"By the boat?" cried Edgar.
"No, by the cars," exclaimed Edward; and thereupon arose a discussion on the point, which lasted until Mr. Rovering came home to dinner, and said they could go by both.
So on the next morning, which happened to be Saturday, the family set out, armed with an immense lunch basket, and shaded by huge straw hats.
"Now, Robert," said Mrs. Rovering, as they hurried down a dirty side street to the river, "are you sure you know where you're going?"
"Why, to Manhattan Beach, to be sure. We decided to begin there, you remember." But they had no sooner reached the end of the long pier than they were set upon by what appeared to be a lot of crazy men, who yelled in such a frightful fashion about bursting boilers and rotten timbers that the Roverings were very glad to find that they were on the wrong dock, and that the Manhattan Beach boats started from a quiet wharf near by, where there were no opposition steamers.
And now a most wonderful thing happened. The crowd on this first pier was a most dreadful one, and yet neither of the Eds got lost in it, nor did Mr. Rovering have his pocket picked; and this fact struck Mrs. Rovering as so extraordinary that she stood still for a full minute in the Battery Park before she could realize it, while an elevated railroad engine overhead dripped grease all over the cherry-colored ribbon on her hat.
After blundering into Castle Garden, and knocking at the door of a free swimming bath, they succeeded in finding the boat they wanted, which, after several very narrow escapes from being run into by ferry-boats, running over tugs, swamping row-boats, and grazing barges, took them safely to the pier where the cars were waiting.
With these latter the two Eds were much delighted, as they were open ones, and consequently offered to them unlimited opportunities for falling out and breaking their necks.
"Here we are!" suddenly announced Edgar, as the train slowed up and then stopped; but after the heavy basket had been carefully lifted out, and Mrs. Rovering had laboriously stepped down, they discovered that there was no station there at all, and they had just time to squeeze back into their places before the engine started again.
The family went through this performance three times, until finally Mr. Rovering found out that these mysterious haltings were only made as a matter of precaution before crossing other railroads.