The girl giggled hysterically. The naturalist was protesting that gulls never nest in such places, and the young man was becoming hopelessly confused, when a fourth figure joined the group. He was clad in garments of the commonest sort--but the girl was at once struck by the fact that he wore a soft roll collar on his flannel shirt, and a huge red silk neckerchief. Moreover, he carried a long whip which he trailed after him in the grass. "Local color at last!" she whispered to her lover. "I know we're going to have a shooting or a cow-boy adventure!" "Well," the new-comer said, "do you go with us, or not, Doc?" "Go with you?" asked the ornithologist. "Go where?" "Tour of the Park?" replied the man with the whip. "I'm having hard work to get a load." "I think," said the person addressed, "that I can finish my inspection of the Park on foot. It is, in fact, surprisingly small, and not at all what I had expected. I have been pacing it off. There are very few acres in it--" "I'll be dog-goned," said the man with the whip, "if he don't think _this_ is the Yellowstone Park! Stranger, look at yon beautiful arch, erected by Uncle Sam out of hexagonal blocks of basalt! That marks the entrance to the Wonderland of the World, a matchless nat'ral park of more'n three thousand square miles, filled with unnat'ral wonders of nature! This is the front yard of the railroad station. It'll take you days and days to do the Park--an' years to do it right." "Oh, in that case," responded the investigator, "of course you may rely upon my joining you!" "I want two more, lady," said the driver. "What say?" "No," said the young man. "We've decided to cut the Park out." "I've changed my mind, I believe," said the girl. "Let's go!" "But I thought--" * * * * * And so the party was made up. It was like one of those strange meetings that take place on shipboard, on the wharves of ports--wherever fate takes men in her hands, shakes them like dice, and throws them on the board--and peeps at them to see what pairs, threes, flushes and other harmonies make up the strength of the cast.