y well that he could
ask the driver what to do, but he felt an ambition to find out
himself, and he accordingly concluded to wait until after he had
got out of the stage, and had had an opportunity to make his own
observations before troubling the driver with his questions. As for
his ticket, he was aware that he must buy that at the ticket-office,
and he supposed that he could find the ticket-office very readily.
When the stage stopped, Stuyvesant and all the other passengers got
out. The stage was standing near a platform which extended along the
side of one of the buildings of the station. As soon as the passengers
had got out, the driver began to take off the trunks from the rack
behind the stage, and to put them on the platform.
There was a gentleman among the passengers who had said in the course
of conversation in the stage, that he belonged in Boston, and was
going there. It occurred to Stuyvesant that it would be a good plan to
watch this man and see what he would do in respect to his trunk, and
then do the same in respect to his own. So he stood on the platform
while the driver was taking down the trunks, and said nothing.
The driver put the trunks and baggage down, in heaps of confusion all
about the platform, and though the passengers were all standing
around, none of them paid much attention to what he was doing; this
led Stuyvesant to think that there was no urgent necessity for haste
or anxiety about the business, but that in some way or other it would
all come right in the end. So he stood quietly by, and said nothing.
The result was just as he had anticipated; for after he had been
standing there a short time, a man with a band about his hat, on which
were inscribed the words BAGGAGE-MASTER, came out from a door in the
station-house, and advancing toward the baggage with a business-like
air, he said,
"Now then, gentlemen, tell me where all this baggage is going to?"
As the baggage-master said this, the people standing by began to point
out their several trunks, and to say where they were to go. As fast as
the baggage-master was informed of the destination of the trunks and
carpet-bags, he would fasten a check upon each one by means of a small
strap, and give the mate of the check to the owner of the baggage.
Stuyvesant stood quietly by, watching this operation until it came to
the turn of the gentleman who he had observed was going to Boston.
"That trunk is to go to Boston," said the gentl
|