ents, and got into bed. Strange, perhaps, to
say, he soon fell into a sleep, deeper and more refreshing than any
he had for a long time enjoyed. It may be that the excitement of his
system was worked off by rapid motion, and exposure to the night air
and rain, or that nature, unable longer to endure it, sunk beneath
the tension. It was not until a late hour he arose, when he found
breakfast awaiting him. After the usual greetings, Faith said:

"Here is your penknife, father, which Felix found lying on the path
this morning. You must have lost it from your pocket."

Mr. Armstrong took the knife, without reply, and, when unobserved,
dropped it into the fire.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Cities humming with a restless crowd
Sordid as active, ignorant as loud,
Whose highest praise is that they live in vain,
The dupes of pleasure, or the slaves of gain.

COWPER.

We have a little anticipated the order of events for the purpose of
presenting more clearly the details of the story, it being after the
departure of the Solitary and Pownal that some of them occurred. The
favorable wind for which the packet Calypso had waited for two or
three days at last came, and with a flowing sheet the good sloop sped
over the waters of the Severn.

The means of communication between Hillsdale and the commercial
capital were very different in those days from the present. Instead
of the fine steamboats and railroad cars, which now connect the
two places, the mode of travelling was by sailing vessels and stage
coaches. The latter were the surer--but not the more popular. In the
wintry months, when the navigation of the river was unimpeded by ice,
the condition of the roads was such that, in spite of the dreariness
of water transit, at that season, the packets were able to maintain
a fair rivalship with the coaches, while, in the summer, the latter
stood but little chance in the competition, but were almost entirely
deserted. To this result the comfortable cabins of the coasters,
designed for passengers (spacious and satisfactory for those times,
however the refined effeminacy of the present generation might sneer
at them), and the good fare they furnished, not a little contributed.
The Calypso was one of the finest of the line of packets to which she
belonged, and provided with every convenience that could be desired.
She was a sloop of some ninety or one hundred tons, with a tall mast,
that, to the timid eye of a landsman, seemed