ht made him dizzy, that he was glad to see beside them some which
looked small and old.

"I'll find my way without asking," he remarked to himself. "I'm pretty
near the end now. There are some gates, and one of them is open. I'll
walk right in behind that carriage. That must be the gate to the
Battery."

The place he was really looking for was at some distance to the right,
and the carriage he was following so confidently, had a very different
destination.

The wide gateway was guarded by watchful men, not to mention two
policemen, and they would have caught and stopped any boy who had
knowingly tried to do what Jack did so innocently. Their backs must
have been turned, for the carriage passed in, and so did Jack, without
any one's trying to stop him. He was as bold as a lion about it,
because he did not know any better. A number of people were at the
same time crowding through a narrower gateway at one side, and they may
have distracted the attention of the gatemen.

"I'd just as lief go in at the wagon-gate," said Jack, and he did not
notice that each one stopped and paid something before going through.
Jack went on behind the carriage. The carriage crossed what seemed to
Jack a kind of bridge housed over. Nobody but a boy straight from
Crofield could have gone so far as that without suspecting something;
but the carriage stopped behind a line of other vehicles, and Jack
walked unconcernedly past them.

"Jingo!" he suddenly exclaimed. "What's this? I do believe the end of
this street is moving!"

He bounded forward, much startled by a thing so strange and
unaccountable, and in a moment more he was looking out upon a great
expanse of water, dotted here and there with canal-boats, ships, and
steamers.

"Mister," he asked excitedly of a little man leaning against a post,
"what's this?"

"Have ye missed your way and got onto the wrong ferry-boat?" replied
the little man gleefully. "I did it once myself. All right, my boy.
You've got to go to Staten Island this time. Take it coolly."

"Ferry-boat?" said Jack. "Staten Island? I thought it was the end of
the street, going into the Battery!"

"Oh, you're a greenhorn!" laughed the little man "Well, it won't hurt
ye; only there's no boat back from the island, on Sunday, till after
supper. I'll tell ye all about it. Where'd you come from?"

"From Crofield," said Jack, "and I got here only this morning."

The little man eyed him half-suspiciously