e there. I decided, on the spur of the moment, to go, anyhow, and
thus got off on the afternoon train for Washington, intending to run my
luck for getting a sleeper there. This was the day before Christmas-eve
and I was due to arrive in New Orleans Christmas-day, some time. Well,
when I got to Washington there was not a berth to be had for love or
money, and I was in a pickle. I fumed and fussed; abused the railroad
companies and got mad with the ticket agent, who seemed, I thought, to
be very indifferent as to whether I went to New Orleans or not, and
I had just decided to turn around and come back to New York, when the
agent, who was making change for someone else, said: 'I'm not positive,
but I think there's a train on such and such a road, and you may be able
to get a berth on that. It leaves about this time, and if you hurry
you may be able to catch it.' He looked at his watch: 'Yes, you've just
about time to stand a chance; everything is late to-day, there are such
crowds, and the snow and all.' I thanked him, feeling like a dog over my
ill-temper and rudeness to him, and decided to try. Anything was better
than New York, Christmas-day. So I jumped into a carriage and told the
driver to drive like the--the wind, and he did. When we arrived at the
station the ticket agent could not tell me whether I could get a berth
or not, the conductor had the diagram out at the train, but he thought
there was not the slightest chance. I had gotten warmed up, however, by
my friend's civility at the other station, and I meant to go if there
was any way to do it, so I grabbed up my bags and rushed out of the
warm depot into the cold air again. I found the car and the conductor
standing outside of it by the steps. The first thing that struck
me was his appearance. Instead of being the dapper young
naval-officerish-looking fellow I was accustomed to, he was a stout,
elderly man, with bushy, gray hair and a heavy, grizzled mustache, who
looked like an old field-marshal. He was surrounded by quite a number of
people all crowding about him and asking him questions at once, some of
whose questions he was answering slowly as he pored over his diagram,
and others of which he seemed to be ignoring. Some were querulous,
some good-natured, and all impatient, but he answered them all with
imperturbable good humor. It was very cold, so I pushed my way into
the crowd. As I did so I heard him say to someone: 'You asked me if
the lower berths were