These local
legislatures are too insufferably apish of mighty legislation, to be
seen without bile; for which reason, and because a great crowd of
senators and ladies had assembled in both houses to behold the
inimitable, and had already begun to pour in upon him even in the
secretary's private room, I went back to the hotel, with all speed. The
members of both branches of the legislature followed me there, however,
so we had to hold the usual levee before our half-past one o'clock
dinner. We received a great number of them. Pretty nearly every man spat
upon the carpet, as usual; and one blew his nose with his fingers,--also
on the carpet, which was a very neat one, the room given up to us being
the private parlor of the landlord's wife. This has become so common
since, however, that it scarcely seems worth mentioning. Please to
observe that the gentleman in question was a member of the senate, which
answers (as they very often tell me) to our House of Lords.

"The innkeeper was the most attentive, civil, and obliging person I ever
saw in my life. On being asked for his bill, he said there was no bill:
the honor and pleasure, etc. being more than sufficient.[57] I did not
permit this, of course, and begged Mr. Q. to explain to him that,
traveling four strong, I could not hear of it on any account.

"And now I come to the Canal-Boat. Bless your heart and soul, my dear
fellow,--if you could only see us on board the canal-boat! Let me think,
for a moment, at what time of the day or night I should best like you to
see us. In the morning? Between five and six in the morning, shall I
say? Well! you _would_ like to see me, standing on the deck, fishing the
dirty water out of the canal with a tin ladle chained to the boat by a
long chain; pouring the same into a tin basin (also chained up in like
manner); and scrubbing my face with the jack towel. At night, shall I
say? I don't know that you _would_ like to look into the cabin at night,
only to see me lying on a temporary shelf exactly the width of this
sheet of paper when it's open (_I measured it this morning_),[58] with
one man above me, and another below; and, in all, eight-and-twenty in a
low cabin, which you can't stand upright in with your hat on. I don't
think you would like to look in at breakfast-time either, for then these
shelves have only just been taken down and put away, and the atmosphere
of the place is, as you may suppose, by no means fresh; though there
_ar