Now Boris scampered down the block to the next street. There he waited
to go across.

Kachunk, kachunk, kachunk went by an auto;
Clopperty, clopperty, clopperty went by a horse;
Thunk-a-ta, thunk-a-ta, bang, bang went by a truck.

He stood there a long time watching the autos and horses and trucks go
by. And he thought:

"Dear me! dear me!
What shall I do?
The're so many things,
I'll never get through!"

Boris looked at the big policeman who stood in the middle of _this_
street. After a while the big policeman raised his hand and all the
autos and horses and trucks stopped and Boris scampered across and ran
down the block to the next street crossing. And there the same thing
happened again.

Kachunk, kachunk, kachunk went by an auto;
Clopperty, clopperty, clopperty went by a horse;
Thunk-a-ta, thunk-a-ta, bang, bang went by a truck.

"I'll not get much of a walk this way," he thought. "I have to wait and
wait at each corner. And the're so many things I'll never get through."
Just then he saw a street car. "I might take a car," he thought. But
then he saw on the street a long line of cars waiting, waiting to get
through. "It wouldn't do much good," he thought. "They're just like me."

"Dear me! dear me!
What can they do?
The're so many things,
They'll never get through!"

Then he noticed a big hole in the sidewalk. Down the hole went some
steps and down the steps hurried lots and lots of people. "I wonder what
this is?" thought Boris and down the steps he ran.

[Illustration]

At the bottom of the steps there was a big room all lined with white
tile and all lighted with electric lights. On the side was the funniest
little house with a little window in it and a man looking through the
window. Boris watched carefully for he didn't understand. Everyone went
up to the window and gave the man 5 cents and the man handed out a
little piece of blue paper.

"That's a ticket," thought Boris, for he was a very smart little boy.
"These people must be going somewhere." So he reached down in his pocket
and pulled out a nickel. For all he was so little, and so new to New
York, he knew what a 5 cent piece was quite well. He had to stand on
tiptoe to hand the man his nickel and to reach his little blue ticket.
Then he watched again. Everyone dropped this ticket in a funny little
box by a funny little gate and another man moved a handle up and down.
So B