e last to arrive, was given
three ribbons bearing the names of California, Texas, and Minnesota.

As the hay-wagon rolled by the family, the compliment paid the little
girl did not escape their eyes. The cattleman, too, observed it, and
proudly expressed himself to the biggest brother. "Say!" he whispered,
"don't she cover a lot o' terrytory!"

The little girl was aware of the attention she was attracting, and she
kept a graceful poise, looking neither to one side nor the other. Each
girl on the rack held something in her hands that suggested the wealth
of the particular State she symbolized. So the little girl wore, just
under her collar, the picture of a fat beef as an appropriate emblem of
Texas, while in one hand she carried a gilded stone to recall
California's riches, and, in the other, through the instigation of the
grand marshal, who had once been jailed at St. Paul, she held aloft a
wad of cotton batting to emphasize the annual snowfall of the rival
State to the east.

The end of the procession consisted of decorated buggies--in which sat
the orator of the day, a local poet, the school-teacher at the station,
the minister, the professor, and a dozen prominent citizens--and a
rabble of horribles and plug-uglies that rent the air with yells; as it
went by, it bore the admiring crowd in its train. When the grand stand
was reached, the people quickly filled the board benches which had been
put up for them, while the principals in the festivities settled
themselves picturesquely upon the platform.

It was after twelve o'clock, so the program opened at once. The
professor, sitting well in the foreground, fidgeted inwardly and hoped
that the train on which he was to depart would not arrive before he had
had his opportunity. But he sat smiling, nevertheless, throughout the
opening prayer by the minister, the address of the day and the reading
of the Declaration of Independence by the orator, the verses of the
poet, the teacher's song, and four band pieces. On his lap were two
large squares of white pasteboard which he fingered nervously, and every
two or three minutes he took note of the time.

When his turn came at last, it was with calm dignity, as becomes a
scholar, that he rose and stepped forward to the edge of the stand,
where the orator, in ringing tones, introduced him as "our distinguished
guest." Then, amid a hush, partly of curiosity, the professor began his
speech.

Up to this time the little girl ha