ere
three men fitfully snored, or, in intervals of wakefulness, drearily
mumbled to each other all night long. It will be observed that this was
almost exactly the disposition of the room in M'Naughten's story. Jones
had the bed; I pitched my camp upon the floor; he did not sleep until
near morning, and I, for my part, never closed an eye.

At sunrise I heard a cannon fired; and shortly afterwards the men in the
next room gave over snoring for good, and began to rustle over their
toilettes. The sound of their voices as they talked was low and moaning,
like that of people watching by the sick. Jones, who had at last begun
to doze, tumbled and murmured, and every now and then opened unconscious
eyes upon me where I lay. I found myself growing eerier and eerier, for
I dare say I was a little fevered by my restless night, and hurried to
dress and get downstairs.

You had to pass through the rain, which still fell thick and resonant,
to reach a lavatory on the other side of the court. There were three
basin-stands, and a few crumpled towels and pieces of wet soap, white
and slippery like fish; nor should I forget a looking-glass and a pair
of questionable combs. Another Scots lad was here, scrubbing his face
with a good will. He had been three months in New York and had not yet
found a single job nor earned a single halfpenny. Up to the present, he
also was exactly out of pocket by the amount of the fare. I began to
grow sick at heart for my fellow-emigrants.

Of my nightmare wanderings in New York I spare to tell. I had a thousand
and one things to do; only the day to do them in, and a journey across
the continent before me in the evening. It rained with patient fury;
every now and then I had to get under cover for a while in order, so to
speak, to give my mackintosh a rest; for under this continued drenching
it began to grow damp on the inside. I went to banks, post-offices,
railway-offices, restaurants, publishers, booksellers, money-changers,
and wherever I went a pool would gather about my feet, and those who
were careful of their floors would look on with an unfriendly eye.
Wherever I went, too, the same traits struck me: the people were all
surprisingly rude and surprisingly kind. The money-changer
cross-questioned me like a French commissary, asking my age, my
business, my average income, and my destination, beating down my
attempts at evasion, and receiving my answer in silence; and yet when
all was over, he shoo