go about and wake up the passengers, that the stage need
not be kept waiting. The large brass door knockers were vigorously
plied, and sometimes quite a commotion was caused by "waking up
the wrong passenger."

In due time the stage made its appearance, with its four spirited
horses, and the baggage was put on. Trunks, which were diminutive
in size compared with those now used, were put on the rack behind,
securely strapped; valises and packages were consigned to the depths
of a receptacle beneath the driver's seat, and bandboxes were put
on the top. The back seat was generally given to ladies and elderly
gentlemen, while young men usually sought a seat on top of the
stage, by the side of the driver. When the passengers had been
"picked up," the stages returned to the stage office, where they
way-bills were perfected and handed to the drivers. As the Old
South clock was striking five, whips were cracked, and the coaches
started at the rate of ten miles an hour, stopping for breakfast
at Timothy Gay's tavern in Dedham, where many of the passengers
visited the bar to imbibe Holland gin and sugar-house molasses--a
popular morning beverage.

Breakfast over, away the stages went over the good turnpike road
at a rapid pace. Those who were fellow passengers, even if strangers
to one another, gradually entered into conversation, and generally
some one of them was able to impart information concerning the
route. Occasionally the stage would rattle into a village, the
driver giving warning blasts upon his long tin horn that he claimed
the right of way, and then dash up to a wayside inn, before which
would be in waiting a fresh team of horses to take the place of
those which had drawn the coach from the previous stopping-place.
Time was always afforded those passengers who desired to partake
of libations at the tavern bar, and old travelers used to see that
their luggage was safe.

Providence was in due time reached, and the procession of stages
whirled along the narrow street beneath the bluff, swaying heavily
with the irregularities of the road. The steamboats lay at India
Point, just below the town, where immense quantities of wood were
piled up, for each boat consumed between thirty and forty cords on
a trip through Long Island Sound.

The stages used to reach India Point about half-past eleven o'clock,
and the boat would start for New York precisely at twelve. There
were no state-rooms, the passengers occupying