some of them making great but futile efforts to play our national airs – producing sounds that were by no means delightsome to the American ear; not half so pleasing as the sight of the multi-colored flags decorating the huts and castles of foreign architecture.
It turned out to be a day of pleasant surprises. As they neared the end of the Plaisance they came suddenly and unexpectedly upon Chester and Frank Dinsmore and Will Croley, the old college mate of Harold and Herbert, whom none of them had seen since the summer spent together on the New England coast several years before.
All were delighted; cordial greetings on both sides were exchanged, and scarcely were these over when in a lady passing by Grandma Elsie recognized, with a little cry of joyous surprise, her old time friend and cousin, Annis Keith.
"Annis! oh, how glad I am to see you!" she exclaimed.
"Elsie! my dear, dearest cousin!" cried Annis in return, as they grasped each other's hands and looked with ardent affection each into the other's eyes. "Oh, how delightful to have come upon you so quickly! I was wondering if I could ever find you in all this crowd, and to have fairly stumbled upon you almost the first thing after leaving the cars is most fortunate."
"Yes; for us as well as you, Annis," Mr. Dinsmore said with a smile, offering his hand as he spoke. "Are you just from Pleasant Plains?"
"Yes, sir; we left there this morning, and but a moment since stepped off the train that brought us – nearly all the family of brothers and sisters with their children."
"Why, yes, to be sure, here are Mildred and the doctor and – well, really Charley," – shaking hands with Mildred and her husband – "I will have to be introduced to all these younger folks."
There was quite a crowd of them – young, middle-aged, and elderly, for the families had been increasing in numbers, the younger ones growing in size, and all in years.
All wanted to be together for a time, the older ones to be able to talk freely of absent dear ones and other family matters, the younger to make acquaintance with each other.
"Suppose we take a car in the Ferris Wheel," suggested Harold Travilla; "we can then have a ride, a grand view of the Fair grounds, and a chat, all at one and the same time."
Everyone seemed to favor the proposition and without further discussion they all started in that direction.
Arriving at the place they climbed a broad stairway very much like the approach to an Elevated station.
"This way, ladies and gentleman," said a man in a blue coat, pointing to a doorway between two knotted beams, and they passed into a sunshiny room with two rows of chairs at each side. There were windows all about it barred with iron.
"This is one of the cars," remarked Captain Raymond, in answer to an enquiring look from Annis, and he and the other gentlemen of the party busied themselves in seeing the ladies comfortably seated, then took possession of chairs as near them as might be.
Other people were coming in, and in a very few moments the car was in motion, the click of a latch having told that they were locked in.
Some of our party who were trying the wheel for the first time looked a trifle pale and alarmed as the movement began, and one or two of the girls asked low and tremulously if it were certainly quite safe.
"Yes, I am entirely sure of that," replied Harold with his pleasant smile; "but don't look out of the windows just yet."
"You are not at all frightened, I see," said Chester Dinsmore in a low tone to Lulu, having contrived to secure a seat close at her side.
"Oh, no, indeed!" she returned. "This is my second trip and I hardly felt at all timid even the first time, because my father had assured us it was perfectly safe, and I have entire confidence in his opinion and his word."
"I don't know any man whose word or opinion I would be more ready to take," returned Chester, giving her a look that seemed to say he would be no less willing to take the captain's daughter, were the opportunity afforded him.
But Lucilla did not notice the look, for she was already gazing out of the window and thinking of nothing but the prospect from it.
"Oh, look, Chester!" she said eagerly, "This gives us such a grand view of the Plaisance. It is the second time our party have made this trip – no, not that – the second time we have been in these cars; we went round twice that day, and I hope will go at least as often to-day. Presently, when we get to the highest part the people down below will look like the merest black dots and the houses like toy ones."
"Yes," he returned, "it is a trip worth taking. I should not have liked to miss it."
"Nor should I," said Lucilla. "I think of asking papa to bring us here several times more."
"In that case I hope I may be permitted to be one of the party every time, for it is a fine sight indeed."
"Are you and Frank new arrivals?" she asked.
"Yes, we got into the city last evening. We would have hunted up your party at once, but did not know just where to look for you."
"We are making the yacht our home," she returned, "and it is anchored for the greater part of the time at no great distance from the Peristyle. We spend our nights on it, but so far our days have been passed in visiting different parts of the Fair."
"And you haven't seen everything in it yet?" he queried laughingly.
"No, indeed! I heard someone estimate the other day that it would take more than forty years to do that."
"And in a few months the vast majority of the sights will be withdrawn," he said with a half sigh; "so we will have to content ourselves with seeing a few of such things as interest us most. How long will you stay?"
"I don't know; that depends upon the decisions of the higher powers; in other words of the older people. How long do you?"
"Perhaps two or three weeks. It will depend probably upon how we enjoy ourselves."
"Then you will be likely to stay a good while, I think," she returned. "There! we are at the top of the wheel, and is not the view magnificent?"
They made the circuit a second time, then seeing that very many people were awaiting an opportunity to fill their places in the car, they vacated them and wandered elsewhere about the Fair grounds for a little.
Then Grandma Elsie expressed a desire to visit the building of her native State – Louisiana – and invited all in the party to go with her and dine there as her guests. All accepted the invitation with apparent pleasure and immediately turned their steps thitherward.
"Where is it?" someone asked, and Harold answered: "At the northern curve of the horseshoe formed by the State sites around the Fine Art Galleries and just west of the Missouri building. It is not a long walk."
"Ah," exclaimed Grandma Elsie when they caught sight of their destination, "see those trees in front laden with moss from our Southern bayous! The sight almost carries one back to the old days at Viamede."
"Yes; that and the foliage generally, which is of the tropical order," remarked her father in reply; "see, the cacti are conspicuous. And I like the simple style of the building with its galleries and verandas."
"And the site is a fine one," remarked the captain, "not far from the cable car entrance and fronting the Art Palace."
"Shall
