ed with him, I endeavoured to make
unobserved a sketch of his face. The warder noticing this, called me to
the front to make it boldly, and the prisoner, smiling, told me to go on
with it; which I did, and that not so badly--at least, the sitter
approved of it.

So we went up the beautiful Hudson, which far surpasses the Rhine, and
yields the palm only to the Danube, stopping at Poughkeepsie and Albany,
and so on to Niagara Falls. On the way we passed through a burning
forest. My awe at this wonderful sight amused some one present to whom
it was a familiar thing. Which reminds me that about the time when I
first went to college, but while staying at Congress Hall, I there met a
youth from Alabama or Mississippi, who was on his way to Princeton to
join our ranks. To him I of course showed every attention, and by way of
promoting his happiness took him to the top of the belfry of the State
House, whence there is a fine view. While there I casually remarked what
a number of ships there were in the river, whereupon he eagerly cried,
"Oh, show me one! I never saw a ship in all my life!" I gazed at him in
utter astonishment, as if I would say, "What manner of man art thou?" and
then recalling myself, said, "Well, we are just equal, for you never saw
a ship, and I never saw a _cotton-field_." The young man smiled
incredulously, and replied, "Now I know that you are trying to humbug me,
for how _could_ you grow up without ever seeing cotton-fields?"

We arrived at Niagara about noon, and I at once went to see the Falls.
There was a very respectable-looking old gentleman, evidently from the
far South, with two young ladies, one a great beauty, advancing just
before. I heard him say, "Now, keep your eyes closed, or look down till
you can have a full view." I did the same, and when he cried "Look up!"
did so. It was one of the great instants of my life.

I know not how it was, but that first glance suggested to me something
_chivalric_. It may have been from Byron's simile of the tail of the
white horse and the cataract, and the snow-white steed of that
incarnation of nobility, Crescentius, and there rang in my memory a
mystical verse--

"My eye bears a glance like the gleam of a lance
When I hear the waters dash and dance;
And I smile with glee, for I love to see
The sight of anything that's free!"

But it was a mingled sense of nobility, and above all of _freedom_, which
impressed me in that