“Yes, father,” said the manly boy, “I shall be happy if he can go.”
“Thou hast well spoken,” said old Ephraim. “Thy heart is right, and I can see that it is already consecrated. But why can we not both go? I have a little money of my own. I will pay my own way.”
“Oh, grandfather, and we will see the world all living together in peace in one white city.”
“Yes, boy. I have seen it in visions. I never expected to see it in the flesh. What have you to say, Manton?”
AGRICULTURAL BUILDING.
“We will all go. The papers say that the White City by the Lake is the most beautiful sight that ever arose in this world under the sun. I am glad that we can see it together.”
“I am told,” said the old man, “that the white-bordered flag is to be carried there. That flag is the beginning of the peace of the world. To see it would turn this old heart into a psalm. It would make me sing like the men of old, Quaker that I am!”
The sunset lit up the far hills and faded, and the three sat together long into the evening, planning their journey to the White City.
Mr. Marlowe was a popular story-teller. His love of folk-lore stories had given him his place as leader of the Village Improvement Society. He liked to relate stories in which old-time characters could be imitated by voice and manner. We shall use in this volume several stories of this kind, as he told them at some folk-lore social gatherings at the Fair.