And so they started to drive down the avenue to the ferry by which they were to cross to Hoboken, from which point the steamer was to sail.
Arrived at the pier on the other side, they found their ship, and in and about it a crowd, mostly composed of foreigners, commercial travelers, returning German emigrants, and a few summer tourists.
Aunt Sophie accompanied her friends on board the steamer, and became an interested and sympathetic spectator of the busy and affecting scene around her. Some of the leave-takings touched her tender heart even to tears, and made her think of the happy land where there would be “no more sorrow nor crying,” and she kept on fortifying her mind by repeating over and over to herself the lines of her hymn:
“Oh, that will be joyful!
Joyful, joyful, joyful!
Oh, that will be joyful
To meet, to part no more!
To meet to part no more,
On Canaan’s happy shore,
Where we shall meet