gang run to Chicago. On the trip of which we speak
there was placed in the baggage car at St. Paul a coffin, and at Lake
City a parrot in a cage was put in. Before the train got to Winona other
baggage was piled on top, so the coffin only showed one end, and the
parrot cage was behind a trunk, next to the barrel of drinking water,
out of sight, and where the cage would not get jammed. At La Crosse the
hands were changed, and conductor Fred Cornes, as 6:35 arrived, shouted
his cheery "All aboard," and the train moved off. The coffin was seen
by all the men in the baggage car, and a solemnity took possession of
everybody. Railroad men never feel 'entirely happy when a corpse is on
the train.

The run to Sparta was made, and Fred went to the baggage car, and
noticing the coffin and the mournful appearance of the boys, he told
them to brace up and have some style about them He said it was what we
had all to come to, sooner or later, and for his part a corpse or two,
more or less, in a car made no difference to him. He said he had rather
have a car load of dead people than go into an emigrant train when some
were eating cheese and others were taking off their shoes and feeding
infants.

He sat down in a chair and was counting over his tickets, and wondering
where all the passes come from, when the Legislature is not in session.
The train was just going through the tunnel near Greenfield, and Fred
says.

"Boys, we are now in the bowels of the earth, way down deeper than a
grave. Whew! how close it smells."

Just then the baggagemaster had taken a dipper of water from the barrel,
and was drinking it, when a sepulchral voice, that seemed to come from
the coffin, said:

"Dammit, let me out!"

The baggage man had his mouth fall of water, and when he heard the voice
from the tombs, he squirted the water clear across the car, onto the
express messenger, turned pale, and leaned against a trunk.

Fred Cornes heard the noise, and, chucking the tickets into his pocket
and grabbing his lantern, he said, as he looked at the coffin:

"Who said that! Now, no ventriloquism on me, boys. I'm an old traveler,
and don't you fool with me."

The baggage man had by this time got his breath, and he swore upon his
sacred honor that the corpse in there was alive, and asked to be let
out.

Fred went out of the car to register at Greenfield, and the express
messenger opened the door to put out some egg cases, and the baggage man
pulled o