Where the bulbs had been grubbed, a park employee was busy planting out cleomes and cosmos from flats driven in from the greenhouses. The plants were already 18-24 inches high and showing little white and pink petals.

A wedding party of 2 dozen or so was gathered at the fountain. As I got closer, I spotted Meta sitting unhappily on her bench while groomsmen and bridesmaids milled around as if she weren’t there. I kept moving toward my spot on the path. Barriers blocked the way to the Boathouse, forcing people to walk across the lawn to get there. Almost all the foot traffic was from west to east.

The day started with 26 cents from the pocket of a thirty-something. Shortly afterward, another young man emptied his pocket of change, then a third. A mixed group of high-schoolers from Louisiana, Kansas, and other exotic states, stopped to hula. Their leader reminded them that buskers, like canoes, are often tipped. Soon all those dimes and quarters were buried beneath a blanket of crumpled singles.

Another school group in blue tee shirts stopped to hula. A mid-teen girl said, “I don’t know how to hula.” I pointed to one of my props, a 4 inch high solar-powered plastic hula girl, and said, “Just move like that.” The hula girl had a hinge at the shoulders, so that when her rigid body moved over a magnet one way, the shoulders moved in the opposite direction. And so the girl, feet together, legs stiff, arms outstretched, mimicked the toy’s action.

I burst out laughing, stopped playing “The Hukilau Song,” and gave a quick demonstration. Now the girl mimicked me. At the end of the dance, the pile of bills rose still higher, with a few bucks contributed by the kids, a few more by their teacher, and even more by the principal.

Groups of kids are great fun. They often start out shy and reluctant (“Not me”), escalate to teasing (“But she will”), and end up negotiating (“I will if you will”). Pretty soon a handful of kids have leis around their necks and are off to the hukilau.

Meta walked by pushing her harp on wheels. “I lost the shade,” she said. For a moment I contemplated moving to center stage, but given the time I’d spent in the sun yesterday, I stayed under my maple, cooled by the breeze off the water.

After 90 minutes, I counted 19 singles and a few dollars in change, amounting to another fine day.