e turn of her paddles brought us close enough
to fling a rope, a second drew her very near the shore; the distance was
fearful, but I braced myself for the leap.

"Stand clear!" I called to the score of hackmen.

A little run, a spring,--and I fell upon my feet, rolled over upon my
face, gathered myself to the arms of all the Jehus, and was carried off
bodily by a man with a great knob on his forehead as big as the end of
his whip-handle.

"G'lang! Who-o-o-oh! Swis-s-s!"

I think that I promised that man everything under the sun to catch the
train. I recollect that the knob on his forehead grew black and bulging
as he lashed his horse. I found myself standing up in the cab, screaming
like the driver. We were both insane, and the horse must have been of
the breed of _Pegasus_, for I could feel the vehicle gyrating in the
air. Now we turned a lamp-post, and the glass splintered somewhere; a
dog howled as we drove over his appendage; a woman with a baby gave a
short scream and disappeared into the earth; a policeman gave chase, but
we laughed him to scorn.

Huzza! Here we are! The train stands puffing at the long platform. "Your
bundle, yer honor! Wasn't I the boy to make the keers?" "Didn't I
projuce yer honor in good time, sur?" I only know that I flung a
greenback to the two,--that I vainly besought the ticket agent to give
me no change, but consign it to the first engineer who failed to make
time,--that I wrote on the back of my hat for four hours,--that I
devoured a chicken and as many eggs as she had laid in a lifetime, at
Havre de Grace,--that I leaped upon the platform at Broad and Prime
streets, Philadelphia, at noon,--that I plunged into a cab, and said,
significantly--

"New York Ferry!"

It chafed me to pass through the promenade street of my home-city,
without a moment to spare for my family or friends. The cab-horse
slipped in Chestnut Street, and I went over the rest of the route on
foot, at a dog-trot pace, passing in various quarters for a sportsman, a
professional runner, and a lunatic. I was greatly aggravated between
Amboy and Camden, by persons making inquiries for brothers, sons, and
acquaintances. At last, when I attained the steamer, the Captain kindly
shut me up in his office, and I went on with my narrative till my eyes
were burning and my hands failed in their function. Kill von Kull and
its picturesque shores went by; we emerged into the beautiful bay, and
winding among its buoys, harbo