eastern
traveller, who has been accustomed to connect no ideas with a railroad,
but those of smoothness or speed.

Know, then, innocent eastern friend, that in benighted regions of the
west, where the mud is of unfathomable and sublime depth, roads are made
of round rough logs, arranged transversely side by side, and coated over
in their pristine freshness with earth, turf, and whatsoever may come to
hand, and then the rejoicing native calleth it a road, and straightway
essayeth to ride thereupon. In process of time, the rains wash off
all the turf and grass aforesaid, move the logs hither and thither, in
picturesque positions, up, down and crosswise, with divers chasms and
ruts of black mud intervening.

Over such a road as this our senator went stumbling along, making
moral reflections as continuously as under the circumstances could be
expected,--the carriage proceeding along much as follows,--bump! bump!
bump! slush! down in the mud!--the senator, woman and child, reversing
their positions so suddenly as to come, without any very accurate
adjustment, against the windows of the down-hill side. Carriage sticks
fast, while Cudjoe on the outside is heard making a great muster among
the horses. After various ineffectual pullings and twitchings, just as
the senator is losing all patience, the carriage suddenly rights
itself with a bounce,--two front wheels go down into another abyss,
and senator, woman, and child, all tumble promiscuously on to the
front seat,--senator's hat is jammed over his eyes and nose quite
unceremoniously, and he considers himself fairly extinguished;--child
cries, and Cudjoe on the outside delivers animated addresses to the
horses, who are kicking, and floundering, and straining under repeated
cracks of the whip. Carriage springs up, with another bounce,--down go
the hind wheels,--senator, woman, and child, fly over on to the back
seat, his elbows encountering her bonnet, and both her feet being jammed
into his hat, which flies off in the concussion. After a few moments the
"slough" is passed, and the horses stop, panting;--the senator finds
his hat, the woman straightens her bonnet and hushes her child, and they
brace themselves for what is yet to come.

For a while only the continuous bump! bump! intermingled, just by way of
variety, with divers side plunges and compound shakes; and they begin to
flatter themselves that they are not so badly off, after all. At last,
with a square plunge, whi