beauty of the place, we were not deterred from sleeping there by being
told that a great annual horse-fair was to be held there, but to secure
rooms we telegraphed for them the day before. At the telegraph station
they took upon themselves to say, there was no room at the established
hotels, but that a new one on the "European plan" had been opened the
day before, where we could be taken in; at this we greatly rejoiced, but
to our dismay on arriving, we found its existence ignored by every one,
and we were almost in despair when we bethought ourselves to go to the
telegraph office, where we were directed to a small new _cabaret_, whose
only merit was that we, being its first occupants, found everything most
perfectly fresh and clean; but having been only opened that day, and the
town being very full, everything was in disorder, and there were but two
bedrooms for papa, myself, William, and Thrower.[2] It became an anxious
question how to appropriate them, as there was but one bed in one of the
rooms, and two in the other. However, it was finally arranged, that papa
and William should sleep in the double-bedded room, and Thrower and I
together in the single bed. We called Thrower a _lady_ of the party, and
made her dine with us, for had they known she was only a "help," she
might probably have fared badly.

After getting some dinner, at which the people are never at a loss in
America, any more than in France, we sallied forth to see the town, and
were exceedingly pleased with its appearance. Nothing could be brighter
or fresher than it looked, and the flags and streamers across the
street, and general lighting up, were foreign-looking and picturesque.
Although the town is but small compared with those we had just left, the
shops were spacious and well filled, and the things in them of a good
quality. Hearing that there was a meeting at the City Hall, we went to
it, little expecting to find such a splendid room. In order to reach it,
we had to pass through a corridor, where the names of the officers of