Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/217

Rh brother and sister. There was neither time nor space to say many words in, the smoking iron-horse which was to speed them away along the iron-road stood ready; iron-road, iron-horse, iron-necessity, all were there; the warm heart had neither time nor language; thus we kissed in silence from our inmost hearts, and parted—perhaps, for ever! The Lowells intend to make a journey to Italy next year. I saw them no longer, and was conducted out of the throng in the market to an hotel by a respectable old gentleman. Judge B., under whose care I am to continue my journey. He had presented himself to me at Niagara with a letter of introduction from Mr. E.

This excellent, vigorous, old gentleman, yet quite youthful in spirit, one of the oldest pioneers of the West, and who had taken part in the founding or laying out of many of its most flourishing cities, as Rochester, Lockport, and many others, was quite at home in all the districts through which we were to travel, as far even as Lake Michigan, and for that reason, and also because he was evidently a good and cordial man, I was well-satisfied to have him for my companion.

At the hotel at Buffalo I was again tormented by some new acquaintance with the old, tiresome questions, “How do you like America?” “How do you like the States?” “Does Buffalo look according to your expectations?” To which latter question I replied, that I had not expected anything from Buffalo; but yet, that I must say it struck me as being one of the least excellent cities which I had seen in America. Business! business! appeared to me to be the principal life and character there. But the truth is, that I did not see much of Buffalo.

Towards evening I went on board “The Ocean,” a magnificent three-decked steam-boat, which conveyed me across Lake Erie, frequently a very stormy and dangerous