Rooms had been engaged in advance at the Bijou, on the ground floor,
for the sake of David's softened muscles, and they reached the town
ahead of the regular Frontier Day crowds, allowing themselves plenty of
time to get rested and to see the whole thing start.
Julia frolicked on the wide velvety lawn with all the dogs and cats and
children that could be drawn from the surrounding neighborhood. David
sat on the porch in a big chair, enjoying the soft breezes sweeping
down over the plains, looking through half closed lids out upon the
quiet shaded street. Carol crouched excitedly in another chair beside
him, squeezing his hand to call attention to every sunburned
picturesque son of the plains that galloped down that way. But Connie,
with the lustful eyes of a fortune-hunter walked up and down the
corridors, peering here and peeking there, listening avidly to every
unaccustomed word that was spoken,--getting material.
Quickly the hotels were filled to capacity, and overflowed to cots in
the hall, rugs on the porches, and piles of straw in the stables. The
street so quietly peaceful on Sunday, by Wednesday was a throbbing
thoroughfare, with autos, wagons and horses whirling by in clouds of
dust The main street, a block away, was a noisy, active, flourishing,
carnival city, with fortune-tellers, two-headed dogs, snake-charmers,
minstrels and all the other street-fair habitues in full possession.
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