Page:Maud Howe - Atlanta in the South.djvu/55

 where numbers of booths and ornamented tents flaunted their banners and streamers in the evening air. Here a band of fortune-tellers professed to predict the future of young men and maidens for a small compensation. These gypsy folk had established themselves at the foot of a giant live-oak, whose wide-spreading arms served to shelter them from the rays of the afternoon sun.

A girl tricked out with tinsel and mock jewels beckoned to Margaret and Robert, and with a bold smile dropped them a courtesy and invited them to approach and have their fortune told; but the two passed on unheeding. A wonderful glittering palace, with a retinue of beasts, next attracted their attention,—a pair of elephants, followed by twin ostriches, with dolphins, giraffes, deer, winged horses, goats, unicorns, half the animals of history and fable, slowly gyrating to the strains of some concealed music.

"Will you ride in the great show? Only a nickel apiece!" cried the showman in a voice made harsh by long vociferation. The pair stood back and watched the riders who bestrode the strange creatures. When the number of travellers was complete, the music pealed forth in quicker time, and the whole Noah's ark seemed to take unto itself wings, and flew round and round at a bewildering pace. Beyond the