he river and the heights
behind, and at the grand spectacle of another great steamboat, full of
lights, on her way up the river. He had seen any number of smaller
boats, and of white-sailed sloops and schooners, and now, along the
eastern bank, he heard and saw the whizzing rush of several railway
trains.

"I'd rather be here," he thought. "The people there can't see half so
much as I can."

Not one of them, moreover, had been traveling all over the world with
Mr. Guilderaufenberg, and hearing and about kings and their "police."

Getting back to his old place was easier, now that he began to
understand the plan of the Columbia; but, when Jack returned, his
camp-stool was gone, and he had to sit down on the bare deck or to
stand up. He did both, by turns, and he was beginning to feel very
weary of sight-seeing, and to wish that he were sound asleep, or that
to-morrow had come.

"It's a warm night," he said to himself, "and it isn't so very dark,
even now the moon has gone down. Why--it's getting lighter! Is it
morning? Can we be so near the city as that?"

There was a growing rose-tint upon a few clouds in the western sky, as
the sun began to look at them from below the range of heights,
eastward, but the sun had not yet risen.

Jack was all but breathless. He walked as far forward as he could go,
and forgot all about being sleepy or tired.

"There," he said, after a little, "those must be the Palisades."

Out came his guide-book, and he tried to fit names to the places along
shore.

"More sailing-vessels," he said, "and there goes another train. We
must be almost there."

He was right, and he was all one tingle of excitement as the Columbia
swept steadily on down the widening river.

There came a pressure of a hand upon his shoulder.

"Goot-morning, my poy. De city ees coming. How you feels?"

"First-rate," said Jack. "It won't be long, now, will it?"

"You wait a leetle. I sleep some. It vas a goot varm night. De
varmest night I efer had vas in Egypt, and de coldest vas in Moscow.
De shtove it went out, and ve vas cold, I dell you, dill dot shtove vas
kindle up again! Dere vas dwenty-two peoples in dot room, and dot safe
us. Ye keep von another varm. Dot ees de trouble mit Russia. De
finest vedder in all the vorlt is een America,--and dere ees more
vedder of all kinds."

On, on, and now Jack's blood tingled more sharply, to his very fingers
and toes, for they swept beyond Spuyten D