It would be safest if Sandy and I fled in disguise. Of course, Sandy was already dressing as a girl, but few, even in Yonkers, knew that. Equally, few knew that I had managed to pass as a man before, or that I regularly wore tongs and a shirt during my morning exercises with the poor Sergeant. With my hair cut short and my mannish frame, I looked disturbingly like a lad – even in my dresses.

I had lost my petticoat to the necessity of bandages. Further, my Sunday dress, which I had worn on the day of the attack, was too bulky for my bag. I gave it and my old grey dress Anne. This made room for two dresses Peggy had outgrown when she blossomed. These were now Sandy’s.

Dressed in Mr. Wells’ old suit, and with my bosom bound, I had arrived in Dobbs Ferry as a strapping lad of 15 or 16 years. Sandy was my sister, and we were on our way home to Albany after a visit with our Auntie Anne. We thus faced no questions when we broke our fast shortly after dawn in the tavern’s public room. My suit was out of style, but I looked no more odd than any lad my age wearing his father or grandfather’s hand-me-down.

After breakfasting on porridge, cream and coffee, we walked down to the ferry pier. After a brief wait, Sandy spied a plume of black smoke hastening upriver. I recalled the sweet pine smoke that curled out of steamboats when my father had taken David and me to see them sailing the river. They had moved at a leisurely pace. Now the boat raced toward us at 20 miles an hour! The price of this advance was the cloud of sulfurous smoke that settled around us in the cool morning air.

At the foot of the ramp stood the conductor, whom I learned is called “the purser” on a boat. I paid him our passage ($2.80 for me and $1.40 for Sandy), and boarded. All was a rush, for the boat was not docked more than a minute before bells rang and sweat-soaked men on either side began shoveling coal into the very furnaces of hell. Valves opened and closed, hissing steam and causing enormous pistons to rise and fall. An ingenious system of links and rods turned giant wheels on either side. The river churned, boiling up mud, and the boat backed out. Soon more bells rang, an officer threw levers, and we moved forward at an increasing pace.

I was fascinated and tried to work out how the whole was arranged to its end. Sandy, on the other hand, quickly grew bored and wandered off in search of something more to his amusement. My neglect soon came upon me and I went in search of my charge. In front of, and behind, the engines are two large accommodations for the passengers, with rows of benches. Each has a kitchen and a counter arranged much like the victualing-houses I had seen in Manhattan. There one can purchase, at exorbitant prices, food and drink to be carried back to one’s bench.

Sandy was in the forward accommodation hall, playing with two other girls. Remembering what the Sergeant had taught me about “situational awareness,” I scanned the hall. Most of the passengers seemed men of business, but there was a scattering of families, and most peculiarly, a group of women engaged in energetic and purposeful conversation – I might almost say debate. A raven-haired lady of about 40 had a lap desk and noted down points of agreement. As I observed them, a somewhat younger brunette looked at me for a moment, smiled and when back to their common business. Sitting by a window, not far from them, sat a smaller group of men amiably playing cards and smoking cigars. From the occasional glances exchanged between the groups, I took these to be the ladies’ husbands.

These groups were singular in another respect. One of the women, who seemed to be accepted as an equal, was a negress, and one of the men, treated similarly, was a well-dressed freedman. I had never seen such a thing.

Perceiving no immediate danger, I returned my attention to Sandy and the girls, who were playing Cupid’s Coming. The girls, perhaps 9 and 12 years old, were dressed to match, so I assumed they were sisters. As I arrived they had evidently been playing “C” for some time. Cupid was coming “Charming," “Chanting,” “Careering,” and so on. Sandy was keeping her own when the younger sister could think of no word.
“Rose, I always lose! You only know more words than me because you’re older – and so is Sandy. It’s not fair! We should play something else!” she pouted.

“Like what?”

“Like dolls.”

“Violet, that would be mean because Sandy doesn’t have one!”

“Oh, but she does,” I interjected.

“Mi… Billy?” Sandy looked questioningly at me.

I opened my bag and dug to the bottom where I had the doll my mother had made me. “Here you go, dear.”

Sandy took it with a quick “Thank you,” and went back to her play.

“My, aren’t you a lovely big brother. I’m Sara Goodhill, these girls’ mother.”

“William Newcomb,” I said, extending my hand. “I suppose you’ve met my sister, Sandy? I was looking at the steam engines, and she got away from me.”

“Don’t worry, its perfectly natural for a young man to be interested in such things. What has happened to your poor head?”

“Oh, it looks worse than it is. I got hurt through carelessness in exploring a cave.”

“I suppose boys will be boys,” she said, returning to her sewing.

At that moment, I had a sudden sense of loss, for I had left the community of women, which I enjoyed with Jane, Caroline and Anne. Even my adulthood had slipped away. In this woman’s eyes, I was not a person of the world, but merely an older boy accompanying his young sister.

I read quietly and watched the scenery pass while Sandy assumed her new persona as if she had never been a boy. From time to time, I would see her playing with my doll and reflect with vague dread and uncertainty on my new status. I had thought that passing as a boy would give me a new freedom, but so far it was yet to be realized.

I thought too of Caroline, whom I might never see again, and wondered how I could find someone like her, now that I had given up my dress for tongs. A young woman might be attracted to the new me, but it was unlikely that she would share Caroline’s inclinations – and impossible that I would be able to meet her desires.

I was lost in such thoughts when Sandy interrupted my reflections. “I am hungry! Can we not buy some food?”

“Yes … I am sorry. Let us see what they have.” We settled on sausages with mustard on fresh buns -- washed down with lemonade.

Sandy fell asleep on the bench with his head in my lap. The day had grown hot and the river air was humid, so I rolled my jacket as a pillow for Sandy and went to the bow to enjoy the breeze. Suddenly, the brunette from the women’s group was at my side.

“Excuse me,” she said.

“Yes?”

“I thought you needed to know something.”

“What is that?”

“Your disguise is incomplete and sure to be penetrated.”

“My disguise?” I said, trying to hide my alarm.

“Yes, as a boy.”

I was at a loss for words. I could hardly deny her perspicacity.

“You see,” she blushed, “whenever I see a man – or a strapping lad – I can’t help but look at his … well, at his manhood, and you do not have any, my dear. Women are sure to notice – and some men too, I dare say.”

“Oh!” I did not know what to say, but clearly she was right. It was an obvious blunder on my part.

“I assume that you have good reason for your incognito. You have a wound to your head – and I observed how you took in all parts of the room when you entered. … I am Abigail Cummings, by the way,” she said, extending her hand.

“William … no, Nancy Winston, governess.” I decided to trust her, as she was obviously trying to help.

"Sandy, the child with me, is my charge, and we have already evaded two attacks. So, we are fleeing west.”

“You plan to take a canal boat then?”

“Yes.”

“So do my friends and I. We are on our way to Seneca Falls. It might be to your advantage to accompany us -- that far, at least.”

“I do not know where Seneca Falls is.”

“Oh, I should have said. It is near the canal in the Finger Lakes country.”

The Sergeant had taught me that some plan is better than no plan, so I agreed.

When I returned to the hall, Sandy was awake and playing dolls with Rose and Violet. Shortly after, we arrived in Albany – a mere seven and a half hours since we began!