For a time the stream of omnibuses, cabs, heavy wagons,
and light carts, completely bewildered him, as did the throng of
people who hastened along the footway. He was depressed rather than
exhilarated at the sight of this busy multitude. He seemed such a
solitary atom in the midst of this great moving crowd. Presently,
however, the thought that where so many millions gained their living
there must be room for one boy more, somewhat cheered him. He was
a long time making his way to his place of destination, for he
stared into every shop window, and being, although he was perfectly
ignorant of the fact, on the wrong side of the pavement, he was
bumped and bustled continually, and was not long in arriving at
the conclusion that the people of London must be the roughest and
rudest in the world. It was not until he ran against a gentleman,
and was greeted with the angry, "now then, boy. Where are you going?
Why the deuce don't you keep on your own side of the pavement?" that
he perceived that the moving throng was divided into two currents,
that on the inside meeting him, while the outside stream was
proceeding in the same direction as himself. After this he got on
better, and arrived without adventure at the house of the porter,
in the Old Kent Road.
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