These little cities by the canal side had a very odd effect upon the mind. They seemed, with their flowerpots and smoking chimneys, their washings and dinners, a rooted piece of nature in the scene; and yet if only the canal below were to open, one junk after another would hoist sail or harness horses and swim away into all parts of France; and the impromptu hamlet would separate, house by house, to the four winds. The children who played together today by the Sambre and Oise Canal, each at his own father’s threshold, when and where might they next meet?