“Yes, dear; and to Him let us ever give all the glory and the praise.  Oh, may our nation always serve God and trust in him! then no foe shall ever prevail against her.”

“I hope we do, grandma,” said little Elsie, “for on a quarter papa gave me the other day, I saw the words, ‘In God we trust.’”

“Oh!” cried Ned at that moment, “the folks are coming!  I see them there on the Peristyle—­papa and mamma, Grandpa and Grandma Dinsmore, Lu and the others.”

“Yes, and the boat is waiting for them,” added Elsie “and see, they are getting in.”

“Oh, I am so glad,” said Grace, “though they are earlier than usual.”

“Yes,” said Grandma Elsie, “I suppose because it is Saturday evening and we are all so tired with going and sight-seeing that we need to get early to bed and rest that we may not be too weary to enjoy the coming Sabbath day.”

“I ’spect so,” said Ned, and running forward as his father and the others stepped upon the deck, “Papa,” he asked, “did you come home soon to get ready to keep Sunday?”

“Yes,” was the reply; “we all need a good rest that we may be able to enjoy God’s holy day and spend it in his service.”

“Where have you been since we left you, Lu?” asked Grace, as her sister took a seat by her side.

“Papa took us to look at the Krupp gun,” was the reply.  “It is a wonderful one; weighs two hundred and forty-eight thousand pounds; just think! one hundred and twenty-four tons!  It was certainly a great undertaking to bring it all the way from Essen, Germany, to Chicago.  They told us that at Hamburg and at Baltimore great cranes were used, one of which could lift a sixty-five ton locomotive, to lift the gun to the trucks that were to carry it on the railroad; they had to put eight trucks under it, fastening two together, then the two pair together, and so on till they had the eight all well fastened to each other, when they laid the gun on them and started it off.

“And only think, Gracie, it takes half a ton of powder and costs one thousand two hundred and fifty dollars to fire that great gun once.  We saw the steel plate, sixteen inches thick, through which a twelve-inch shot had been fired.  It had cracked the plate and thrown the upper corner half a yard away.  I forgot to say the projectile fired from that gun weighs a ton, and goes sixteen miles.”

“Oh,” cried Grace, “that’s just dreadful!  I hope there will never be a war where such terrible guns will be used—­never any more at all; but that very soon, as the Bible says, the people ’shall beat their swords into plough-shares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.’”

“Yes,” said Grandma Elsie, overhearing her, “that will be a blessed time.”

“Yes, indeed!” said Lucilla.

“Where else did you go?” asked Grace.

“Oh, we have been promenading along the lake shore, sitting down now and then on the seats to watch the many boats of various sorts and sizes, our own among the rest; and now, here we are to stay for the night, I suppose.  I must, at least, for papa has said so.”