in amongst them. The concussion was so
great that at least forty of the darkies were knocked off their feet
and thought they were killed by the explosion. Paul landed at New
Orleans, April 27th, finishing a journey of two thousand four hundred
and thirty miles. He was feted and lionized in the Crescent City until
he was in danger of becoming enervated, so he boarded a train for the
north, some thirty pounds less in weight than when he started at Oil
City.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The summer of 1879 was idly spent. Boyton visited the most celebrated
watering resorts of America and enjoyed a well earned good time. As the
autumn leaves began to fall, he was seized with an irresistible desire
to feel himself again afloat, so he turned his attention to the rivers
of the New England States. He went to Boston, made a careful study of
the maps, and concluded to take a voyage on the Merrimac; this river,
with its numerous falls and rapids, he thought would furnish some
excitement. The start was made from Plymouth, New Hampshire, at six
o'clock in the morning of October seventh. The river was too rough for
him to tow the Baby Mine along, a fact which he very much deplored.
Boyton had not paddled many yards from the shore ere he found the water
so shallow that he was compelled to wade quite a distance before
getting fairly under way, then he soon left the cheering crowd in the
distance. About nine o'clock, approaching a bridge, he heard a rumbling
sound. Looking up he beheld the figure of a man and horse outlined
against the sky like a shadow picture. The countryman also discovered
the queer looking figure in the water. He craned his neck, jerked his
arms up and with mouth and eyes wide open slapped the reins on the
horse's back and galloped off at a faster pace than the good
agriculturalists in that locality are wont to ride. He had not read the
newspapers.

An hour later, Paul blew his bugle in front of a farm house that stood
near the river. The people ran to the water's edge and began firing a
broadside of down east interrogatives with such rapidity as to nearly
swamp him.

"Ain't yeou nearly drowned?" "Ain't yeou afeard yeou will be?" "Ain't
yeou hungry?" "Ain't yeou cold?" "Ain't yeou hot?" "Kin yeou keep
awake?" "Ef yeou cain't, would yeou sink?" "Air yeou a orphing?", "Dew
yeou like the water?" "What circuse dew yeou belong tew?" "Who hired
yeou tew dew this?" "Why on airth dew yeou travel