14000 MILES 



until ten o'clock in the morning. While waiting for the 

 final shower, we discussed our route for the day, and 

 somehow inclination got the better of wisdom, and we 

 left the old post road for one which we were told would 

 take us near the river. When shall we learn that river 

 roads are rarely near the river? We hope we learned it 

 for life that day, for repentance set in early, and has not 

 ceased yet, because of our compassion for Charlie. 



The roads grew heavier every hour, and the twenty- 

 six miles seemed endless. We scarcely saw the river, 

 and the outline of the Catskills was all there was to 

 divert us. We will touch as briefly as possible on the 

 dinner at Tivoli. "Driving up the Hudson must be 

 charming," our friends wrote us with envy, but we forgot 

 its charms when we were placed at the table which the 

 last members of the family were just leaving, and the 

 "boiled dish" was served. We were near the river, how- 

 ever, for which we had sacrificed comfort for the day. 

 We survived the ordeal, smothering our smiles at the 

 misery our folly had brought us, and with renewed avow- 

 als that we would never be enticed from a straightfor- 

 ward course by a river road again, we went on our 

 wretched way. Thunder clouds gathered and broke over 

 the Catskills, but the grumbling thunder was all that 

 crossed the river to us. The fact that somehow the river 

 was to be crossed, and exactly how we knew not, did not 

 make us any happier. You may remember Charlie is 

 particular about ferries. 



Is there no end to this dragging through the mud, we 

 thought, as the showers threatened, the night came on 

 and no one was near to tell us whether we were right or 



115 



