Then they resumed their Herculean efforts till the water came, and then
they got into the wagon, and we drove into the blackberries once more,
where we arrived just in season to escape a thunder-shower, and pile
merrily into one of several coaches waiting to convey passengers in
various directions as soon as the train should come.

It is very selfish, but fine fun, to have secured your own chosen seat
and bestowed your own luggage, and have nothing to do but witness the
anxieties and efforts of other people. The exquisite pleasure we
enjoyed for fifteen minutes, edified at the last by hearing one of our
coachmen call out, "Here, Rosey, this way!"--whereupon a manly voice,
in the darkness, near us, soliloquized, "Respectful way of addressing a
judge of the Supreme Court!" and, being interrogated, the voice
informed us that "Rosey" was the vulgate for Judge Rosecranz; whereupon
Halicarnassus over the rampant democracy by remarking that the
diminutive was probably a term of endearment rather than familiarity;
whereupon the manly voice--if I might say it--snickered audibly in the
darkness, and we all relapsed into silence. But could anything be more
characteristic of a certain phase of the manners of our great and
glorious country? Where are the Trollopes? Where is Dickens? Where is
Basil Hall?

It is but a dreary ride to Lake George on a dark and rainy evening,
unless people like riding for its own sake, as I do. If there are suns
and stars and skies, very well. If there are not, very well too: I
like to ride all the same. I like everything in this world but
Saratoga. Once or twice our monotony was broken up by short halts
before country inns. At one an excitement was going on. "Had a
casualty here this afternoon," remarked a fresh passenger, as soon as
he was fairly seated. A casualty is a windfall to a country village.
It is really worth while to have a head broken occasionally, for the
wholesome stirring-up it gives to the heads that are not broken. On
the whole, I question whether collisions and collusions do not cause as
much good as harm. Certainly, people seem to take the most lively
satisfaction in receiving and imparting all the details concerning
them. Our passenger-friend opened his budget with as much complacence
as ever did Mr. Gladstone or Disraeli, and with a confident air of
knowing that he was going not only to enjoy a piece of good-fortune
himself, but to administer a great gratification to