TAKING IN THE SIGHTS OF THE FAIR.
“Well, he’s gone, Rob!” said Andy, as they were coming out after an hour
spent in the wonderful Transportation Building.
“Oh, you mean Hiram?” remarked the scout leader, after taking a
comprehensive glance around. “Well, I’ve been expecting him to give us
the slip for some time. He held on longer than I thought he would.”
“No trouble guessing where he’s bound for,” laughed Andy. “That hall
where the latest modern inventions are on exhibition draws him like sugar
or molasses does the pesky flies in summer time. He sticks there nearly
as hard as—well, as Tubby did in that skimpy chair at the Panama show.”
“Bring it nearer home, can’t you, Andy, and say about as well as you
_want_ to stick to that Zone of freaks and flimsies and Coney Island
shows,” ventured Tubby, with singular quickness, for him.
“I arranged it with Hiram to stay with us just as long as he could stand
for it,” explained Rob; “and that when he did feel he had to go, to call
at the little booth of the tobacconist where we’ve arranged to meet, not
later than four this afternoon.”
“Remember that, you Andy,” warned Tubby, shaking a fat finger in the
direction of the other, “in case we _happen_ to get separated! Accidents
will come along sometimes, you know; and you’re likely to feel that call
to the wild again any old time.”
Andy only laughed. Apparently he had a tough hide when it came to
resisting such harmless blunt-nosed shafts as Tubby could launch against
him.
“I’ll keep it in mind, Tubby, I promise you,” he remarked; “but after
we’ve had something to eat, you won’t try to keep me any longer. We’re
all here to enjoy ourselves according to our bent, you must remember.”
“And your bent runs along the line of the spectacular display of gaudy
tinsel and all sorts of make-believe frauds!” continued Tubby, pretending
to curl his short upper lip in disdain, though truth to tell he rather
enjoyed a little of the same pleasures himself.
“Have it as you please, Tubby,” Andy told him. “To me they’re all real,
and when I find myself surrounded by that wonderful foreign atmosphere,
it’s just like I’d taken wings and flown over there to Africa, or Asia,
or the islands of the Far East. Rob, make him stop trying to interfere
with my pleasure. Just because one fortune-teller riled him, Tubby sneers
at everything that wears a Turkish fez, a Bedouin bournoose or a Persian
caftan. I guess I know how to sift the chaff from the wheat. And a fellow
who means to be a world traveler some day ought to rub up against these
sort of people all he can.”
Tubby gave it up. He knew nothing he could say would alter Andy’s
deep-rooted convictions. Indeed, it was more to get even with him that
the stout scout spoke as he did.
Later on they hunted up a dining-place where they could secure a fair
meal for their money, at least as good as was to be expected under the
circumstances.
“Now laugh if you want to, Tubby,” said Andy, boldly, after they had
issued forth from the restaurant. “I’m going to break away, and you know
where I’ll be heading. You keep Rob company the rest of the day. He’s got
a list of things he’s fairly itching to see, and it’s as long as my arm,
at that. Good luck to you!”
He hurried off without waiting to hear what Tubby might have to say; but
the latter only shook his head as he caught the amused look in Rob’s
eyes, and shrugged his fat shoulders as though ready to give Andy up as
beyond redemption.
“Let him go and enjoy himself as he feels like,” commented Rob. “That’s
everybody’s privilege when they come to a show as tremendous as this one
is. And, Tubby, I think you’re too hard on Andy. I happen to know that
he’s been devouring every book on travel and exploration he can find
anywhere. The subject fills his mind.”
“Then he really does mean to make that his life work, Rob? I thought it
was just a sort of cloak, as you might say, to cover his wanting to see
these Oriental humbugs carry on. Fortune-tellers ought to be suppressed
by law; they do lots of harm, I understand, especially where silly people
believe in ’em.”
Rob came very near remarking that, for one who scorned their class, Tubby
himself seemed to be bothered considerably over a certain foolish
prophecy; but on second thought he concluded not to add to the color in
the fat boy’s cheeks by embarrassing him.
Being now free from the two chums who had such peculiar and strong
notions as to what they wanted to devote all their time to, Rob and Tubby
started in to spend several hours to the best possible advantage.
They were not merely seeking amusement, but instruction as well; and
there were copious fountains to be tapped within the borders of those
extensive grounds of the wonderful Exposition that would repay the
laborer manyfold for his trouble.
“I tell you I’m mighty glad I happened to run across you, Rob,” Tubby
remarked, for perhaps the tenth time, as they watched the process of the
Government fish hatchery, where millions of eggs were transformed into
tiny objects that looked like animated specks in the water, but which
under proper care would some day be placed in certain lakes or rivers or
in the sea, to add to the prosperity of the nation that was fast learning
how to conserve its food supplies.
“And I’m just as pleased on my own account,” the scout leader told him.
“You see how my two chums are bound to desert me, each crazy along his
own particular line, and bound to follow his pet whim through thick and
thin.”
“Haw! then I’m the only _sensible_ one of the lot, seems like!” grunted
Tubby, with beaming face. “Thank you for intimating as much, Rob. I do
seem to fancy many of the same things that strike you as worth seeing.
’Course I sort of enjoy the humbug of the Zone, but a little goes a great
way. My better nature craves educational value for the time spent in
coming away out here!”
