“No,” I could not help admitting; “but——” “But What?——in the name of sense.” “I am not decidedly hungry, and would like to walk a mile or two further before I stop.” “O, nonsense! Come in!” And he opened the gate with such an air that I could not have remained in the road without insulting him. “Did you say you intended to walk to Hagerstown?” “Yes, sir; such is my intention.” “Well, you mustn’t think of it. Come in, take dinner and rest awhile, and I will hitch up to my spring wagon and take you to Hagerstown in less time than it would take you to walk a mile! Come.” I could no longer resist, and allowed myself to be smiled and welcomed into the house. The good people therein—an elderly lady and her daughter—were somewhat astonished when I told them of my walk of the previous day. “Is it possible you couldn’t get a wagon?” said the old gentleman. “I could not.” “If I had known it,” said he, while his noble heart shone out all over his face, “I would have hitched up and come down for you! Surely, there ought to have been some one there—However, people get pretty hard-hearted where soldiers are quartered so long.” “Very natural,” I observed. After a good dinner, which I had the appetite to enjoy, this hospitable gentleman, despite my protestations, hitched up his horse and wagon, and took me to Hagerstown. I offered to pay him, but he regarded that idea as one of the best jokes he had heard lately. No, indeed; I mustn’t give a thought to such a thing! “The idea of taking pay from you!” he said; and laughed till we both forgot about it. I stayed at Hagerstown that night and next morning took an early train for Harrisburg, arriving there about noon. I only spent a couple of hours in Harrisburg, then took a train for Philadelphia, where I arrived that evening, and found my trunk awaiting me. CHAPTER XIV. THE HUDSON. I SPENT the remainder of the spring and the first two months of the summer in New York, but as the extreme “caloric” of the “heated term” began to make the giant walls and solid streets of the metropolis next to intolerable, I determined to take a little tour up the Hudson, and out by the lakes into Ohio: and did. But my grateful heart will not allow me to pass quietly by New York again without briefly acknowledging the sincere thanks I owe, for distinguished favors, to the following excellent gentlemen: Manton Marble, Editor of the WORLD; Drexel, Winthrop & Co., Bankers, Wall street; Willy Wallach, Stationer, John street; Paschal S. Hughes. Merchant, Broadway; Henry S. Camblos, Broker, New street; and E. S. Jaffray, Merchant, Broadway. I can say no more. Having made arrangements to correspond with a certain well-known journal, I started, about the first of August, on my projected tour, taking passage on the handsome steamer DANIEL DREW for Albany.