Towards this I was encouraged to climb over the
thills, but met with an obstacle, in the form of my trunk, which seemed
effectually to block up the entrance.
"Thar', now! I told ye so," exclaimed one of the bystanders, a large
number of whom had mysteriously gathered about the scene. "You'd orter
got _her_ in first."
A disconsolate silence prevailed. The trunk had been elevated to its
present position through the most painful exertions.
"Perhaps I can climb over it," I said, and bravely made the attempt.
No one knew, in the voiceless darkness, of the suddenly helpless and
collapsed condition in which I landed on the other side. I groped about
for a seat, and finally succeeded in finding one at the extreme rear of
the vehicle.
'Rasmus drove. He was situated somewhere, somehow--I could not tell where
nor how--in the realm of vacancy on the other side of the trunk; I only
know that he seemed a long way off. Under these circumstances
conversation was rendered extremely difficult. I learned that Mr.
Philander Keeler was away at sea; that Mrs. Philander Keeler lived at the
_Ark_, with Cap'n and Grandma Keeler, and the two little Keelers.
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