fraids too," cried Isaac; and then spurred by
the calm of his rival, he added: "The rubber-neck-boat-birds they
hollers somethin' fierce."

"I wouldn't be afraid of them. Me pop's a cop," cried Patrick stoutly.
"I'd just as lief set on 'em. I'd like to."

"Ah, but you ain't seen 'em, und you ain't heard 'em holler," Isaac
retorted.

"Well, I'm goin' to. An' I'm goin' to see the lions an' the tigers an'
the el'phants, an' I'm goin' to ride on the water-lake."

"Oh, how I likes I should go too!" Eva broke out. "O-o-oh, _how_ I likes
I should look on them things! On'y I don't know do I need a ride on
somethings what hollers. I don't know be they fer me."

"Well, I'll take ye with me if your mother leaves you go," said Patrick
grandly. "An' ye can hold me hand if ye're scared."

"Me too?" implored Morris. "Oh, Patrick, c'n I go too?"

"I guess so," answered the Leader of the Line graciously. But he turned
a deaf ear to Isaac Borrachsohn's implorings to be allowed to join the
party. Full well did Patrick know of the grandeur of Isaac's holiday
attire and the impressionable nature of Eva's soul, and gravely did he
fear that his own Sunday finery, albeit fashioned from the blue cloth
and brass buttons of his sire, might be outshone.

At Eva's earnest request, Sadie, her cousin, was invited, and Morris
suggested that the Monitor of the Window Boxes should not be slighted by
his colleagues of the gold fish and the line. So Nathan Spiderwitz was
raised to Alpine heights of anticipation by visions of a window box "as
big as blocks and streets," where every plant, in contrast to his lanky
charges, bore innumerable blossoms. Ignatius Aloysius Diamantstein was
unanimously nominated as a member of the expedition; by Patrick, because
they were neighbors at St. Mary's Sunday-school; by Morris, because they
were classmates under the same rabbi at the synagogue; by Nathan,
because Ignatius Aloysius was a member of the "Clinton Street gang"; by
Sadie, because he had "long pants sailor suit"; by Eva, because the
others wanted him.

Eva reached home that afternoon tingling with anticipation and
uncertainty. What if her mother, with one short word, should close
forever the gates of joy and boat-birds? But Mrs. Gonorowsky met her
small daughter's elaborate plea with the simple question:

"Who pays you the car-fare?"

"Does it need car-fare to go?" faltered Eva.

"Sure does it," answered her mother. "I don't know how much, but so