dear," to make the illusion quite perfect.

Why I was sent to a steamboat office for car tickets, is not for me to
say, though I went as meekly as I should have gone to the Probate
Court, if sent. A fat, easy gentleman gave me several bits of paper,
with coupons attached, with a warning not to separate them, which
instantly inspired me with a yearning to pluck them apart, and see what
came of it. But, remembering through what fear and tribulation I had
obtained them, I curbed Satan's promptings, and, clutching my prize, as
if it were my pass to the Elysian Fields, I hurried home. Dinner was
rapidly consumed; Joan enlightened, comforted, and kissed; the dearest
of apple-faced cousins hugged; the kindest of apple-faced cousins'
fathers subjected to the same process; and I mounted the ambulance,
baggage-wagon, or anything you please but hack, and drove away, too
tired to feel excited, sorry, or glad.

CHAPTER II

A FORWARD MOVEMENT.

As travellers like to give their own impressions of a journey, though
every inch of the way may have been described a half a dozen times
before, I add some of the notes made by the way, hoping that they will
amuse the reader, and convince the skeptical that such a being as Nurse
Periwinkle does exist, that she really did go to Washington, and that
these Sketches are not romance.

New York Train--Seven P.M.--Spinning along to take the boat at New
London. Very comfortable; much gingerbread, and Mrs. C.'s fine pear,
which deserves honorable mention, because my first loneliness was
comforted by it, and pleasant recollections of both kindly sender and
bearer. Look much at Dr. H.'s paper of directions--put my tickets in
every conceivable place, that they may be get-at-able, and finish by
losing them entirely. Suffer agonies till a compassionate neighbor
pokes them out of a crack with his pen-knife. Put them in the inmost
corner of my purse, that in the deepest recesses of my pocket, pile a
collection of miscellaneous articles atop, and pin up the whole. Just
get composed, feeling that I've done my best to keep them safely, when
the Conductor appears, and I'm forced to rout them all out again,
exposing my precautions, and getting into a flutter at keeping the man
waiting. Finally, fasten them on the seat before me, and keep one eye
steadily upon the yellow torments, till I forget all about them, in
chat with the gentleman who shares my seat. Having heard complaints of
the absurd way in whi