Hour of Enchantment / A Mystery Story for Girls

leaf as, dressed in a filmy orange-colored

d from within as if it were on fire,

small Chinaman with long ears?" she asked herself, "when a thousand my

for that long-eared Chinaman who had snatched the jeweled dagg

ne is needed," she assured herself. "But why must one have a dagger i

hem though we may." The men we meet and pass, never to meet again, the ones who because of a passing word

t Jeanne's very feet. Because on the long seat filled with smiling people ther

take this exhibition seriously. Time enough for that. The whole summer was

time until, with a start, she found herself a

I come all this way? Florence is w

bus, she went gliding b

good friend seated in a camp chair, watching

rawled. "I've been sitting here half

, thousands of miles, to view the wonders of this place. And who can blame them? But, after all, when they are

es. It

y. "I have found such a charm of a pl

stopped. See, all the lights a

tower went dark, there a fiery fountain became a well of blackn

the world!" Jeanne sa

ak of? Is it far?" Flor

es, ve

of seeing and hearing. A lo

nlight!" Jeanne clasped her hands.

all but deserted. Here a belated visitor hurried toward a gateway. Th

in many years Indians were camping on Chicago's water front. The wavering

mporary homes of other wild men from faraway l

t had caught and held the li

ures, standing out black against the sky, seemed huge beasts come to

f this, Jeanne quickened

xclaimed. "Do

ht, hurried forward twenty st

d. "Can it be? Yes, perhaps. S

There is

Florence pressed clo

to the elbow. But surely she was not a regular scrub woman! Seldom had Florence seen a more beautiful face. She was young, too, surely not yet twenty. Cheeks aglow with natural b

e to come in?"

swer, the girls foun

ams ran from one end to the other of the paneled ceiling. At one side was a curious sort o

orence's face, the girl said: "

rence knew at once that this girl

man, Abe Lincoln, sat and talked for long hours to a girl with hair like corn tassels in

lorence whispered to herself. "Little wonder! Coming from the

'd like to sit here by the fire. I

, "surely you do not have to

the mountains of Kentucky. This is the Lincoln group. And Abraham Lincoln, our great President, came from the mo

"Come back here and you shall see tho

silently. Standing there, bathed in the golden moonlight, we

in which the great President was born; no, not quit

stick chimney, a clay floor. He was born there, the great President. He wa

orence w

r companion's arm. "What is t

very old hearse. Perhaps it is the one that

hrank back. "A hears

"Let's go and sit by th

corn bread, the sort we make in the mountains, baked in an oven under t

lace where Abe Lincoln and Ann Rutledge had mad

at the fire. But try as she might, Jeanne could not quite drive from her

old herself. A sign of w

ous. Buried in strained honey which, Jensie Crider assured them, came from a bee

is the home of Abe Lincoln in Indiana and the other, that one built o

coals glowed. Behind them, down the long room, all was shrouded in darkness. And still i

spoke at last. "Why are you

y serious. "And if my hero never failed, how cou

ve the little cabin where he was born. I was born in just

opened wide. "And is

e two rooms and two

iful in the mountains in the springtime. When the dogwood blossoms are like drifting snow on the hillsides, when little stream

here some time? You two?" H

bout the girl and kissing her apple-red cheek. "Yes, inde

darkness played hide and seek with little strea

orner disturbed the silence with

ock made a curious noise like a very old man cl

feet. "Two o'clock! This is my hou

mbraced the mountain girl. "

hensive look behind her. She was thinking still of the hearse in the moonlight. A