ook at that royal-red monster
of all-steel coaches, the train, while the youngest of them introduced
the Prince to themselves.

They came out across the fields in twos and threes. One little boy, in
a brimless hat, working overalls, and with a fair amount of his working
medium, plough land, liberally distributed over him--Huckleberry Finn
come to life, as somebody observed--worked hard to break down his
shyness and talk like a boy of the world to the Prince. A little girl,
with the acumen of her sex, glanced once at the train, legged it to her
father's homestead, and came back with a basket of apples, which she
presented with all the solemnity of an illuminated address on vellum.

It was always a strange sight to watch people coming across the fields
from nowhere to gather round the observation platform of the train for
these impromptu audiences. Every part of Canada is well served by
newspapers, yet to see people drift to the right place at the right
time in the midst of loneliness had a touch of wonder about it. These
casual gatherings were, indeed, as significant and as interesting as
the great crowds of the cities. There was always an air of laughing
friendliness in them, too, that gave charm to their utter informality,
for which both the Prince and the people were responsible.

From this apple-garnished pause the train pushed on, and passing
through the garden approach, where pleasant lawns and trees make a
boulevard along a canal which runs parallel with the railway, the
Prince entered Ottawa.

We had been warned against Ottawa, mainly by Ottawa men. We had been
told not to expect too much from the Capital. As the Prince passed
from crowded moment to crowded moment in Toronto, the stock of Ottawa
slumped steadily in the minds of Ottawa's sons. They became insistent
that we must not expect great things from Ottawa. Ottawa was not like
that. Ottawa was the taciturn "burg."

It was a city of people given over to the meditative, if sympathetic,
silence. It was an artificial city sprung from the sterile seeds of
legislature, and thriving on the arid food of Bills. It was a mere
habitation of governments. It was a freak city created coldly by an
act of Solomonic wisdom. Before 1858 it was a drowsy French portage
village, sitting inertly at the fork of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers,
concerning itself only with the lumber trade, almost inattentive to the
battle which Montreal and Quebec, Toronto and King