Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER IV. THE STEAMER. Messrs. Lang and Shallop were nearly a block in advance, as Karl and Amos passed down the gravel walk of the lawn. At the gate these latter gentlemen met a man who touched his hat respectfully, and said: " The shteamer has come at last, surs; I'm jist going to till my young missus." " The steamer come ! Where did you hear that ? " asked Amos, with an eagerness which can be imagined. ' I heard it, surs, at the grocery hard by on the corner beyont. Every one bes talking of the shteamer, surs," and with another salute, John, the Irish coachman to the Claytons, rushed through the gate and up the lawn. Amos and Karl now hastened on after Lang and Shallop. Could these latter have heard the news ? Schmer- ling thought they had, or why were they walking so fast? for Amos and Karl gained on them but slowly. From the excited groups on the corners, nothing certain could be learned; not even that the steamer had been heard from. They seemed to be assembled to ask questions of themselves and of .every passer-by. Amos was resolved, therefore, to learn authoritatively from headquarters, that her boy was safe, before he communicated the glad tidings to Aunty Owen. So the two young gentlemen pressed on, catching sight of the broker and his clerk, to lose them again in the crowds upon the street." The steamer, the steamer!" they heard on every hand, as they passed. The scene in front of the great hotels was noisiest. On the bulletin board in the reading-room of the Occidental, was this brief announcement: " A large steamer, supposed to be of the Regular line, is coming in through the Heads." Was it the ship that had been missing or the next one of the line, now overdue ? This was the theme of much excited dispute. Some were condemning the Company for ke... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.