12 PENIKESE. 



by to where a number of coatless workers were rak- 

 ing the hay, with the utmost diligence, into small, 

 rounded piles, that it might the more easily be pitch- 

 ed upon the cart which should arrive for it. Past 

 these we went, to a large swamp dotted here and 

 there with hummocks where grasses, huge, rough 

 brakes, and delicate ferns grew in luxuriance and 

 abundance; and upon some of them, nearest the 

 track, I could even distinguish wild flowers rearing 

 aloft their slender stems and delicate heads, and tell 

 the species of many of them. Then we came to a 

 long, thickly-wooded stretch, where a forest of trees, 

 large and small, extended far along the track on 

 either side, arching their tops and intermingling 

 their branches as if they would bind us with their 

 mystic spell; but, like a prisoner who would not be 

 bound, we dashed through and by them, only to 

 emerge into the light of still more fields, and still 

 new scenes. Weary with gazing at these, I then, 

 tried to count the telegraph poles as they appeared 

 to whiz by us, or watched the wires as they travelled, 

 or appeared to travel, now up and now down my 

 window, as the height of one pole above another or 

 the inequalities of the road-bed showed themselves. 

 Thus/ amusing myself, now with this scene now with 

 that, we journeyed on, hour after hour, until, at 

 length, the scene materially changed and salt water 

 put in its appearance. Then the houses began to 

 thicken, and the smoke and confused arrangement of 

 a big metropolis loomed in the distance. Presently 

 the train, after passing through a perfect labyrinthine 

 maze of houses, streets, archways, and narrow alley- 

 ways, stopped, and we found ourselves safely landed 

 at the "Hub of the Universe" Boston. 



From Boston we left directly for New Bedford, 

 where we arrived about seven o'clock that evening 

 and immediately engaged rooms for the night. Here 

 the hotel was alive with excitement. Carriages were 

 constantly arriving with guests, mostly students like 

 ourselves, and bent upon the same errand. Men, 



