finding a room where he could have the great joy of sleeping with all the doors tightly closed. This will seem like a strange idea, but when you remember that it was a bitter cold night and the men had no cover of any description except the clothes that they had worn all day, it will be seen that they had some little ground for wanting to keep out all the cold air possible.
It will be remembered that the floors in all the inns are made of stone and mud, with the flues underneath them for the purpose of heating the room. The same fire that cooks the food for the ponies is also utilized in warming the room where the guests sleep. This is true in August as well as in December, and adds no little discomfort to the guests when the weather is warm. The warm floors contribute in another way to the discomfort of the guests. They act as a sort of incubator for the hatching and rearing of innumerable insects and creeping things, the names of which are not usually mentioned in polite society. These pests are to be found in all the inns, and sometimes in such numbers as to completely destroy the rest of any poor unfortunate fellow who may not be accustomed to such bedfellows.
As to the peculiar smells of the inn, it is useless for me to attempt to describe them. Besides, I have already told you that I am convinced that smell is, wholly a matter of education, and not a real condition. That is, it depends altogether on what one has been accustomed to smell as to whether it is pleasant or disagreeable. For one whose education has been neglected in his youth to drop into one of these inns on
