ice," Eva agreed; "but they ain't so stylish like high-stiffs.
High-stiffs und derbies is awful stylish."

Gloom and darkness vanished from the heart and countenance of the Knight
of Munster, for around his neck he wore, with suppressed agony, the
highest and stiffest of "high-stiffs" and his brows--and the back of his
neck--were encircled by his big brother's work-a-day derby. Again he saw
and described to Eva the vision which had lived in his hopes for now so
many weeks: against a background of teeming jungle, mysterious and alive
with wild beasts, an amiable boat-bird floated on the water-lake: and
upon the boat-bird, trembling but reassured, sat Eva Gonorowsky, hand in
hand with her brass-buttoned protector.

As the car sped up the Bowery the children felt that they were indeed
adventurers. The clattering Elevated trains overhead, the crowds of
brightly decked Sunday strollers, the clanging trolley cars, and the
glimpses they caught of shining green as they passed the streets leading
to the smaller squares and parks, all contributed to the holiday
upliftedness which swelled their unaccustomed hearts. At each vista of
green they made ready to disembark and were restrained only by the
conductor and by the sage counsel of Eva, who reminded her impulsive
companions that the Central Park could be readily identified by "the
hollers from all those things what hollers." And so, in happy watching
and calm trust of the conductor, they were borne far beyond 59th Street,
the first and most popular entrance to the park, before an interested
passenger came to their rescue. They tumbled off the car and pressed
towards the green only to find themselves shut out by a high stone wall,
against which they crouched and listened in vain for identifying
hollers. The silence began to frighten them, when suddenly the quiet air
was shattered by a shriek which would have done credit to the biggest of
boat-birds or of lions, but which was--the children discovered after a
moment's panic--only the prelude to an outburst of grief on the
chaperon's part. When the inarticulate stage of her sorrow was passed,
she demanded instant speech with her mamma. She would seem to have
expressed a sentiment common to the majority, for three heads in Spring
finery leaned dejectedly against the stone barrier while Nathan removed
his car-fare to contribute the remark that he was growing hungry.
Patrick was forced to seek aid in the passing crowd on Fifth Avenue,