Climbing the bluff in a cab they had tantalizing glimpses of the magnificent view, and the boys did not want to go into the hotel until they had seen more of it. Their father, however, suggested that they had better help him select rooms. When that was accomplished and they were alone Mr. Porter said,—
“I asked you to stay, boys, because I want to arrange an important matter. I think I should make a better disposition of our money; it does not seem to me wise for me to carry it all.”
“I don’t want to be bothered with money, father,” expostulated Raymond.
“I think you ought to have a reasonable amount, though,” said his father. “You might want some badly when you were not with me.”
“I would rather have some,” said Sidney. “We should have been up a stump in Mexico, Ray, if we hadn’t been able to use Ramon’s money.”
“What I propose is this,” said Mr. Porter: “I will turn over two hundred dollars to you, Sidney, and one hundred dollars to Raymond. I will keep a couple of hundred myself and will place two hundred dollars in the trunk. I think I had better divide my express checks with you, Sidney, too, and I will place a portion of those in the trunk.”
“Now that’s fixed up, let’s hurry out,” urged Raymond. “I want to see that view before dark.”
Mr. Porter insisted on dividing the money and checks first, but when that was done they went out to the Alexander Gardens, near by.
While there are high bluffs along the right banks of the Volga and the Oka, on the opposite side extend level plains. From the Gardens the travelers saw at their feet the two broad rivers, and on the peninsula formed by the junction of the two streams was situated the great temporary city of the Fair, connected with Nizhni-Novgorod by a bridge of pontoons, transitory, like the community it served.
Beyond the Volga stretched plains, farther than the eye could reach toward the Urals, hundreds of miles of cultivated fields and meadows.