So up he went at the next station. But when he came up he found himself on a street. There were high buildings all around him. He began to walk south. The farther he walked, the higher the buildings he found. At last he came to a place where the buildings reached up, up, up,—up to the clouds, he thought. He threw back his head to look at them,—so high above him that it made him almost dizzy to look at their tops. He wasn’t sure they weren’t going to fall either! Then he looked down again. And what did he see at the end of the street? Trees, yes, green trees! “Perhaps I am coming to the wide green country,” he thought. And he hurried on.
But when he got to the trees he saw that the city came to an end again. And what a wonderful end it was too! All around him was water,—water so full of boats that it made Boris gasp. When he looked to the west he could see a great river with another city on the other side. “That’s the Hudson,” thought Boris for he remembered what the coal man had told him. When he looked to the east he could see another great river. “That’s the East River,” he thought for he remembered that name too.
But what river was that out in front of him? Then suddenly Boris remembered. That was New York Harbor! This was where he had landed when he had come in the giant steamer from Russia! Out there was Ellis Island where he had stayed with his father and his mother and his sisters and his brothers until they had been looked at! He thought he could see Ellis Island from where he stood. But there were so many islands he couldn’t be sure. But he could see the Statue of Liberty, that enormous woman holding a torch in her hand. He was sure of that. And he could see the boats everywhere all over the harbor. Boris stood there some time just staring and listening and staring.
When Boris he went out again
To find the country wide
And he went north and north he went
To Harlem River’s side.
Again he turned himself about
And went the other way
And he went south and south he went
And there the harbor lay!
Part 3
Suddenly Boris remembered what he had come for. He was looking for the wide green country, for a place where grass grew everywhere. “This is the funniest thing in the world,” he thought scratching his head. “Wherever I walk in New York I come to water. So many people and water on every side of them! How do they ever get out?” As soon as he thought of this, he began to look around. Across the East River he could see a giant bridge leaping from New York over to another city and on the bridge were trains and cars shooting back and forth and autos and horses and people. “So that is the way they get out!” he thought.
Then he looked to the west, to the Hudson River. “No bridges there!” he said. “It’s too wide.” Then he suddenly remembered the ferry boat that had brought him from Ellis Island. “Ferry boats, of course,” he thought. And sure enough there were ferry boats and ferry boats going back and forth from New York to the other side and to the little islands out in the harbor too!
Now Boris walked along thinking hard about all this water all around New York. Just then he noticed a lot of people coming up out of a hole in the sidewalk. “The Subway,” he thought, for you remember he had been on the subway. But the name over the steps didn’t spell “subway.” He looked at it for a long time. At last he could read it. “Hudson Tubes” it said. Hudson Tubes? What could that mean? Boris wanted to know. So he walked right up to a woman coming out of the hole.