“Yes,” said Stuyvesant.
“Very well, then; it’s all right. I was going to show you. I did not suppose that you knew how to take care of yourself so well.”
There were no cars at the station at this time. It was a way station, and the train was to pass there, and stop a few minutes to take up passengers, but it had not yet arrived. Stuyvesant went round to see what had been done with his trunk. It had been removed from the place where he had left it, but after a time he found it, with others, on another platform near the railroad track. He supposed that that was the place where the train was to come in.
He was right in this supposition, for in a few minutes the sound of the whistle was heard in the distance, and soon afterward the train came thundering in. It slackened its speed as it advanced, and finally stopped opposite to the platform on which Stuyvesant was standing. The baggage-master put the trunks into the baggage car, and the passengers got into the passenger cars, and in a very few minutes the bell rang, and the train began to move on again. Stuyvesant got an excellent seat near a window.
“Now,” said he, “for Beechnut’s rule.”
So Stuyvesant opened his note, and read as follows:—
“UNIVERSAL RULE FOR INEXPERIENCED TRAVELERS.
“Keep a quiet mind, and do as other people do. Beechnut.”
“That’s just what I have been doing all the time,” said Stuyvesant to himself, as soon as he had read the paper. “I found out Beechnut’s rule myself, before he told me.”
This was true; for Stuyvesant’s instinctive good sense and sagacity had taught him that when traveling with a multitude of other people, who were almost all perfectly familiar with the usages of the road, a stranger would always find sufficient means of guidance in his observation of those about him. It gave Stuyvesant pleasure to think that he had found out the way to travel himself, and he was very glad to have the wisdom of the method which he had adopted, confirmed by Beechnut’s testimony.