y crossed was crowded and dirty, and in
order to save their money they had taken passage in the steerage. For a
long time Martin was very seasick, and even when he grew better he was
so ashamed at having to travel in the worst and cheapest part of the
vessel that he would not go on deck.

But Tapley had none of this false pride. He made friends with all,
helped every one he could and soon became such a general favorite that
(as he thought sadly) he was having much too good a time for him to be
jolly with any credit.

The long voyage of so many weeks came to an end at last, and they
reached New York. They found it a strange place indeed, and met many
strange characters in it. Only one they met pleased them: a gentleman
named Bevan, and from him they got much information and advice. There
seemed, however, to be little opening for an architect in New York, and
Martin at length decided to go West and settle in some newer region.

In the western town where they left the train they found a land agent
who was selling lots in a new settlement, on the Mississippi River,
called Eden. To buy their railway tickets Martin had already sold the
ring Mary Graham had given him, and he had just enough to purchase a
tract of land in Eden and to pay their fare there.

Martin looked at the agent's splendid plans of the new town, showing
wharves, churches and public buildings, and thought it a capital place
for a young architect; so they closed the bargain without more ado and
took the next steamer down the desolate Mississippi.

A terrible disappointment awaited them when they found what Eden really
was--a handful of rotting log cabins set in a swamp. The wharves and
public buildings existed only on the agent's map with which he had so
cruelly cheated them. There were only a few wan men alive there--the
rest had succumbed to the sickly hot vapor that rose from the swamp and
hung in the air. At the sight of what they had come to, Martin lay down
and wept in very despair. But for his comrade's cheerfulness he would
have wholly given up hope.

Next morning Martin found himself in the grip of the deadly fever with
which the place reeked, and for many days thereafter he lay helpless and
burning, nursed like a child by the faithful Mark Tapley. When he had
begun to recover it came the other's turn to fall ill and Martin took
his place at nursing.

Through all Tapley never complained. At last he found himself in
circumstances where to be j