Page:Chetyates00yateiala.pdf/316

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"He thanked me, and grinned, and I asked for a paper bag for my hat.

"'Oh, ah ain't de portah, Miss,' he said; 'Ah'm fum de dinin'-cah'—and he melted away, while I fished for another half-dollar to pay the nightmare's expenses. When the real porter came, I handed it to him, and looked pleasant, and he didn't appear to notice the type-writer, and as there wasn't another passenger in the car, I thought that my troubles were over;—but I hadn't counted upon the conscience of the Pullman conductor!

"He came in, he spied it, and he looked shocked and astonished, and said that it couldn't stay. He said that it should have been checked, and I agreed with him, but said that I couldn't seem to find a baggage master of the same opinion.

"He said it would cost him a fifteen-day layoff if an inspector should see it.

"I mentioned the fact that there weren't any inspectors on the car just then, nor any one else, and that, consequently, it wasn't crowding any one so as to notice.

"He said that didn't make any difference,—that he had been laid off fifteen days once before