I've seen a lot of water go by since I was runnin'
'roun' a bare-footed boy in Tennessee. I've ranged pretty far from east
to west, an' all the way from Boston in the north to this old mission,
an' that must be some thousands of miles. An' I've had some big times in
New York, too."
"You've been in New York," said Ned, with quick interest. "It must be a
great town."
"It is. It's certainly a bulger of a place. There are thousands an'
thousands of houses, an' you can't count the sails in the bay. I saw the
City Hall an' it's a mighty fine buildin', too. It's all marble on the
side looking south, an' plain stone on the side lookin' north. I asked
why, an' they said all the poor people lived to the north of it. That's
the way things often happen, Ned. An' I saw the great, big hotel John
Jacob Astor was beginnin' to build on Broadway just below the City Hall.
They said it would cost seven hundred thousand dollars, which is an
all-fired lot of money, that it would cover mighty nigh a whole block,
an' that there would be nothin' else in America comin' up to it."
"I'd like to see that town," said Ned.
"Maybe you will some day," said Crockett, "'cause you're young. You
don't know how young you look to me.
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