who, meanwhile, glanced over the innumerable advertisements in the daily
papers.

In short, everybody seemed to be there, and all had something to do, and
were doing it with all their might, except a party of drunken recruits
for the Western military posts, principally Irish and Scotch, though
they wore Uncle Sam's gray jacket and trousers. I noticed one other
idle man. He carried a rifle on his shoulder and a powder-horn across
his breast, and appeared to stare about him with confused wonder, as if,
while he was listening to the wind among the forest boughs, the hum and
bustle of an instantaneous city had surrounded him.



III.

A NIGHT SCENE

The steamboat in which I was passenger for Detroit had put into the
mouth of a small river, where the greater part of the night would be
spent in repairing some damages of the machinery.

As the evening was warm, though cloudy and very dark, I stood on deck,
watching a scene that would not have attracted a second glance in the
daytime, but became picturesque by the magic of strong light and deep
shade.

Some wild Irishmen were replenishing our stock of wood, and had kindled
a great fire on the bank to illuminate their labors. It was composed of
large logs and dry brushwood, heaped together with careless profusion,