of people carried the canoe into the
hotel. A telegram was soon received from the superintendent of the
railroad at Newbern, inviting me to a free ride to the city in the first
train of the following morning.

The reader who has followed me since I left the chilly regions of the
St. Lawrence must not have his patience taxed by too much detail, lest
he should weary of my story and desert my company. Were it not for this
fear, it would give me pleasure to tell how a week was passed in
Newbern; how the people came even from interior towns to see the paper
canoe; how some, doubting my veracity, slyly stuck the blades of their
pocket-knives through the thin sides of the canoe, forgetting that it
had yet to traverse many dangerous inlets, and that its owner preferred
a tight, dry boat to one punctured by knives. Even old men became
enthusiastic, and when I was absent from my little craft, an
uncontrollable ambition seized them, and they got into the frail shell
as it rested upon the floor of a hall, and threatened its destruction.
It seemed impossible to make one gentleman of Newbern understand that
when the boat was in the water she was resting upon all her bearings,
but when out of water only upon a thin strip of wood.

"By George," said this stout gentleman in a whisper to a friend, "I told
my wife I would get into that boat if I smashed it."

"And what did the lady say, old fellow?" asked the friend.

"O," he replied, "she said, 'Now don't make a fool of yourself, Fatness,
or your ambition may get you into the papers,'" and the speaker fairly
shook with laughter.

* * * * *

While at Newbern, Judge West and his brother organized a grand hunt, and
the railroad company sent us down the road eighteen miles to a wild
district, where deer, coons, and wild-fowl were plentiful, and where we
hunted all night for coons and ducks, and all day for deer. Under these
genial influences the practical study of geography for the first time
seemed dull, and I became aware that, under the efforts of the citizens
of Newbern to remind me of the charms of civilized society, I was, as a
travelling geographer, fast becoming demoralized.

Could I, after the many pleasures I was daily enjoying, settle down to a
steady pull and one meal a day with a lunch of dry crackers; or sleep on
the floor of fishermen's cabins, with fleas and other little annoyances
attendant thereon? Having realized my position, I tore m