usands o' miles, besides carryin' millions of
passengers, more or less, it do seem most rediklous to go for to say
that coaches was safer than railways--the revarse bein' the truth. Turn
me round a bit, Bill; so, that'll do. It's the bad leg I come down on,
else I shouldn't have bin so hard-up. Yes, sir, as you truly remark,
railway companies ain't fairly dealt with, by no means."

At this point the attention of the passengers was attracted by a
remarkably fat woman, who had hitherto lain quietly on a couch breathing
in a somewhat stertorous manner. One of the medical men had been so
successful in his attention to her as to bring her to a state of
consciousness. Indeed she had been more or less in this condition for
some time past, but feeling rather comfortable than otherwise, and
dreamy, she had lain still and enjoyed herself. Being roused, however,
to a state of activity by means of smelling-salts, and hearing the
doctor remark that, except a shaking, she appeared to have sustained no
injury, this stout woman deemed it prudent to go off into hysterics, and
began by uttering a yell that would have put to shame a Comanchee
Indian, and did more damage, perhaps, to the nerves of her sensitive
hearers than the accident itself. She followed it up by drumming
heavily on the couch with her heels.

Singularly enough her yell was replied to by the whistle of the up
train, that had been due for some time past. She retorted by a renewed
shriek, and became frantic in her assurances that no power yet
discovered--whether mechanical, moral, or otherwise--could or would,
ever persuade her to set foot again in a railway train! It was of no
use to assure her that no one meant to exert such a power, even if he
possessed it; that she was free to go where she pleased, and whenever
she felt inclined. The more that stout woman was implored to compose
herself, the more she discomposed herself, and everybody else; and the
more she was besought to be calm, the more, a great deal, did she fill
the waiting-room with hysterical shrieks and fiendish laughter, until at
last every one was glad to go out of the place and get into the train
that was waiting to take them back to Clatterby. Then the stout woman
became suddenly calm, and declared to a porter--who must have had a
heart of stone, so indifferent was he to her woes--that she would be,
"glad to proceed to the nearest 'otel if 'e would be good enough to
fetch her a fly."

"H'm!"