rable distance upon only two, while
those on the upper side are spinning round in the air, and the whole
affair inclines at a right angle toward a bottomless gulf of mud, it is
rather difficult for a nervous person to heed the injunction.

Miselle did not shriek this time; but she fancies the "sable score of
fingers four remain on the" arm "impressed," to which she clung during
the ordeal.

Another plunge, a lurch, a twist, a sharp descent, and the breathless
horses halted on the bank of a stream whose shallow waters were crowded
with flatboats, generally laden with oil.

"Here is the packet-boat," remarked Mr. Williams, with mischievous
smile, as he lifted his charge from the "hack-carriage," and led her
toward one of these boats, a trifle dirtier than the rest, with planks
laid across for seats, and several inches of water in the bottom. In
shape and size it much resembled the mud-scows navigating the waters of
Back Bay, Boston, and was propelled by a gigantic paddle at either end.

Miselle's lingering vision of a neat little steamboat with a comfortable
cabin died away; and she placed herself without remark upon the board
selected for her, accepting from her attentive companion the luxury of a
bit of plank for her feet,--an invidious distinction, regarded with much
disapproval by her fellow-passengers.

The sad and homesick lady was again Miselle's nearest neighbor, and now
found her tongue in expressions of dismay and apprehension so vehement
and sincere that her auditor hardly knew whether to weep with her or
smile at her.

Fifty luckless souls, more or less decently clothed in bodies, having
been crowded upon the raft, the shore-line was cast off, and she drifted
magnificently out into the stream, and stuck fast about a rod from the
landing.

The most terrific oaths, the most strenuous exertion of the paddles,
failing to move her, "a team" was loudly called for by the irate
passengers, and presently appeared in the shape of two horses with a
small blue boy perched upon one of them. These were hitched to the
forward part of the boat, and the swearing and pushing recommenced, with
an accompaniment of slashing blows upon the backs of the unfortunate
horses, who strained and plunged, but all to no effect, until another
boat appeared round the bend, slowly towed up against the stream by two
more horses with a placid driver, whose less placid wife sat upon a
throne of oil-barrels in the centre of the craft, alte