he car occupied by myself and three others led the van, yet the first
intimation we got of the break-down of our tender was our running foul
of it with a bump that fairly unshipped us all, pitching the occupiers
of the hind-seats head-on into the laps of those _vis-a-vis_ to them.
Happily, this was the worst of the present mischance: the engine was
speedily arrested, a sound axle drawn from the near car to replace the
one fractured, myself and the others belonging to the carriage thus
hauled out of the line were stowed in, as supernumeraries, elsewhere,
and, after a delay, of some forty minutes, off we bowled again.

Halting for a few moments at Bordentown, where the Delaware steamer
waits when the river is practicable, it now spread away below us in a
solid mass; and we pursued our journey by the railroad provided for such
seasons so far as it was at this time completed, that is, for some eight
or nine miles farther on. This point achieved, we discovered a group of
the clumsy-looking stage-coaches of the country, to the number of
twelve, each having a team of four horses, ready harnessed, standing
amongst the trees below.

The cold was by this time extreme; bustle was the word, therefore,
amongst all parties,--drivers, porters, and passengers; and in a quarter
of an hour the transfer was completed, the luggage packed, the people
arranged, and the caravan in motion. The place had quite a wild, lone,
forest air; and it was a curious scene to view the bustle, and hear the
noise, so uncongenial to the spot, and no less so to observe the coaches
wheeling about amongst the trees as each Jehu sought to make the best of
his way into the lane at a little distance.

Miserably uncomfortable as the driver's seat is before these machines,
I, as usual where the course was strange to me, requested leave to share
it with him. I had cast about to select a team; and was soon seated,
well rolled in broadcloth and bear-skin, behind four dark bays that
might have done credit to a better judgment.

We soon got into a very narrow lane, through which lay the first few
miles. In this the ruts, or track, as it is here called, was over a foot
deep: on either side grew trees, thick and low-branched; therefore my
companion and I had as much as we could do to avoid broken heads and
keep the track. I looked impatiently, after practising this dodging
exercise some time, for the great road which the driver told me was "a
bit further ahead;" and at