y succeeded again by
solid blocks of houses whose rear windows gave directly upon the line,
yet seldom showed an inquisitive face--even of a wondering child. It was
a strange revelation of the depressing effects of familiarity. Expresses
might thunder by, goods trains drag their slow length along, shunting
trains pipe all day beneath their windows, but the tenants heeded them
not. Here, too, was the junction, with its labyrinthine interlacing of
tracks that dazed the tired brain; the overburdened telegraph posts,
that looked as if they really could not stand another wire; the long
lines of empty, homeless, and deserted trains in sidings that had seen
better days; the idle trains, with staring vacant windows, which were
eventually seized by a pert engine hissing, "Come along, will you?"
and departed with a discontented grunt from every individual carriage
coupling; the racing trains, that suddenly appeared parallel with one's
carriage windows, begot false hopes of a challenge of speed, and then,
without warning, drew contemptuously and, superciliously away; the swift
eclipse of everything in a tunneled bridge; the long, slithering passage
of an "up" express, and then the flash of a station, incoherent and
unintelligible with pictorial advertisements again.

He closed his eyes to concentrate his thought, and by degrees a pleasant
languor stole over him. The train had by this time attained that rate of
speed which gave it a slight swing and roll on curves and switches
not unlike the rocking of a cradle. Once or twice he opened his eyes
sleepily upon the waltzing trees in the double planes of distance, and
again closed them. Then, in one of these slight oscillations, he
felt himself ridiculously slipping into slumber, and awoke with some
indignation. Another station was passed, in which process the pictorial
advertisements on the hoardings and the pictures in his lap seemed to
have become jumbled up, confused, and to dance before him, and then
suddenly and strangely, without warning, the train stopped short--at
ANOTHER station. And then he arose, and--what five minutes before he
never conceived of doing--gathered his papers and slipped from the
carriage to the platform. When I say "he" I mean, of course, the
Writer of Stories; yet the man who slipped out was half his age and a
different-looking person.

*****

The change from the motion of the train--for it seemed that he had been
traveling several hours--to the firmer p