CROSSING THE FERRY. 21 



thing that was not simply secured by lock and key. 

 Oh, passengers to come ! do not nail up and cord your 

 boxes, or temper may tempt you to say things that had 

 better be left alone ! The Custom-house official was, 

 however, very civil, and I got through my examination 

 without much difficulty. Some remarks fell from him as 

 to the number of my guns ; but at last a comfortable fly 

 or hack carriage, much smarter than those that ply for 

 hire in England, received my property, and I cast my 

 self into it with a desire to be driven as quickly as 

 possible to the Clarendon Hotel, New York. 



We had not progressed far, when the driver pulled 

 up, and dismounting from his box and opening a win 

 dow, most civilly presented me with one of the morning 

 papers. " Uncommonly attentive," I muttered; "this 

 man is an exception to the general rule of his class in 

 the United States," and I commenced to read the news. 

 I was very soon recalled to the knowledge that my horse 

 was no longer in action, for, on hearing a whistle, and, 

 looking from the window, I perceived my civil friend 

 operatically indulging in idleness, from which I tartly 

 aroused him by a rather angry question, of " Why 

 the devil we didn't go on?" "We are going on," he 

 replied; "we're half over the river." On this unex 

 pected announcement (for all had been so smooth and 

 quiet that I had no idea we had driven into a steamer), 

 I got out of my carriage and went into the bows of the 

 great broad-bottomed ferry-boat, to enjoy a view of the 

 approach to the city. The prospect on that sunny day was 

 a very pretty and a bustling one, an amusing one, from 

 a variety of common-place things, rather than a grand 

 one, for the city is not remarkable for its position, save 

 that it stands to all intents and purposes on an island, 



