r place to obtain information; and, once there, our travellers
soon found themselves in the hands of an intelligent contraband, who
promised to place them safely on the desired ferry boat. As they neared
the dock, a great rock, with an upset wagon for foreground, furnished an
encouraging picture for two lone lady tourists. The boat proved neat and
comfortable, and here again inquiries were made. The very polite captain
had heard of a lake on the Shawangunk mountain, but knew neither its
name nor exact location. He advised them to have their baggage sent to
the little inn at the landing, where they might dine and await a stage
expected to pass in about an hour on its way to New Paltz, a village
nine miles west of the river. At the inn they fancied they must
certainly learn something definite regarding the final object of their
undertaking. A large map of Ulster county hung in the sitting room, and
gave promise of some decided information. Unfortunately, it was not of a
recent edition: a nameless lake on the Shawangunk mountain, about five
miles from New Paltz, seemed to be the object of their search; but the
landlord, who had heard of a lake in that direction, could not tell how
it was to be reached, or whether shelter could there be found in any
decent tenement; his impression was that there had been a public house
on top of the mountain, but that it had recently been destroyed by fire.
Certainties were evidently still unattainable.

Finally, the stage arrived--a vehicle drawn by two horses, and intended
to seat four persons. In it were already two ladies, with bags and
bundles, two trunks, a champagne basket, numberless packages, and about
fifty bottles of soda water, laid in among the straw covering the bottom
of the accommodating conveyance. The driver, a good-natured, intelligent
man, gave our travellers his bench, and arranged a seat for himself and
the champagne basket on a sort of shelf overhanging the tails of the
horses. At the top of the first hill is the village of Houstonville,
where they stopped at the post office to leave the mail, and where two
ladies appeared as claimants for seats in the stage. The driver at first
demurred; but, finding the ladies persistent, he drew forth a board,
and, fastening it at either end to a perpendicular prop, constructed a
third bench, on which the two new passengers took their places.

The stage was by this time more than well packed; but ere long the
process of lightening