When Tubby said this so grandly he tried very hard to keep a straight
face; but discovering the gleam of merriment in Rob’s eyes, he burst into
a laugh.
“Well, it’s part way true, anyhow, Rob,” he declared. “I am having a real
good time keeping up with you, even if we’re walking miles and miles, and
my shoes are getting to pinch me something fierce.”
“Let’s get somewhere and sit down for a spell,” Rob suggested, for he
awoke to the fact that poor Tubby was not built for getting over acres
and acres of ground with all that flesh to carry along.
“Now, isn’t that queer, Rob; but d’ye know I was just going to dare you
to go me a plate of that ice cream over there. We can sit at a table and
get rested while we partake of the stuff. Excuse me for calling it that,
but the chances are against getting anything first-class when you’re
dealing with a man who put up an enormous sum to pay for his concession,
and has to get it back somehow out of the public.”
They spent almost half an hour there, watching the crowds and resting.
Then as Tubby declared he felt capable again of almost any exertion, they
resumed their sight-seeing walk.
“I notice, Rob, that you’re working around so as to come on our
meeting-place after a while,” suggested Tubby.
“I was waiting to see if you’d pay attention to that,” the other told
him. “I’m glad to find you did. A scout must have his eyes on the alert
all the while if he wants to keep up with the procession, Tubby.”
“Oh! I’m improving right along, Rob; my folks at home tell me that, too.
Time was when my favorite occupation used to be to stretch and yawn. All
that’s changed now, for I yawn and stretch, you see. This scout business
does work wonders, doesn’t it?”
But then everyone knew that Tubby had changed wonderfully since he joined
the troop. Considering the handicap under which he labored on account of
his size, and the difficulty he had in doing things that were easy for
his chums, he managed to get along tip-top. Rob always gave him more
credit than the rest when an object they had been laboring to accomplish
had been attained; because the one who overcomes the most strenuous
barriers deserves greater praise than those who have not been compelled
to draw upon their reserve powers.
They stood there looking up at the vast Triumphal Arch of the Setting
Sun, which, it seemed to Tubby, was the most beautiful thing in the whole
Exposition. It appealed to him in a way he could hardly explain, except
that something seemed to draw him back there again and again.
“Why, before you came, Rob,” he remarked, “I used to just haunt this
place, together with the vicinity of the Column of Progress looking out
on the Marino. I’ll see them in my dreams long after all the other
effects of the Fair have faded away. And I reckon now every visitor will
somehow have a certain thing stay with him through all time, as a memory
of the greatest Exposition that ever was given.”
“Step back here, Tubby!” said Rob, as he took hold of the other’s sleeve
and drew him swiftly around a corner.
“Why, what’s all this mean?” gasped the stout boy, looking startled.
“Oh! I saw that hustling newspaper man again,” explained Rob, “and I was
afraid he’d corner us and try to worm out something of our past.”
“Shucks! is that all?” said Tubby, in disgust. “Why, Rob, honest to
goodness now, if I didn’t think it might be another mad dog scare we were
up against.”
“Well, it was something I dislike almost as much,” vowed Rob. “And if he
ever got _you_ cornered I’m pretty sure you’d give him all the details
about that other little happening that would make me look silly in the
paper. Now he’s gone, and it’s safe for us to step out.”
Tubby shook his head, and sighed.
“You sure are the queerest fish ever, Rob,” he observed, with a
disappointed air. “I never yet ran across the fellow who wouldn’t be only
too glad to see a write-up about him in the paper where he was called a
hero, and all that. Why, they’d hurry off to buy a dozen copies, and mail
the same to all the girls they knew. But say, whenever you do a thing
worth mentioning you try to sneak away as if it was something to be
ashamed of.”
“I don’t like it, and that’s the only explanation I can give you, Tubby.
Come, let’s go into this building, and then half an hour from now it’ll
be time to make for our meeting-place so as to pick up the other
fellows.”
“I hope Hiram has made up his mind it’s about due to spring his surprise
on the company he’s come all the way out here to see and talk with,”
Tubby said, as they started into the building mentioned by Rob.
“I’ve got a hunch that he will, after to-day, Tubby. I mean to speak with
him about it this very night, and see if it can’t be settled to-morrow.
Hiram looks so anxious every little while it’s too bad he doesn’t take
the bull by the horns and settle the matter once for all.”
When the half-hour was up the two boys issued forth, and headed in the
direction of the tobacconist’s booth, which was not a great way off.
Tubby was again feeling tired, and seemed pretty well used up.
“We’ll go home as we did last night, right after eating,” suggested Rob.
“Then to-morrow we needn’t hurry around, for we’ll stay until the gates
close at ten, so as to see the illumination, and the play of the electric
fountains.”
“That suits me first-rate, though I’ve seen all those things already, and
more than once,” the other told the scout leader.
A few minutes later and Tubby burst forth again.
“There’s the booth we’re aiming for, Rob,” he declared; “and isn’t that
our chum Andy walking up and down like a tiger in its cage? There, he
sees us now, seems like, and he’s beckoning. Let’s hurry on,” and Tubby
actually forgot that he was tired in his eagerness to learn why the other
was showing such signs of excitement.
“A note from Hiram that he left here for us, fellows,” Andy hastened to
say as the others reached his side; “and he wants us to chase around
there hot-footed, because there’s something big on the bills.”