gear, and giving each wheel two or three smart raps with a hammer, to
see if it had a clear and natural ring. These cars had lately arrived
from a distant city, and must undergo a careful scrutiny before they
are again used. If any break or flaw is discovered, the car is sent
out to the repair-shop. On another track, the men were making up the
next outward train. The particular baggage and passenger cars that
were to be used, had to be separated from the others, and arranged in
their proper order. Another track was kept clear, for the train that
was soon to arrive. Two or three locomotives, outside of the depot,
were fizzing and hissing, occasionally moving back or forward, with a
loud coughing noise, or changing from one track to another.

The bell of the looked-for train was at length heard. The engine, as
it approached, was switched upon a side-track, but the cars, from which
it had been detached, kept on their course until the brakes brought
them to a stand in the depot. The passengers now swarmed forth by
hundreds--a curious and motley crowd of men, women, and children;
good-looking people, and ill-looking ones; the fine lady in silk, and
the rough backwoods-man in homespun; the middle-aged woman in black,
with three trunks and four bandboxes, and the smooth-faced dandy, whose
sole baggage was a slender cane.

The cars were at length emptied of their living freight, and most of
the passengers had secured their baggage. Those who wished to ride,
had mostly engaged seats in the various hacks and coaches, whose
drivers accosted every passenger, as he got out of the cars, with their
invitations to "ride up." Alfred and Oscar now started to look after
the stage-coach in which they rode to the depot. They found it loaded
with passengers and baggage, and the driver was talking with two small
lads, of from twelve to thirteen years of age.

"Here, Alf," said the driver, "you are just the fellow I want, but I
thought you had gone. These boys want to go to the hotel, but I have
n't room to take them. They say they had just as lief walk, and if you
'll let them go with you, I 'll take their trunk along."

This was readily agreed to. The driver made room for the trunk on the
top of the coach, and the young strangers started for the hotel, in
company with Alfred and Oscar. As they walked along, they grew quite
sociable. The two new-comers,--who, by the way, were quite respectable
in their appearance,--stated