The boys were struck with her likeness, as she came close along the dock, to some of the dug-out canoes they had seen at the great Fair. They learned, however, from their friend the architect (whom they met again on the pier) that the boat was seaworthy, carried a large cargo, and was very fast, going even twenty-two miles an hour.
Going aboard, they found her divided into three decks, and very finely fitted up. The second deck, which was even with the top of the hull, had walks along the curved sides of the vessel; for these “tumbled home” so as to be almost level.
In the cabin, Harry found a phonograph which was advertised to sing his favorite “The Cat Came Back”; and he persuaded Mr. Douglass to try it. The tutor’s face, as the song began, lost its usual quiet expression, and soon he grinned quite as broadly as the small boy Harry had sketched at the Fair. Then the boys paid another five cents, and listened to a lively song called, “Drill, ye tarriers, drill”—wherein were introduced sounds of blasting, the singing, the orders of the boss, and all the features of work upon a railway excavation.
But they wasted only a few minutes in the cabin, for the view of Chicago, as the boat steamed out, was well worth seeing. A few rays of sunshine struggled luridly through the heavy pall of dusky smoke that drifted over the city. Here and there great buildings or towers rose above the rest, but the whole effect was soft and hazy. It was a picture of the city that was sure to remain long connected in their minds with the name Chicago.
FISHING FOR PERCH FROM THE BREAKWATER, CHICAGO.
The trip was not a long one, but Harry found time to pick up acquaintance with a young man from Indiana, and the two were soon pronouncing words for each other’s amusement. He found Harry’s slighting of the letter R very droll, and told the New York boy that his mother had an aunt who was “a regular Yankee,” and said, “Why, I could listen to her talking all day; it does sound so queer!” Harry found the Indianian’s accent quite as strange, and said it reminded him of peculiarities he had noticed in the speech of Virginians.
As they approached the long pier that extended out from the Fair Grounds, Philip began to be uneasy.
“What’s the row, Phil?” Harry asked, noticing that his friend was frowning rather fiercely; “are you sorry to get back?”
“The matter is this camera. I’ve got to take it through the grounds,” Philip replied.