Page:Rowland--Across Europe in a motor boat.djvu/72

 his grief over his shattered confidence and lost ideals was so great that Ranney had to confess.

Apparently these common people are just naturally and simply honest. One day, early in the voyage, I asked the friendly captain of a French canal boat if it were safe to go off and leave the boat unprotected.

"Why, perfectly," said he. In a tone of surprise.

"There is then no danger of things being taken from the boat?"

"Not at all; those things in the boat do not belong to other people; they belong to you, so naturally nobody will take them away!"

I decided that such a country was wrongly named; it should be called Altruria!

Certainly no foreign vessel was ever better treated in strange ports than was the Beaver. At first we wondered, then became accustomed to it, and finally, I fear, a bit spoiled by it. But such is human nature!