Through that day and until midday of the next, lively crowds followed
every movement of the "dandy feller," swopping opinions as to his
charm, and his smile, his youthfulness and his shyness. They compared
him with his grandfather who had visited St. John's fifty-nine years
ago, and made a point of mentioning that he was to sleep in the very
bedroom his grandfather had used.

There was the usual heavy program, an official lunch, the review of war
veterans, a visit to the streets when the lavish electric light had
been switched into the beautiful illuminations, when the two cruisers
were mirrored in the harbour waters in an outline of electric lights,
and when on the ring of hill-tops red beacons were flaring in his
honour. There was a dance, with his lucky partners sure of
photographic fame in the local papers of tomorrow, and then in the
morning, medal giving, a peep at the annual regatta, famous in local
history, on lovely Quidividi Lake among the hills, and then, all too
soon for Newfoundland, his departure to New Brunswick.

There was no doubt at all as to the impression he made. The visit that
might have been formal was in actuality an affair of spontaneous
affection. There was a friendliness and warmth in the welcome that
quite defies description. His own unaffected pleasure in the greeting;
his eagerness to meet everybody, not the few, but the ordinary,
everyday people as much as the notabilities, his lack of affectation,
and his obvious enjoyment of all that was happening, placed the Prince
and the people, welcoming him, immediately on a footing of intimacy.
His tour had begun in the air of triumph which we were to find
everywhere in his passage across the Continent.

CHAPTER II

ST. JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK

I

When one talks to a citizen of St. John, New Brunswick, one has an
impression that his city is burnt down every half century or so in
order that he and his neighbours might build it up very much better.

This is no doubt an inaccurate impression, but when I had listened to
various brisk people telling me about the fires--the devastating one of
1877, and the minor ones of a variety of dates--and the improvements
St. John has been able to accomplish after them; and when I had seen
the city itself, I must confess I had a sneaking feeling that
Providence had deliberately managed these things so that a lively,
vigorous and up-to-date folk should have every opportunity of
reconstructing their