short time at
the many stations, and all the difference that made to us was that
pretty girls passed through the cars with little bark baskets filled
with fruit and flowers hardly fresher or prettier than their bearers,
who generally sold something to our young companion, for he never
wearied of entertaining us.

Other interests there were none. The scenery was nothing unusual, only
towns, depots, roads, fields, little country houses with barns and
cattle and poultry--all such as we were well acquainted with. If
something new did appear, it was passed before one could get a good look
at it. The most pleasing sights were little barefoot children waving
their aprons or hats as we eagerly watched for them, because that
reminded us of our doing the same thing when we saw the passenger
trains, in the country. We used to wonder whether we should ever do so
again.

Towards evening we came into Berlin. I grow dizzy even now when I think
of our whirling through that city. It seemed we were going faster and
faster all the time, but it was only the whirl of trains passing in
opposite directions and close to us that made it seem so. The sight of
crowds of people such as we had never seen before, hurrying to and fro,
in and out of great depots that danced past us, helped to make it more
so. Strange sights, splendid buildings, shops, people and animals, all
mingled in one great, confused mass of a disposition to continually move
in a great hurry, wildly, with no other aim but to make one's head go
round and round, in following its dreadful motions. Round and round went
my head. It was nothing but trains, depots, crowds--crowds, depots,
trains, again and again, with no beginning, no end, only a mad dance!
Faster and faster we go, faster still, and the noise increases with the
speed. Bells, whistles, hammers, locomotives shrieking madly, men's
voices, peddlers' cries, horses' hoofs, dogs' barking--all united in
doing their best to drown every other sound but their own, and made such
a deafening uproar in the attempt that nothing could keep it out. Whirl,
noise, dance, uproar--will it last forever? I'm so--o diz-z-zy! How my
head aches!

And oh! those people will be run over! Stop the train, they'll--thank
goodness, nobody is hurt. But who ever heard of a train passing right
through the middle of a city, up in the air, it seems. Oh, dear! it's no
use thinking, my head spins so. Right through the business streets! Why,
who ever--!