te for five minutes before the boat arrives,
which throngs the platforms and aisles of a car long before the depot is
entered, which in church varies the closing hymn with an overcoat drill
and causes the benediction to be pronounced amid a rattling discharge of
hymn-books into the book-racks.

Having entered the cabin, it is always an interesting question on which
side we shall sit,--not to say at which end of the boat. I think that
temperament has much to do with the decision of these questions. And it
might be well for some psychologist and sociologist to investigate why
it is that certain persons will instinctively select the rear of the
cabin and others advance to the front; also why some will invariably
take their seats on the outer and others on the inner side of the cabin.
This being with myself not a matter of instinct but of reason, perhaps
my experience is of little value, but I freely and confidentially offer
it in the interests of science. I choose the inner row of seats for the
following reasons: first, they are warmer in winter by reason of the
steam-pipes which run underneath them, and cooler in summer by being
more directly in the draught from the open doors; secondly, because the
boat is steadier there, and one can read one's paper, if so inclined,
with less painful adjustment of the eyes to the shaking type; but
chiefly because in that position one has before one the panorama of the
river, which is the next best thing to being out on deck. One of the
mysteries of human nature is that so large a proportion of
ferry-passengers appear to take no more notice of the glorious scenes
through which they pass twice a day than if it were a tunnel. They will
hurry into the cabin in all weathers, seat themselves with their backs
to the river, and spend the voyage buried in the newspaper or gazing
into vacancy. They do not seem even to appreciate the study of life
afforded by their fellow-passengers. I am sure Dickens would have
revelled in the opportunity and found no end of Quilps and Chadbands,
Swivellers and Turveydrops, Little Nells and Mrs. Nicklebys, Pickwicks
and Artful Dodgers. I have found splendid models for almost every type
of civilization and not a few types of barbarism. And the eccentricities
of dress are hardly less noteworthy.

One learns to enter heartily into the joys and sorrows of the groups,
and even of the individuals, whom he thus watches perhaps from day to
day. He comes to be a mind-rea