hbor's wagon going to Newburgh, that she might bid her friend good
by and watch her set sail on what seemed must be the most wonderful of
journeys.

She was to have returned home as she had come; but when the steamer was
on the point of leaving an impulse had seized her to travel thus
herself, if only for the brief distance between this landing and the one
nearer her own home. She had a few cents in her purse and hoped they
would be enough to pay her fare; and now when they were already moving
down the stream and her familiar mountain-top came into view, she made a
wild dart toward the stewardess, shouting:

"Ma'am, please, ma'am, take mine! I've got to get off the next place
and--and--I mustn't be left!"

Fanny picked up the camp-chair Alfy had stumbled over, remarked in a
soothing voice, "Plenty of time, little gal, oceans of time, oceans of
time," and glanced at the money so suddenly thrust into her already
crowded palm.

"Four cents, little gal? Hardly enough. Fifteen is the regular fare. All
you got, sissy? Look and see."

The tone was kind but the statement sounded like a knell in poor
Alfaretta's ears. Thousands of times she had watched the many boats pass
up and down the river, but only once had she been upon any and that was
a row-boat. It had been the dream of her life to voyage, as she was
doing now, far and away beyond those Highlands, that seemed to meet and
clasp hands across the mighty stream, and see the wonderful world that
lay beyond. For the boats always disappeared around that projecting
point of rock and forest, and so she knew that the mountains did not
meet but merely seemed so to do. Well, of course, she wasn't to find out
about them to-day. She knew that quite well, because her own landing was
on this side the "Point" and she could go no further. Indeed, could she
now go even so far?

"Fifteen cents! My heart!--I--I--What can I do? Will the captain drop
me--in the--river? Will--"

The stewardess was very busy. People were watching her a little
anxiously because of her indifferent handling of her money and the
tickets she had not hurried to bring; and the sudden terrified clutch at
her skirts which Alfy gave set her tripping among the crowded chairs and
made her answer, crossly:

"For goodness sake, girl, keep out from under foot! If you haven't the
money go to your friends and get it!"

"Friends! I haven't got any!" cried Alfaretta, and flung her skirt over
her face and herself down