owed chill and crisp, yet with
possibilities of a genial sunshine breaking through the mist that had
risen at dawn from the great sluggish river and spread itself through
the mazes of the city.

The change was one to send invigorating thrills through the blood, and
to quicken the step; to make one like the push and jostle of the
multitude that thronged the streets; to make one in love with
intoxicating life, and impatient with the grudging dispensation that
had given to mankind no wings wherewith to fly.

But with no reacting warmth in his heart, the change had only made
Hosmer shiver and draw his coat closer about his chest, as he pushed
his way through the hurrying crowd.

The St. Louis Exposition was in progress with all its many allurements
that had been heralded for months through the journals of the State.

Hence, the unusual press of people on the streets this bright
September morning. Home people, whose air of ownership to the
surroundings classified them at once, moving unobservantly about their
affairs. Women and children from the near and rich country towns, in
for the Exposition and their fall shopping; wearing gowns of ultra
fashionable tendencies; leaving in their toilets nothing to
expediency; taking no chances of so much as a ribbon or a loop set in
disaccordance with the book.

There were whole families from across the bridge, hurrying towards the
Exposition. Fathers and mothers, babies and grandmothers, with baskets
of lunch and bundles of provisional necessities, in for the day.

Nothing would escape their observation nor elude their criticism, from
the creations in color lining the walls of the art gallery, to the
most intricate mechanism of inventive genius in the basement. All
would pass inspection, with drawing of comparison between the present,
the past year and the "year before," likely in a nasal drawl with the
R's brought sharply out, leaving no doubt as to their utterance.

The newly married couple walking serenely through the crowd, young,
smiling, up-country, hand-in-hand; well pleased with themselves, with
their new attire and newer jewelry, would likely have answered
Hosmer's "beg pardon" with amiability if he had knocked them down. But
he had only thrust them rather violently to one side in his eagerness
to board the cable car that was dashing by, with no seeming
willingness to stay its mad flight. He still possessed the agility in
his unpracticed limbs to swing himself on the gr