Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/392

370 for a few days the first week in October. We are going to close the house at Rockley at once, so that we may be  at home when they come.”

“Then this is almost the last excursion of the summer.”

“Yes,” responded Brenda; “for after you go off on Monday, Julia and I will have any amount of packing to do, and I shall not have time for wheeling.”

“Then you must remember that I was part of this last party,” said Arthur, so sentimentally that Brenda darted  ahead of him to join Amy and Julia. During the conversation between Arthur and Brenda, the others had been looking at the bits of handiwork, from amateur photographs  to patchwork quilt, which had been sent in by the wives  and daughters of the farmers of Essex County. They glanced rather hastily at these things, for Mr. Elston  thought it unwise for them to tire themselves, in view of  the walking they must do on the Fair grounds, and the  long homeward ride. They made no effort, therefore, to press through the crowd to see the fruits and vegetables  which the farmers of Essex displayed with much pride. Turning up a side road, not so very far beyond the Hall, they soon came upon the Fair grounds.

“A circus!” exclaimed Julia, as she stood at the entrance, while the boys checked the bicycles.

“I have seen several circuses; but I had no idea that a County Fair was like this.”

“It’s great fun!” replied Brenda; “we can buy peanuts, or do almost anything that we like, as long as cousin Edward is with us.” And suiting the action to the word,