fastened up by straps. I unfastened one of the
straps, and saw that I could let down the sash if I wished, and thus
make a glass window in front of me, so as to shut me in nicely from the
wind, if it should grow cold in the night. Behind me was a curtain. The
curtain was loose. I pushed it back, and found I could look out on the
top of the diligence where the men were at work packing the trunks and
baggage. The men wore blue frocks shaped like cartmen's frocks.[C]

[Footnote C: Such a frock is called a _blouse_--pronounced _blooze_.
Almost all working men in France wear them. Hence the class of workmen
in France are sometimes called the _blouses_.]

"Right before the boot was the postilion's seat. It was a little lower
than my seat, and was large enough for two. The conductor's seat was at
the end of my seat, under the bellows-top. There was one thing curious
about his seat, and that is, that there was a joint in the iron bar of
the boot, so that he could open his end of it, and get out and in
without disturbing the boot before the rest of the passengers. When I
wanted to get out I had to climb over the boot to the postilion's seat,
and so get down by the little iron steps.

"The reason I wanted to get down was so as to buy some oranges. There
was a woman down there with oranges to sell. She had them in a basket. I
thought perhaps that I might be thirsty in the night, and that I could
not get down very well to get a drink of water. So I climbed down and
bought four oranges. I bought one for myself, and two to give father and
mother, and one more because the woman looked so poor. Besides, they
were not very dear--only fifteen centimes apiece. It takes five centimes
to make a sou, and a sou is about as much as a cent.

"When I had bought my oranges I climbed up into my place again.

"There were several people beginning to come and stand about the door of
the bureau. I suppose they were the travellers. Some came in cabs, with
their trunks on before with the postilion. I counted up how many the
diligence would hold, and found that in all, including the two
postilion's seats, and the conductor's, that there were places for
twenty-one. But when we started we had twenty-four in all. Where the
other three sat you will see by and by.[D]

[Footnote D: The diligence is very large. It has four separate
compartments. For a more full account of the construction of the
vehicle, and for one or two engravings representing it, see R