trived to
give Pat no opportunity to get more than a fleeting glimpse of crowded
streets and glaring lights. He had met Pat at the train, which had not
arrived until the early winter evening had set in, hurried him to a big
touring car with curtains drawn and then whirled him away to the
palatial Harrison home on Riverside Drive without giving him a chance to
sense more than a glare of lights and that confusion of sounds which
constitutes the voice of a great city. The same car had brought them to
Walter's modest home. While they had been making their brief call there
the chauffeur, under Hal's orders, had put back the top of the machine,
so that as they descended the steps Pat did not recognize the car at
all. In fact, until that day Pat had never so much as seen a motor car,
a buck-board being the most stylish equipage of which Upper Chain could
boast.

"Arrah, 'tis black magic!" exclaimed Pat as he settled himself
comfortably between Hal and Walter in the tonneau, convinced at last
that he was really in the same car which had brought him there.

"And we're going to show you some white magic," cried Hal, as he leaned
forward to give orders to the chauffeur.

A quick run through side streets, comparatively deserted at this hour,
brought them to Broadway at the junction with Sixth Avenue. Turning
north the dazzling splendor of the "Great White Way" burst upon the
startled eyes of the young woodsman. His companions heard him catch his
breath with a little gasp. Then he closed his eyes for the space of a
few seconds, opening them slowly as if he suspected them of playing him
tricks. An instant later he seized a leg of each of his companions just
above the knee with a grip that brought both half-way to their feet with
a little yell of surprised protest.

"'Tis true, then, and no drame," said he as he settled back with a
little sigh of relief. "Sure and had I pinched mesilf I would not have
believed me own sinse av feeling. White magic, did yez call ut? Sure
'tis the city av enchantment."

It was a rare bit of thoughtfulness on Hal's part to give Pat such an
introduction to America's greatest city. Whatever the disillusionment in
the garish light of day he would always think of New York as he saw it
for the first time--a fairy city of twinkling lights, the street crowded
with pleasure seekers, the great buildings towering into the sky with
all harsh and rigid lines softened by the protecting shadows, and above
all the