It was too pitiful,--I
could not have proceeded without them, even if they had been
afflicted with small-pox. The driver stopped of his own accord,--
he seemed to know the children's ways and their results,--and I
helped Budge and Toddie in, meekly hoping that the eye of
Providence was upon me, and that so self-sacrificing an act would
be duly passed to my credit. As we reached the hill-road, my
kindness to my nephews seemed to assume, greater proportions, for
the view before me was inexpressibly beautiful. The air was
perfectly clear, and across two score towns I saw the great
metropolis itself, the silent city of Greenwood beyond it, the
bay, the narrows, the sound, the two silvery rivers lying between
me and the Palisades, and even, across and to the south of
Brooklyn, the ocean itself. Wonderful effects of light and shadow,
picturesque masses, composed of detached buildings so far distant
that they seemed huddled together; grim factories turned to
beautiful palaces by the dazzling reflection of sunlight from
their window-panes; great ships seeming in the distance to be toy-
boats floating idly;--with no sign of life perceptible, the whole
scene recalled the fairy stories, read in my youthful days, of
enchanted cities, and the illusion was greatly strengthened by the
dragon-like shape of the roof of New York's new post-office, lying
in the center of everything, and seeming to brood over all.
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