While we have been reading all this, our boat has been drawing closer to the city, and now we must gather up our wraps and bags and be ready to start out. We see a very busy harbor, its noisy tugs drawing the sullen-looking coal barges; its graceful schooners loaded to the water's edge with lumber; and its fishing boats with their dirty sails, not attractive but doing the work that has placed Boston first in importance as a fishing port. Crowded steamers and ferryboats pass swiftly by, while huge ocean steamships may be seen poking their noses out from their docks at East Boston and South Boston or heading toward the city with their thousands of eager passengers. As we hurry along with our fellow travelers we must decide how best to reach our hotel. There are taxicabs and carriages for some; electric cars, both surface and elevated, for the many. Boston has excellent car and train service. The Boston Elevated Railway Company controls most of the car lines in the city as well as in the outlying towns. This makes it possible for us to ride for a nickel an average distance of at least five miles. [Illustration: A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF BOSTON] A line of elevated trains running across the city connects West Roxbury on the south with Charlestown on the north. Some of these trains pass through the Washington Street tunnel, from which numerous well-lighted, well-ventilated stations lead directly to the shopping and business section of the city. On this elevated road are two huge terminal stations, into which rush countless surface cars, bringing from all points north and south the immense crowds of suburbanites who come to Boston proper each day, to work or on pleasure bent. Chelsea folks come to the city by ferry or by electric car, while those from East Boston have two ferry lines as well as a tunnel for cars under the harbor. The city proper has two immense union railroad depots, the North and the South station, where hundreds of local, as well as long-distance, trains leave and arrive each day. The railroads entering Boston are the Boston & Albany, which, by means of the New York Central lines, connects with the West; the Boston & Maine, leading northward to Maine and Canada; and the New York, New Haven & Hartford, which connects by way of New York with various points in the South. All these transportation advantages have made Boston an excellent place in which to live, as its suburbs afford the benefits of country life while yet they are within a few minutes' ride of a big city. There are several ways in which we can see Boston. We may climb into one of the great sight-seeing autos and ride from point to point while the man with the megaphone calls our attention to the interesting landmarks and gives their history; we can engage a guide who will take us from place to place; or we can simply follow the directions of our guide book. [Illustration: THE SOUTH STATION]