from Boston on that memorable day
carried with him some spermaceti candles which on the delegates' arrival
were burned with great ceremony at the evening dinner."

"I suppose it seemed a wonderful thing to reach Albany in fifteen
hours," remarked Steve.

"It was like a fairy tale," his father answered. "To estimate the marvel
to the full you must think how long it would have taken to drive the
distance, or make the journey by water. Therefore the Boston officials
burned their spermaceti candles in triumph; and the next day, when the
Albany hosts returned to Boston with their guests, they symbolized the
onrush of the world's progress by bringing with them a barrel of flour
which had been cut, threshed, and ground only two days before, and put
into a wooden barrel made from a tree which was cut down, sawed, and
put together while the flour was being ground. This does not seem to us
anything very astounding but it was a feat to stop the breath in those
days."

"And what did they do with the flour?"

"Oh, that evening when they reached Boston the flour was made into some
sort of bread which was served at the dinner the Boston men gave to
their visitors."

"I wonder what they would have said if somebody had told them then that
sometime people would be going from Boston to New York in five hours?"
the lad observed.

"I presume they would not have believed it," was the reply. "Nor would
they have been able to credit tales of the great numbers of persons who
would constantly be traveling between these two great cities. At that
time so few people made the trip that it was very easy to keep track of
them; and that they might be identified in case of accident the company
retained a list of those who went on the trains. At first this rule
worked very well, the passengers being carefully tabulated, together
with their place of residence; but later, when traffic began to increase
and employees began to have more to do, those whose duty it was to make
out these lists became hurried and careless and in the old railroad
annals we read such entries as these:

"'_Woman in green bonnet; boy; stranger; man with side whiskers,_'
etc."

A peal of laughter broke from Stephen.

"Railroad officials would have some job to list passengers now, wouldn't
they?" he said. "We should all just have to wear identification tags as
the men did during the War."

His father acquiesced whimsically.

"I have sometimes feared we might have to co