“Tom hates to waste his time eating in the vicinity of Niagara Falls,” said Fred at the table, “but I am glad to see that he is going through the form, at any rate.”
A glance at the latter’s heaped-up plate was convincing.
“Certainly a splendid imitation of a hungry boy,” remarked Kittie. “Take another biscuit, won’t you, Tommy?”
But when at last they did enter Prospect Park, and huddled together at the brink of the mighty American Falls, there were no more jests. All the world seemed sweeping onward and over, into that white uproar. The solid rock beneath them trembled in the thunderous fall of many waters.
Some of the party walked over the little rustic bridge to Goat Island, and out to the bit of rock where Terrapin Tower once stood. But it was all too terrible to invite a long stay. Glad they were to reach the quiet of the grove again, where moss and furrowed bark and waving fern told their simple story of peace, and the sparrow’s twitter was heard against the deep undertone of the Fall.
In the afternoon half a dozen of the bolder spirits went down the Inclined Plane to the shore below the Falls, and embarked on the Maid of the Mist. They had to encase themselves in rubber coats and tarpaulin hats, while the little boat steamed up into the verge of the boiling caldron until its awe-struck passengers were deafened and drenched by the columns of rolling spray from the cataract.
Evening came, and for the last time the Percivals, with their special friends, gathered in the car for a final “concert.” Nearly one half of the Excursion party had left them at Niagara, waving handkerchiefs and singing, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot?”
Mr. Rossiter and his sister were to reach their journey’s end at a little town in Western Massachusetts, and would leave the train in the early morning, while their comrades were still asleep. Altogether, despite the anticipation of getting home once more, it was a sad evening, as “good-by” evenings must always be.
Next morning all was eagerness and bustle, for when breakfast was over the train was within twenty miles of Boston.