Jack sauntered on through street after street, getting a clearer idea of what a city was.
He walked so far that he had some difficulty in returning to the hotel, but finally he found it without asking directions.
Soon after, Jack brought down his satchel, said good-bye to the very polite clerk, and walked out.
He had learned the way to the steamboat-wharf; and he had already taken one brief look at the river and the railway bridge.
"There's the 'Columbia,'" he said, aloud, as he turned a street corner and came in sight of her. "What a boat! Why, if her nose was at the Main Street corner, by the Washington Hotel, her rudder would be half-way across the Cocahutchie!"
He walked the wharf, staring at her from end to end, before he went on board. He had put Mr. Magruder's note into his pocket without reading it.
"I won't open it here," he had said then. "There's nothing in it but a ticket."
He found, however, that he must show the ticket at the gangway, and so he opened the envelope.
"Three tickets?" he said. "And two are in one piece. This one is for a stateroom. That's the bunk I'm to sleep in. Hulloo! Supper ticket! I have supper on board the steamer, do I? Well, I'm not sorry. I'll have to hurry, too. It's about time for her to start."
Jack went on board, and soon was hunting for his stateroom, almost bewildered by the rushing crowd in the great saloon.