e the way or on the steps at their feet.

But at ten o'clock both men and women came into the open, for the
procession had formed across the track in the rear of the depot and was
advancing. Excitement was high. Crackers were popping on all sides,
horses were prancing wildly, frightened by the unusual clatter, and
people were laughing and shouting to one another as they craned to catch
a first glimpse of the oncoming cortege.

A silence fell suddenly as the grand marshal rounded the depot, leading
the way north to the grove where the exercises were to be held. Behind
and flanking him rode his aides, and in their rear walked the band, a
few in a prescribed dress of red caps, blue coats, and white trousers,
others lacking in one or more details of it, but jauntily wearing
substitutes in the shape of straw hats and store clothes. About them
trailed a gang of small boys, an inevitable though uninvited part of
every procession, and, after, rumbled heavy floats representing events
in the history of America,--General and Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon,
Pocahontas rescuing Captain John Smith, Lincoln freeing the Slaves, and
Columbus greeting the Redmen. Following was a company of cavalry from
the reservation, with the colonel and his son at their head, and a band
of Indians, naked but for their breech-cloths, and in war-plumes and
paint, that whooped and brandished their bows and arrows as they bolted
from side to side.

But the crowning feature of the parade came next. It was a hay-rack
wound over every inch of its wide, open frame with the national colors,
drawn by four white horses, and bearing the Goddess of Liberty,
Columbia, Dakota, and a score of girls who represented the States and
Territories, and who wore filmy white frocks, red garlands on their
hair, blue girdles about their waists, and ribbons lettered in gilt
across their breasts.

To the family, as to many, the passing of the rack was a proud moment,
for the little girl rode upon it. Like her companions, she was hatless,
and she shone out from among them as she stood directly behind the
goddess, because her hair, a two years' growth--she was now nine and a
half years old--rippled luxuriantly about her face.

Her place in the rack had been assigned her as a special honor. It was
found, when the girls assembled to receive their garlands and colors,
that there were not enough of them to represent fully the map of the
United States. So the little girl, being th