fear and trembling; and when the stout lady
talks of taking a shelf, she is most urgently pressed to change places
with her alarmed neighbor below. Points of location being after a while
adjusted, comes the last struggle. Every body wants to take off a
bonnet, or look for a shawl, to find a cloak, or get a carpet bag, and
all set about it with such zeal that nothing can be done. "Ma'am, you're
on my foot!" says one. "Will you please to move, ma'am?" says somebody,
who is gasping and struggling behind you. "Move!" you echo. "Indeed, I
should be very glad to, but I don't see much prospect of it."
"Chambermaid!" calls a lady, who is struggling among a heap of carpet
bags and children at one end of the cabin. "Ma'am!" echoes the poor
chambermaid, who is wedged fast, in a similar situation, at the other.
"Where's my cloak, chambermaid?" "I'd find it, ma'am, if I could move."
"Chambermaid, my basket!" "Chambermaid, my parasol!" "Chambermaid, my
carpet bag!" "Mamma, they push me so!" "Hush, child; crawl under there,
and lie still till I can undress you." At last, however, the various
distresses are over, the babies sink to sleep, and even that
much-enduring being, the chambermaid, seeks out some corner for repose.
Tired and drowsy, you are just sinking into a doze, when bang! goes the
boat against the sides of a lock; ropes scrape, men run and shout, and
up fly the heads of all the top shelfites, who are generally the more
juvenile and airy part of the company.

"What's that! what's that!" flies from mouth to mouth; and forthwith
they proceed to awaken their respective relations. "Mother! Aunt Hannah!
do wake up; what is this awful noise?" "O, only a lock!" "Pray be
still," groan out the sleepy members from below.

"A lock!" exclaim the vivacious creatures, ever on the alert for
information; "and what _is_ a lock, pray?"

"Don't you know what a lock is, you silly creatures? Do lie down and go
to sleep."

"But say, there ain't any _danger_ in a lock, is there?" respond the
querists. "Danger!" exclaims a deaf old lady, poking up her head;
"what's the matter? There hain't nothin' burst, has there?" "No, no,
no!" exclaim the provoked and despairing opposition party, who find that
there is no such thing as going to sleep till they have made the old
lady below and the young ladies above understand exactly the philosophy
of a lock. After a while the conversation again subsides; again all is
still; you hear only the trampling of h