"I should think we're getting near Mount Vernon by this time.

I'll go and look." He made his way to the outer deck, the General following.

The old soldier, as he moved through the crowd of chairs in the wake of his nephew, was well aware of the attention excited by the young man.

The eyes of many damsels were upon him; and, while the girls looked and said nothing, their mothers laughed and whispered to each other as the young Apollo passed.
Standing at the side of the steamer, the uncle and nephew perceived that the river had widened to a still more stately breadth, and that, on the southern bank, a white building, high placed, had come into view.

The excursionists crowded to look, expressing their admiration for the natural scene and their sense of its patriotic meaning in a frank, enthusiastic chatter, which presently enveloped the General, standing in a silent endurance like a rock among the waves.
"Isn't it fine to think of his coming back here to die, so simply, when he'd made a nation ?" said a young girl--perhaps from Omaha--to her companion.