The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1900-04-07
If.

ought to be its title. for if the Sinclair
children had obeyed their father, or
II Mr.. Sinclair had not been called
away on business so inopportunely, or
If The hand organ man had not hap
pened along at just the time tina: he
did, there wouldn't have been :ry
story to write about, or at least, there
wouldn't have been this story. Carl
and Elsie Sinclair lived in the coun-
try, but Mr.. Sinclair's business was in
the city, some thirty miles distant, and
today he was going to take the chill
dren there with him. They were to
make an early start, visit the various
points of interest about the city, " hich
were all new to them, and, best of all,
we're finally to take the trolley cars
to the seashore, where they would have
nice dinner, play in the sand, and
possibly enjoy bath in the surf.
Could anything be more delightful:
The children had not been told of the
plan till the night before, and they
had been so excited that they could
hardly sleep for thinking Of it, and
were all ready to get up in the morn
ing as soon as the sun was. They lived
quite a distance from the station, SO
they had a trolley ride to start off
With, and then few minutes wait be-
fore the train started: but as they were
waiting man came hurriedly in and
spoke to Mr.. Sinclair. and in a mo-
ment Mr.. Sinclair came to the children,
looking rather sober, and told them
that he had some unexpected business,
which must be attended to before ne
could start; that they must wait until
the next train, which went in about
an hour, and that he must leave them
alone for that length of time. He was
very sorry, but there was nothing else
to be done, so he bought them some
bananas and peanuts, and told them
that they must be good and amuse each
other, and on no account to go nut OF
the waiting-room. As papa disappeared
from sight with the stranger Carl and
Elsie looked at each other with blank
faces. This was something different
from what they had anticipated, How
ever, their pleasure was only delayed
for an hour, so they comforted each
other, ate their bananas slowly, so as
to make them last the longer, and tried
the peanuts; but they were old and
tough, and they didn't enjoy them.
Then they told stories and played tag
around the room, and tried to count
the flies on the windows; but that they
soon gave up in despair, and then they
looked at the clock, and only twenty
minutes had gone. What long time
an hour was! And it was very lonely
in the little country station, with no
one in sight but the gate tender across
the way and he was busy reading
paper, with his back turned toward
the children. They sighed aud;bly,
and started once more to try and count
the flies, as there seemed to be moth
ing else to do; but just then some
thing came in sight,: walking slowly
along the road. Carl and Elsie ran TO
the door. It was man with 4 hand
organ and oh joy! a little monkey!
Now, Carl and Elsie were not as &C
tustomed to hand organs and monkeys
as city children are, for not many
hand organ men found their way so
far out into the country; so perhaps it
is not to be wondered at that papa's
Injunction not to leave the room was
forgotten in the excitement Of the mo-
ment. Anyway, they ran out and en-
/ ~ =