The Best of the Fair
Elementary: Grades 3–4
Story
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The Best of the Fair
The whole world was watching Chicago in the spring of 1893. The young city was growing fast. Thousands of people moved to Chicago every day to work in its stockyards and factories. Tall buildings were sprouting higher and higher, even to eighteen floors. On the lakefront south of the city, the biggest fair the world had ever seen was taking shape. The fair would show America and its inventions to the world, and people in Chicago were excited to be the center of attention.
Nine-year-old Lily and her friends couldn't wait for the fair to open. Every day at school, they shared news about the fair. "I heard it will be the most beautiful city ever," Lily's friend Sarah whispered in class.
Lily disagreed, "It's a fair, not a city. It's the World's Columbian Exposition," she pronounced carefully.
"But it will be as big as a city, and cleaner and nicer than any city in the country," Sarah insisted.
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"My dad said that it will be lit up at night so that it looks like daytime!" Frances said.
Lily whispered: "My grandfather said there is going to be a giant wheel that you can ride into the sky," her eyes growing wide with excitement, and a little bit of fear.
"I can't believe it," Frances shook her head. The girls silently imagined it all.
There were rumors that construction on the fair was running late, especially since the winter had been so cold and snowy. So much snow fell one week that some of the buildings' roofs fell down.
Months before, Lily's grandfather took Lily and her little brother Joseph to the fairground. It was little more than a mucky swamp that had a smell that made Lily feel a bit ill. It was hard to believe that the White City, as people called it, could rise from such an unpleasant place. Maybe the fair wouldn't open on time. Maybe it wouldn't be as wonderful as everyone hoped.
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