The Friendship Doll by Kirby Larson Read Free Book Online Page A

closer for a better look at the pamphlet, Mabel’s enthusiasm making her feel all the more guilty that she was going to the fair and Mabel wasn’t. She thought about all the times Mr. Hedquist had brought back souvenirs from his business trips, not just for Mabel but for her. It always made Lois feel like a little part of her could claim having been to Pittsburgh or Cleveland or even New York City. She’d about fainted clean away when he brought her that handkerchief from Des Moines. It had a picture of Amelia Earhart’s plane, the
Canary
, printed on each corner. That had been the last souvenir he’d brought her because, shortly after that business trip, the bank he’d been working for closed down.
    “Did you hear me?” Mabel asked. “I said, did you see this?” She pointed to the first page of the pamphlet, whichwas titled: “The Chicago World’s Fair: What Will It Cost You?” Everything was spelled out. Fifty cents admission for adults, a quarter for children. Mabel read aloud: “All important Exhibit buildings, admission free, such as Hall of Science, Travel and Transport, General Exhibits, Hall of States, and fifty other buildings.” She set the pamphlet down, shaking her head. “That’s a lot to see for a quarter!”
    “Look at this!” Lois hopped to her knees. There, on the next page, was something straight out of
Buck Rogers
. “The Sky Ride. Sky. Ride.” She nudged Mabel. “Read that part!”
    Mabel did as Lois asked. “Two towers,” she read, “higher than any building in Chicago—stand like giant sentinels, 1,850 feet apart, seeming to guard the Hall of Science on the Mainland, and the Hall of Social Science across the Lagoon. They are the support of the spectacular Sky Ride, great thrill feature of A Century of Progress. Six hundred and twenty-eight feet they rise into the skies, with observation floors atop them. On a 200-foot level the rocket cars offer you a beautiful and, mayhap, thrilling ride across the lagoon.”
    “A
thrilling
ride across the lagoon,” Lois repeated, then sighed. “Just think—zooming two hundred feet above the ground. It would be like flying!” She got goose bumps thinking about it.
    “I don’t think you’d best mention flying to your aunt,” Mabel said. “Or anyone else, for that matter. You don’t want your mother to change her mind about letting you go.”
    Lois grinned. “Roger and out.” She read farther down the page. “Look what it says here. The ride costs twenty-five cents.” She flipped the pamphlet closed. Her grin faded. “I guess that lets me out.”
    “If I had a quarter, I’d give it to you,” Mabel said. “So you could ride across the sky.”
    Lois hugged her. “You’re the best,” she said.
    When Lois and Mom sat down that night—without Dad—to plates of lima beans for the fourth night in a row, Lois couldn’t eat. Her insides were plumb full of excitement about going to the fair.
    “Did you know the Sky Ride towers are over six hundred feet tall?” Lois pushed a lima bean around her plate. “And the rocket cars are named after famous people?”
    “They are?” Mom buttered a slice of bread and passed it to Lois.
    Lois had been sitting on the pamphlet. She pulled it out. “Like Gracie Allen. And George Burns.”
    Mom got up to reheat the afternoon’s coffee. “I wouldn’t ride in any of those things, no matter who they’re named after.” She shivered. “You’d be so high, people on the ground would look like cabbage worms.”
    “I wouldn’t mind that,” said Lois. She remembered Mabel’s advice and decided not to say anything more. But she couldn’t stop thinking about it: soaring along like a bird, with clouds drifting by under your nose. Being able to see far beyond Chicago. Maybe even to Kalamazoo! Of course, the rocket cars were connected to the Sky Ride by cables, so it wouldn’t be
exactly
like flying. But it wouldbe closer to it than jumping off Swansons’ barn with an umbrella!
    She wondered if