooming bushes, raretrees, hothouses, in which one might fancy one's self transported intothe tropical forest; whole gardens brought from Damascus, and bloomingunder one roof. What colors, what fragrance!