United States, a trip from Boston into New York
state is an everyday affair, scarce worth calling a journey; but to Dr.
Jeremy it was a momentous event, calling the good physician out of a
routine of daily professional visits, which, for twenty years, had not
been interrupted by a week's absence from home, and plunging him at once
into that whirl of hurry, tumult, and excitement, which exists on all
our great routes, especially in the summer season.

The doctor was by nature and habit a social being; never shrinking from
intercourse with his fellow-men, but seeking and enjoying their
companionship. He knew how to adapt himself to the taste of young and
old, rich and poor, and was well acquainted with city life in all its
forms. In the art of travelling, however, he was totally unversed.

Thankful were the party when they were safe on the steamboat; and were
congratulating themselves and each other, when the doctor called from
the other end of the saloon--"Come, come, wife--Gertrude, Emily! what
are you staying down in this confined place for? you'll lose the best
view;" and, coming toward them, he took Gertrude's arm, and would have
hurried her away, leaving Mrs. Jeremy and Emily to follow; but Gertrude
would not trust Emily to ascend the cabin-stairs under any guardianship
but her own, and Mrs. Jeremy immediately engaged the doctor in an
animated discussion as to the advisability of his adopting a straw hat,
which the thoughtful wife had brought from home. By the time the
question was settled, and Emily, at Gertrude's persuasion, had been
induced to change her thin mantilla for a light travelling-cloak, the
boat had proceeded some distance, and when our party gained the head of
the stairs, and looked about them for seats on deck, not a single vacant
bench was to be seen. There was a large number of passengers, nearly all
of whom were collected at the stern of the boat. Dr. Jeremy went in
search of chairs.

"Don't let us stay here," whispered Mrs. Jeremy to Gertrude and Emily.
"Let's go right back before the doctor comes! There are beautiful great
rocking-chairs down in the cabin, without a soul to sit in them, and I'm
sure we ain't wanted here to make up a company. I hate to stand with all
these people staring at us, and crowing to think they've got such nice
places; don't you, Emily?" Mrs. Jeremy just then forgot that Emily could
not see. But Gertrude never forgot it; and, as she stood with her arm
lightly pressed