CHAPTER II
THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL OF DIFFICULTY
THEY drew as near to the edge as they could without being seen. Meg did not understand in the least. Robin was not given to practical jokes, but what he had said sounded rather as if there was a joke somewhere. But she saw Jones and Jerry enter the barn, and saw before they entered that they were deep in talk. It was Jones who was speaking. Jones was Aunt Mathilda's head man, and was an authority on many things.
"There's been exhibitions and fairs all over the world," he was saying, "but there's been nothing like what this will be. It will be a City—that's what it'll be—and all the world is going to be in it. They are going to build it fronting on the water. and bank the water up into lakes and canals, and build places like white palaces beside them and decorate the grounds with statues and palms and flowers and fountains, and
