Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/81

Rh whilst they continued to go on commending their own boats and abusing each other's.

“What is the meaning of this?” said I to Mr. Downing, who smiled quietly, and replied: “Here is an opposition. Two vessels are emulous for passengers; and these fellows are hired by the two parties to puff their boats. They act this part every day, and it means nothing at all.”

I observed, also, that whilst they cast the most ferocious glances at each other, there was frequently a smile on their lips at the ready abuse which they poured out against each other's boats, probably alike innocent, and alike safe, the one as the other; and the people around them laughed also, or did not trouble themselves the least about their contention. I saw that the whole thing was a comedy, and wondered only how they could endure to play it so often.

Mr. Downing had already made choice of his boat: and we had not long been on board before the captain sent to offer “Miss Bremer and her friends” free passage by the steamer as well as by the railway of the Hudson. And thus by means of my good name and American politeness, we sailed down the Hudson in the warm, calm summer air. But the brickmaker, Mr. A., who had already declared himself as my friend, had brought me beautiful flowers, invited me to his villa by the Hudson, and discovered some good phrenological developments in my forehead, here seized upon me, and conducted me to his wife, who introduced me to a poet, whose verses, she maintained I must have read; and the poet introduced three ladies, and the three ladies various other ladies and gentlemen. I became, as it were, walled in, felt as hot as if in an oven, and fled out of the saloon to my silent friend on deck, upbraiding him because he had given me up as a prey to the natives of the country. Nevertheless, I very much liked my friend the brickmaker, who is a