And Then, While We Were In Our Agony, Pulling At The
Straps Of Our Portmanteaus And Swearing At The Faithlessness Of The
Boots, Up Came The Clerk Of The Hotel - The Great Man From Behind The
Bar - And Scolded Us Prodigiously For Our Delay.
"Called!
We had
been called an hour ago!" Which statement, however, was decidedly
untrue, as we remarked, not with extreme patience. "We should
certainly be late," he said; "it would take us five minutes to reach
the train, and the cars would be off in four." Nobody who has not
experienced them can understand the agonies of such moments - of such
moments as regards traveling in general; but none who have not been
at Cairo can understand the extreme agony produced by the threat of
a prolonged sojourn in that city. At last we were out of the house,
rushing through the mud, slush, and half-melted snow, along the
wooden track to the railway, laden with bags and coats, and deafened
by that melancholy, wailing sound, as though of a huge polar she-
bear in the pangs of travail upon an iceberg, which proceeds from an
American railway-engine before it commences its work. How we
slipped and stumbled, and splashed and swore, rushing along in the
dark night, with buttons loose, and our clothes half on! And how
pitilessly we were treated! We gained our cars, and even succeeded
in bringing with us our luggage; but we did not do so with the
sympathy, but amid the derision of the by-standers.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 188 of 531
Words from 50148 to 50405
of 142339