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I had had a long day already, but it was too early to quit work, with only one half dollar of my own in my pocket. It was Saturday in the evening the landlady would come. I must try a little longer. I went out along Columbus Avenue, a popular route for bicyclists at that time. The bicycle stores all along the way looked promising to me.
Then a line of bicyclists came into view, five youths, with backs bent and heads down, making fast time. On they came with a rush and whirr, the boy in front pointing in toward the Half Way House. The line of glistening, flying wheels aimed itself fair at Colonel Witham's dog, who roused himself and stood, growling hoarsely, with ears set back and tail between his legs.
"Never mind," returned our hero, with a laugh, "wait till you see the bride; she will more than make up for the shortcomings of the groom. Adieu! au revoir!" They pushed off, and now began a race against time, which, in the matters at least of perseverance, persistency, hard labour, and determination, beat all the records of bicyclists and horsemen from the beginning of time.
The clean streets, the walks between rows of trees for pedestrians, the lanes for bicyclists, the paths through tiny forests, right in Paris, for equestrians, and on each side the loveliest trees trees everywhere except where there are fountains but what is the use of trying to describe a beauty which has staggered braver pens than mine, and which, after all, you must see to appreciate?
It was more surprising that she should know of the existence of Spaakenberg, of which many Dutch bicyclists who pride themselves on their knowledge, have never heard. Naturally we determined to persevere, more than ever eager for a sight of the strange fishing-village, and a glimpse of the Zuider Zee. "But what shall we do if we find the road forbidden, and we're too far off to walk?" Nell asked.
Coming in out of the country stillness, the noise and rush of the big city seemed appalling. Fierce electric trams dashed clanging and flashing in all directions, making a pandemonium worse than Chicago or the streets of Paris. Horses and carts darted across the glittering tracks under our noses, bicyclists spun between our car and lumbering hotel omnibuses, and hadn't an inch to spare.
At first I thought it a new addition to my troubles, and then very slowly I saw the opportunity. I slipped down the bank and made ready to cross. I almost blundered into one of the bicyclists. He cried out and fell off his machine, but I didn't wait to investigate. A sudden access of strength came to me and I darted into the woods on the farther side.
Quiz and one or two other of the bicycle enthusiasts attempted to follow one or the other of the two packs; but they avoided the road so completely that the bicyclists soon lost them from sight, and returned to watch the finish.
Children with their nurses, lovers, bicyclists who have left their wheels behind, excursionists fortunately headed towards this spot in their one available hour an endless procession, tramp by on the rough, wave-lapped margin, never wearing it smooth. Amused by the unconsciousness of the reviewed, I found myself unexpectedly classed with the world's majority.
I looked, and there along the top of my hill I saw a long line of bicyclists in khaki. "What are you doing here?" I asked, a little alarmed. For a moment I thought that if the English had returned, something was going to happen right here. "English scouts," he replied. "Colonel Snow's division, clearing the way for the advance.
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