menu_book Chapter 123

for more information or to volunteer please visit librivox dot org recording by jeanie hall in the nursery of my book house edited by olive beaupray miller a happy day in the city by olive beaupray miller ned and his mother stood on the corner by the florist shop waiting for the trolley car soon it came jangling up the track ned waved his hand to the motorman and the big wheels squealed like a dozen little pigs as the car slowed down and stopped ned had the money for their fare held tight in his hand he always gave it to the conductor himself he and mother stepped aboard and as the car started up with a jerk they stumbled inside and made their way unsteadily to the only seat that was not already filled oh but ned was happy he loved to go down town on the trolley car he loved the bumping and the jiggling and all the wonderful sights to-day he was especially happy because he was going to meet his cousin ruth and her mother who lived in the country and they were to have a long beautiful day together in the city he did not know what they were going to do to have a jolly time mother had kept that a secret but he had seen father slip out of the front door very quickly and mysteriously that morning as if he were carrying something and he guessed but then never mind what he guessed it was all a secret

as ned looked out of the window he saw a long row of stores with the gaily decorated front of the moving picture theatre among them and then they whist past a row of tall apartment buildings three and four stories high where people made their homes all on a floor one family above another it was on the top floor of just such a building that ned and his father and mother lived apartment houses and then stores and then more apartment houses and more stores that was what he saw all the way down town when i grow up cried ned as their motorman clanged his bell loudly i'm going to be a motorman oh said his mother i thought you said yesterday you wanted to be a hurdy-gurdy man and have a street piano and a monkey no announced ned positively i'm going to be a motor man and then you'll see how i'll bang my foot down on the bell and make a big noise clang clang clang clang and all the people will run to get out of the way of my car so they went on for almost an hour sometimes whizzing sometimes jogging sometimes crawling in a crowd behind some slow-moving delivery wagon that could not get off the tracks at last they crossed the river and reached the market-place of the city where all the fruit and vegetables came in

there the delivery wagons with their backs to the sidewalk were crowded so close together that the horses stood straight out into the street their noses up to the very trolley tracks oh mother we almost nipped that horse's nose squealed ned as they passed shortly after that mother pressed a button beside their seat to let the conductor know they wanted to get off the car stopped and they stepped down on a crowded crossing among automobiles and wagons right under the tall iron framework where an elevated train was rushing by with a roaring rumbling noise overhead all the buildings they passed as they walked along down town seemed turned a soft pearly gray by the city smoke everything was gray except the bright-colored sign boards that stood out strikingly and the gay red yellow and purple in a fruit stall here and there mother would not let ned linger to-day to look at anything for they must surely be on time to meet ruth inside the great station they crossed the clean marble paved floor and went up the broad stairs to the place where the trains came in

a great iron fence shut off the tracks from the rest of the station but a guard in blue uniform was already opening the gate to the platform where ruth's train was pulling in and a number of people were crowding about to meet friends whom they were expecting oh i see her i see her piped ned and there's aunt frances too sure enough there they were coming along in the midst of the crowd soon everybody was kissing everybody else and ruth was telling ned about her new kittens and the garden she had made and how she could read in her primer all at once mother and aunt frances started on ahead talking with the children following behind them where are we going to-day asked ruth oh that's going to be a surprise you mustn't ask said ned but i want to know insisted ruth who never could wait for surprises well this morning i saw father slip out the front door and i'm almost sure he was carrying but there ned stopped smiled mysteriously and would not say another word mother and aunt frances went down a long flight of stairs and out of doors to a place where they all climbed up into a queer old-fashioned bus that was drawn by horses and ran from the station to the great stores

when the bus was filled with people the driver climbed up into his seat in front cried get up to the horses and they started off but they had gone jiggling and juggling only a short distance over the cobblestone pavement when they heard the great noise of an alarm bell ringing and the bus stopped ruth and ned turned around and looked excitedly out of the window they had just come to the bridge over the river and as the bell kept on ringing people were hurrying and scurrying to get across no sooner was the bridge empty than a chain was stretched over the approach to it and a big policeman took his place there to prevent any one else from stepping on it then the huge structure parted in the middle and the two sides were raised straight up in the air by machinery from a little house on shore next a great steamer with tall funnels too tall to have passed under the bridge when it was down was pulled by a little puffing smoking tug slowly past the crossing and the little tug whistled shrilly for the next bridge up the river to open out of its way oh ned cried ruth as she watched all this with breathless interest i wonder how it would be if anybody would just hang on to the bridge and swing right up with it into the air

