But it was not only along the line of the shore that these hues prevailed; the whole lake glowed with soft amethystine and emerald tinges, in irregular masses, like the shades of watered silk.  Cleveland stands in that beautiful country without a hill, of which my fellow-passenger spoke—­a thriving village yet to grow into a proud city of the lake country.  It is built upon broad dusty ways, in which not a pebble is seen in the fat dark earth of the lake shore, and which are shaded with locust-trees, the variety called seed-locust, with crowded twigs and clustered foliage—­a tree chosen, doubtless, for its rapid growth, as the best means of getting up a shade at the shortest notice.  Here and there were gardens filled with young fruit-trees; among the largest and hardiest in appearance was the peach-tree, which here spreads broad and sturdy branches, escapes the diseases that make it a short-lived tree in the Atlantic states, and produces fruit of great size and richness.  One of my fellow-passengers could hardly find adequate expressions to signify his high sense of the deliciousness of the Cleveland peaches.

I made my way to a street of shops:  it had a busy appearance, more so than usual, I was told, for a company of circus-riders, whose tents I had seen from a distance on the lake, was in town, and this had attracted a throng of people from the country.  I saw a fruit-stall tended by a man who had the coarsest red hair I think I ever saw, and of whom I bought two or three enormous “bough apples,” as he called them.  He apologized for the price he demanded.  “The farmers,” said he, “know that just now there is a call for their early fruit, while the circus people are in town, and they make me pay a ’igh price for it.”  I told him I perceived he was no Yankee.  “I am a Londoner,” he replied; “and I left London twelve years ago to slave and be a poor man in Ohio.”  He acknowledged, however, that he had two or three times got together some property, “but the Lord,” he said, “laid his hand on it.”

On returning to the steamer, I found a party of country people, mostly young persons of both sexes, thin and lank figures, by no means equal, as productions of the country, to their bough apples.  They passed through the fine spacious cabin on the upper deck, extending between the state-rooms the whole length of the steamer.  At length they came to a large mirror, which stood at the stern, and seemed by its reflection to double the length of the cabin.  They walked on, as if they would extend their promenade into the mirror, when suddenly observing the reflection of their own persons advancing, and thinking it another party, they politely made way to let it pass.  The party in the mirror at the same moment turned to the same side, which first showed them the mistake they had made.  The passengers had some mirth at their expense, but I must do our visitors the justice to say that they joined in the laugh with a very good grace.