to the shore, could not move away. The wheels,
however, produced a great commotion in the water, covering the surface
of it with rushing foam, and at the same time the steam was issuing from
the escape-pipe with a roaring sound, which seemed to crown and cover,
as it were, without at all subduing the general din.

Rollo had one very extraordinary proof of the deep and overwhelming
character of the excitement of this scene, in an accident that occurred
in the midst of it, which, for a moment, frightened him extremely. The
pier where the steamer was lying was surrounded by other piers and
docks, all crowded with boats and shipping. It happened that not very
far from him there lay a small vessel, a sloop, which had come down the
North River, and was now moored at the head of the dock. There was a
family on board this sloop, and while Rollo was by chance looking that
way, he saw a small child, perhaps seven or eight years old, fall off
from the deck of the sloop into the water. The child did not sink, being
buoyed up by her clothes; and as the tide was flowing strong at that
time, an eddy of the water carried her slowly along away from the sloop
toward the shore. The child screamed with terror, and Rollo could now
and then catch the sound of her voice above the roaring of the steam.
The sailors on board the sloop ran toward the boat, and began to let it
down. Others on the shore got ready with poles and boat hooks, and
though they were probably shouting and calling aloud to one another,
Rollo could hear nothing but now and then the scream of the child. At
length a man came running down a flight of stone steps which led from
the pier to the water in a corner of the dock, throwing off his coat and
shoes as he went down. He plunged into the water, swam out to the child,
seized her by the clothes with one hand, and with the other swam back
with her toward the steps, and there they were both drawn out by the
bystanders together.

[Illustration: THE RESCUE.]

This scene, however, exciting as it would have been under any other
circumstances, produced very little impression upon the great crowd that
was engaged about the steamer. A few boys ran that way to see how the
affair would result. Some others, standing on the decks of the ship or
on the pier, turned and looked in the direction of the child. Otherwise
every thing went on the same. The carriages went and came, the people
walked eagerly about among each other, exchanging fa