it was scarcely more human than the spectacle of a cat licking her
kittens, or a cow giving suck to her calf. Yet, in another, was there
anything more human?

The child who had wakened before the rest regarded him with placidity,
declining to be amused by his winkings, but exhibiting no other emotion.
She had been playing by herself with a couple of buttons tied on
a string, and after giving a civil amount of attention to Theron's
grimaces, she turned again to the superior attractions of this toy. Her
self-possession, her capacity for self-entertainment, the care she took
not to arouse the others, all impressed him very much. He felt in his
pocket for a small coin, and, reaching forward, offered it to her. She
took it calmly, bestowed a tranquil gaze upon him for a moment, and went
back to the buttons. Her indifference produced an unpleasant sensation
upon him somehow, and he rubbed the steaming window clear again, and
stared out of it.

The wide river lay before him, flanked by a precipitous wall of
cliffs which he knew instantly must be the Palisades. There was an
advertisement painted on them which he tried in vain to read. He was
surprised to find they interested him so slightly. He had heard all his
life of the Hudson, and especially of it just at this point. The reality
seemed to him almost commonplace. His failure to be thrilled depressed
him for the moment.

"I suppose those ARE the Palisades?" he asked his neighbor.

The man glanced up from his paper, nodded, and made as if to resume his
reading. But his eye had caught something in the prospect through the
window which arrested his attention. "By George!" he exclaimed, and