The Naumkeag was standing at the wharf waiting for the passengers who
had come on the Western train. There was a great crowd, all hurrying,
with bags and umbrellas, towards the boat with as much speed as if their
lives depended upon getting there first and securing the best seats.
Elithe lingered, anxiously watching the baggage as it was taken from the
car. She was hot and dusty and tired and worn with the long journey. Her
straw hat, with its faded ribbons, was crushed and bent, her flannel
gown was soiled and wrinkled, and her gloves were worn at the fingers
tips. “A dowdy little thing,” some might have called her, as she stood
waiting the appearance of her trunk, which had caused her a great deal
of anxiety. Whenever the train stopped long enough and it was possible
for her to do so, she had managed to assure herself that it was there
with her, and she always scanned closely any trunks standing in a
station they were leaving, fearing lest by some mistake hers might have
been taken out with others. If it were in New Bedford it was safe, and
she stood in the broiling sun faint and dizzy, but resolute, until she
caught sight of it and saw a train hand put it upon a truck not far from
where she was standing.
“This is the kind of trunk to have,” the man said to a companion,
staggering under a huge Saratoga four times as large as Elithe’s poor
little box tied with a rope, with one of the hinges to the lid wrenched
nearly off and a great crack across the end where the card with her name
upon it was fastened.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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