He fancied the general arrangement of the station would be similar to the one at Berry’s Corner, and, therefore, anticipated but little trouble in finding his friends.
Staggering under the weight of the heavy valise, he hurried to the door, despite the news-agent’s attempts to detain him, and, stepping down on the platform, looked about him in bewilderment.
Crowds of people hurrying to and fro as if their very lives depended upon reaching a certain point at a given time; trucks of baggage; odd, crate-like carts with tiny wheels, drawn by well-groomed horses, and the impatient panting of the engines, all served to confuse him greatly and frighten him not a little.
Had he been sufficiently friendly with the newsboy to have confided in him as to his intended course after leaving the cars, he might have been told that Tom and Bob could not get into the train-shed, but would be obliged to wait outside near the ferry-slip.
Since he was ignorant regarding the rules governing the waiting friends of passengers, he considered it necessary to remain exactly where he had alighted, arguing with himself that the boys might have been detained at home, and would soon arrive.
No one paid any attention to him.
Each person was bent on his or her business or pleasure; and the boy from the country, with his satchel beside him, stood looking first in one direction and then another for those who were to introduce him to city life.
When the passengers from the incoming train had alighted, many people came from the waiting-rooms to embark in the several cars which had been made ready for departure; and this change in the living current was to Josiah most perplexing.
He fancied he was in the station proper, and believed the new-comers had simply chanced to enter from the street in such large groups.
For a time he was interested in the bustle and confusion everywhere around him, and then came the thought that possibly his friends might be on the outside.