noon
The scene was certainly a picturesque one , with the grounded boat , the swung draw-bridge , the men laboring to lighter-off the vessel by unloading the coal , the passengers crowding and swarming from the cars , the setting sun over the noble headlands to the West , and the placid river coming out from the dark shadow of the Highlands and sweeping grandly down to Haverstraw Bay . It had been arranged that all the passengers by the up-train should disembark and cross the long bridge over the estuary , on the narrow strips of plank temporarily laid down for that purpose , so as to be ready to take the next down-train from Albany , the moment it arrived , and go back with it ; -- while the passengers by the down-train would cross in the same manner and run back with the up-train towards New York ; -- thus saving what would otherwise be hours of additional detention . Then streamed across those planks a most picturesque line of pedestrians , sturdy men and timid women , each a little afraid of so narrow a footing over the water , some of the women nervous and screaming a little , and some of the men quite as cowardly but much more ashamed to acknowledge the feeling . The novelty of the picture was materially added to , meanwhile , by the fact that nearly every male passenger was loaded like a pack-horse with baggage , and the ladies with shawls , parasols and bundles , -- and that all , when they reached the neck of land at the end of the bridge , squatted down miscellaneously on the dry grass and among the wood and timber , like so many Arabs making a noon encampment . `` Oh , is n't this jolly ! '' exclaimed Joe Harris , as Tom Leslie was leading her over the line of plank , when they were about half way across , and when , from the instability of a part of the structure , there seemed a fair prospect of taking a duck in the river . `` Bravo , little girl ! ''