es in the sleeper, than I began to worry
about the meals. Naturally she would assume that I intended to go into
the dining-car every time. Most of the girls do as a matter of course. In
fact I remember feeling condescending whenever I saw anybody eating from
a box while the other passengers were filing down the aisle, or up,
whichever it happened to be. This year I was to be one of the brave
unfortunates left behind in their seats.

Well, very likely you understand that people while traveling really ought
not to eat so heartily as usual. Much food in a dining-car clogs the
system and ventilates the pocketbook, so to speak. I appreciated myself
hard for being right and noble and abstemious and foresighted--with
respect to the semester's expenses, you perceive, and also self-denying
and self-reliant. There are a number of selfs in that sentence, likewise
in the idea and in my mind at the time. I don't believe honestly that
poverty is good for the character, though Berta says that she knows it
isn't good for anything else.

Celia and I went out to sit on the rear platform of the observation-car.
The scenery was not particularly interesting in comparison with Colorado;
and consequently I had spare energy for meditating on Emerson's essays
and his observation that "What I must do is all that concerns me, not
what the people think." I wish I were strong-minded. To reflect
sincerely, however, I don't believe it is so much a question of a strong
mind as of a weak imagination. If I had been unable to imagine what Celia
might think, doubtless I wouldn't have bothered about it.

But I was bothered. The sensation of botheration deepened and swelled and
widened as supper time drew nearer and nearer, and every moment I
expected to hear the waiter's voice intoning behind me, "Supper is now
ready in the dining-car." What made this state of affairs all the sadder
was the memory of springing gladness inspired by the same sound on
previous journeys. I sat there dreading and dreading and dreading. And
then, what do you think? Celia was asking me about Lila and Berta and
Robbie Belle and the fun we have and incidentally something about the
work. I was talking so fast that I forgot all about being poor. When the
waiter's voice suddenly rang out at the end of the car, I jumped up
instantly just as I had always done on former occasions of the same
nature. And I exclaimed, "I am simply starved to death."

Then I remembered and sat down so qu