gether. To each of the chums they sell a board and three
square cushions stuffed with straw, and covered with thin cotton. The
benches can be made to face each other in pairs, for the backs are
reversible. On the approach of night the boards are laid from bench to
bench, making a couch wide enough for two, and long enough for a man of
the middle height; and the chums lie down side by side upon the cushions
with the head to the conductor's van and the feet to the engine. When
the train is full, of course this plan is impossible, for there must not
be more than one to every bench, neither can it be carried out unless
the chums agree. It was to bring about this last condition that our
white-haired official now bestirred himself. He made a most active
master of ceremonies, introducing likely couples, and even guaranteeing
the amiability and honesty of each. The greater the number of happy
couples the better for his pocket, for it was he who sold the raw
material of the beds. His price for one board and three straw cushions
began with two dollars and a half; but before the train left, and, I am
sorry to say, long after I had purchased mine, it had fallen to one
dollar and a half.

The match-maker had a difficulty with me; perhaps, like some ladies, I
showed myself too eager for union at any price; but certainly the first
who was picked out to be my bedfellow declined the honour without
thanks. He was an old, heavy, slow-spoken man, I think from Yankeeland,
looked me all over with great timidity, and then began to excuse himself
in broken phrases. He didn't know the young man, he said. The young man
might be very honest, but how was he to know that? There was another
young man whom he had met already in the train; he guessed _he_ was
honest, and would prefer to chum with _him_ upon the whole. All this
without any sort of excuse, as though I had been inanimate or absent. I
began to tremble lest every one should refuse my company, and I be left
rejected. But the next in turn was a tall, strapping, long-limbed,
small-headed, curly-haired Pennsylvania Dutchman, with a soldierly
smartness in his manner. To be exact, he had acquired it in the navy.
But that was all one; he had at least been trained to desperate
resolves, so he accepted the match, and the white-haired swindler
pronounced the connubial benediction, and pocketed his fees.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in making up the train. I am afraid
to say how many baggage