Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 12).djvu/178

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174
PIONEER ROADS

"I don't know what the sensation of being darned may be, or whether a man's mother has a keener relish or disrelish of the process than anybody else; but if the endurance of this mysterious ceremony by the old lady in question had depended on the accuracy of her son's vision in respect to the abstract brightness and smartness of the Harrisburg mail, she would certainly have undergone its infliction. However, they booked twelve people inside; and the luggage (including such trifles as a large rocking-chair, and a good-sized dining-table), being at length made fast upon the roof, we started off in great state.

"At the door of another hotel, there was another passenger to be taken up.

"'Any room, sir?' cries the new passenger to the coachman.

"'Well there's room enough,' replies the coachman, without getting down, or even looking at him.

"'There an't no room at all, sir,' bawls a gentleman inside. Which another gentleman (also inside) confirms, by predicting that the attempt to introduce any more passengers 'won't fit nohow.'