the boy might be suspicious of his sudden friendship, for Mr.
Baker was a good reader of character, and he saw that Roy, in spite of
his lack of experience, was a shrewd lad.

As for the young traveler, he began to get tired. He was unused to
sitting still so long, and riding in a soft chair was very different
from being on the back of the swift pony, galloping over the plains.

"I wonder what they're going to do about bunks?" thought Roy, as he
looked about the car. "I don't fancy sleeping on these chairs, and
I've heard they made the seats in the coaches up into bunks."

Roy had never seen a sleeping car, and imagined the coach he was in was
one. He decided he would ask the porter about it soon, if he saw no
signs of the beds being made up. He had his supper alone at a table in
the dining car, Mr. Baker remaining with his three cronies, and out of
Roy's sight. Profiting by his experience at dinner, the boy knew how
to order a good meal.

To his relief, soon after he got back to the parlor car, the porter who
had first spoken to him, came up and announced:

"Youh berth will be ready any time youh want it, sah."

"Berth?"

"Yais, sah."

Roy did not know exactly what was meant. At the ranch that word was
never used, a bed being a "bunk."

"I don't think I care for any," said Roy, deciding that was the safest
way.

"What's that, sah? Youh ain't goin to sit up all night, be youh?
Mighty uncomfortable, sah. Better take a bed. Youh ticket calls fo'
one, sah."

"Oh, you mean a bunk?"

"Bunk! Ha! Ha! Youh western gen'men gwine to hab youh joke, I see.
We calls 'em berths, sah."

"Is mine ready?"

"Jest as soon as youh want it. Youh can go back in de sleeping car."

This Roy understood. He went back two coaches toward the rear, as
directed by the porter, and found himself in still another kind of car.
This had big plush seats, like small couches, facing each other, while,
overhead, was a sort of sloping ceiling.

"I don't see where there are many bunks here," the boy remarked to
himself. He saw persons sitting in the seats, talking, and, finding
one unoccupied, he took possession of it. Soon a porter came in to
him, examined his ticket, and asked:

"Do youh wish youh berth made up now, sah?"

"Guess I might as well," replied Roy, wondering where the porter was
going to get the bed from, and whether he was going to produce it from
some unseen source, as a conjurer pulls rabbits out of tall