well laughed mother unless anybody was a fly i think anybody would not hang on very long splash he'd go into the water said ned and we'd have to fish him out when the bridge was down again the bus went jiggling and joggling on till it came to a great store where everybody got out the store took up a whole block and was at least fifteen stories high all about were buildings so tall that as they lifted their uneven outlines against the sky the street seemed but a narrow slit between them the bigness of it all made ruth feel small and lonely so she came nearer to ned and took fast hold of his hand but that wasn't the way the big buildings made ned feel at all when i get big he cried i'm going to be a builder and build way way way up till i can touch the sky as he looked up to think how very high he was going to build he stubbed his toe and fell flat on the sidewalk pulling ruth half-way down with him my dear little boy laughed his mother as she helped him up and brushed him off before you can build to the sky you will have to learn to look where you take your next step

inside the building there were many people but the store was so large it did not seem crowded there were any number of counters about covered with lace and ribbons and gloves and handkerchiefs and many other things and in one place there was an opening in the ceiling four or five stories high way way up so far it almost took your breath away to look the roof of the great opening was a dome all made of tiny bits of colored glass that shone like jewels just like the castles in fairyland said ruth they passed under a great archway draped with american flags and then mother and aunt frances stopped at the button counter ned was stooping down looking in the lower part of the glass show-case and thinking what fine wheels for his train some of the big buttons would make when all of the sudden ruth disappeared they all three turned around toward the aisle at the same time but she was nowhere to be seen aunt frances called her but she did not answer not one of the saleswomen or the floor-walker had noticed where she went so mother ned and aunt frances hunted and hunted and at last they found her a long way off looking longingly at a pile of little girls parasols and half covered up by a pink one that she had opened over her head

why ruth maxwell martin said her mother we've been hunting fifteen minutes for you you're a big enough little girl to know you must not wander away ruth hung her head and looked foolish for she was indeed big enough to know but after aunt frances had made her understand how much trouble she had given them all mother bought her the little pink parasol to have for her own then aunt frances said most of our shopping isn't very interesting to the children let us leave them for an hour in the play-room so they all crossed over to a row of elevators got into one with a great crowd of other people and went up to the fourth floor then they passed to the beautiful toy section and saw all the dolls and the dolls houses and dolls furniture and dolls clothes and toy animals and toy villages and toy automobiles and toy aeroplanes and toy trains that would really run by electricity and toy stoves that would really cook by electricity and oh such a number of other things that ruth sighed with delight i wish i could live in a place like this well you can live here for an hour laughed her mother as they went on into the playroom a great number of children were there laughing and chattering playing in sand boxes sliding down wooden slides rocking back and forth on great horses as big as life

riding on little merry-go-rounds or swinging in the swings ned and ruth had time to try everything that was fun in the whole place before their mothers came back again when they all started out once more the hands of the big clock above the elevators pointed to twelve o'clock so they went into the nice clean marble washroom and got ready for lunch then they went up to the restaurant the room where they found themselves was one of five or six lunch rooms that covered the whole seventh floor of the building it was very gaily painted and had a number of little tables about in the center of the room was a beautiful fountain with a statue in the middle and goldfish swimming in it ned and ruth could hardly bear to leave the little darting goldfish even to order lunch but when aunt frances called them they went and sat down at a table with a white cloth on it and a candlestick with a pretty pink shade in the center then a neat young woman in black with a white apron came and brought them each a card that had a list of all the good things they might have to eat

mother and aunt frances told the waitress what to bring so she went off and came back soon with her big tray loaded there was some orange and banana salad in a pretty nest of lettuce for each of them there were some buns covered with sugar and currants and four little bottles of milk for dessert they each had chocolate ice cream it was then that ruth said oh i'm having such a happy time but i do wish i knew where we are going this afternoon well said mother suppose we all go home and take a nap oh no no no shrieked both children but that was all mother would say after lunch they left the big store and came out on the crowded street such a number of people as there were all busily hurrying somewhere there wasn't any lingering here everybody had something to do and was keeping right about his business of getting there to do it in the street there seemed a tangled mass of automobiles and wagons and trolley cars but there were two policemen on the corner and when ruth and ned reached there they could see that what had seemed such a tangled mass was very orderly after all when the policeman whistled once and held up his hand

all the automobiles and wagons and trolley cars went in one direction while the others waited and when he blew his whistle twice they all went in the other direction so they never interfered with each other when i grow up i'm surely going to be a big policeman said ned then you'll hold up your hand and make all the wagons wait while i cross the street won't you said ruth soon they came to the wide boulevard where were all the finest small shops in the city on the farther side of the street was a pretty strip of green park with shrubbery flowers and statues that stretched all the way up the avenue and beyond that strip sparkled the blue waters of the lake but ned ruth mother and aunt frances were chiefly interested in the windows of the shops on their own side of the street as they walked along ned stopped in front of the electrical shop where were washing machines and fans and all sorts of things running by electricity ruth lingered by the big waxen figures of beautiful ladies like great wax dolls dressed in such beautiful clothes they made the little girl think of the princesses in her fairy tales

mother and aunt frances looked in at the linen and jewelry and they all stopped together to peep at the candy and the flowers i know where we're going whispered ned to ruth to father's office sure enough they went into a large office building rode up in the elevator and walked down a long hall into father's office there was father working busily at his desk well hallo he cried as he whirled around in his chair kissed ruth put his arm around ned shook hands with aunt frances and smiled at mother oh uncle cried ruth please tell me where are we going this afternoon but father wouldn't tell either he just smiled got up and left the room while they were waiting for him to come back the children went over to the window and looked out they were up very high and the people and automobiles in the street below looked very small near by on the other side of the street was a great stone building with two fine bronze lions on either side of the broad steps guarding the entrance in the carved border about the top

where ruth and ned could see them clearly a number of pigeons roosted while others flew circling about in the air or dropped down into the park below to bathe and play in the waters of the fountain farther on beyond the green stretch of parkway they could just see the tops of trains on a track down below the level of the ground from the engines rose little cottony white and gray curls of smoke that floated away and melted into the soft haze hanging over the lake beyond sometimes the sunlight pierced the haze and flashed back brightly from the water from the white sail of a boat or the wing of a great white bird it was all very soft and bright and lovely in a few moments back came father and there as he stood in the doorway the children saw he had the big picnic basket over his arm oh we're going to have a picnic that's what we're going to do i thought so piped ned where are we going how would lincoln park do asked father i've brought the basket down this morning and it's been in mr smith's ice-box ever since oh goody goody cried the children

they waited on the corner for the motor bus the bus ran just like an automobile and beside the inside seats it had seats up on its roof ned and father let the ladies go up first so the bus had started before they and the picnic basket got to the top and it was the queerest wobbliest feeling to stagger up clutching hold of the rail and tumble into a seat up there one could see everything the bus made a loop around the main streets downtown then it started out toward the park soon it was running along the smooth black pavement of a wide boulevard past beautiful homes and under fine old trees oh but it was jolly to be right up in the tree-tops at last they came into the fresh green park and passed a little harbor where a number of pretty launches were anchored they went over a stone bridge past beds of beautiful flowers by a marble bandstand and beneath a great towering statue of general grant on horseback then they all got off at a pretty knoll with a fine view over the lake there in the shade of a tree mother and aunt frances sat on a bench to rest father after he had put down the lunch basket started with the two children to see the animals and birds

in the bird-house there was such a screeching they could hardly hear themselves think and in the cages round about there was every kind of gay or sober-colored bird from all the corners of the world in the center of the room was a pond filled with water birds some of these were very long-legged some were very short-legged and some were very queer indeed especially one important old white pelican who strutted about and seemed to think he owned the pond when you grow up ned how would you like to be a pelican asked father with a twinkle in his eye but just at that moment ruth covered her ears with her hands and said oh it's too noisy in here let's go on so they walked on past the zebras the llamas the deer the camels and the buffaloes then they came back over some steps and by the pits of the bears the foxes and wolves they saw the giraffes eating hay out of a high trough and the elephant swinging his trunk and flapping his ears beneath a canvas canopy they spent a long time laughing at the ridiculous antics of the monkeys and last of all they visited the great house where the lions tigers and leopards are kept

i'd like to see a real wild tiger prowling around in the jungle said ned as they were returning that's what i should oh dear i shouldn't said ruth what would you do ned if you did see one i think answered father very solemnly that ned would run after the lion like a brave man and sprinkle salt on his tail by the time they got back to mother and aunt frances they were ready to sit down on the soft grass beneath the tree and rest but even here there was plenty of interest to watch near by a party of children were having a picnic laughing and playing pretty games while strings of japanese lanterns had been strung up around them through the trees on the sandy beach of the lake a number of other children were waiting or bathing and every now and then farther out beyond them a boat of some kind passed it was all so pleasant the time seemed to fly on wings before they knew it supper was all spread out on the grass it was growing dusk and the little japanese lanterns were lit and twinkling among the trees when aunt frances said now girlie we must start for home or you'll never be able to keep your eyes open till we get on the train so ned and ruth kissed each other good-bye father hailed the south-bound bus and helped ruth and aunt frances aboard then as they rode away ned and ruth waved their hands to each other and cried good-bye good-bye we'll have another happy day like this next year

End of section 123 Recording by Jeanne Hall Eldersburg, Maryland