82 FIVE ACKES TOO MUCH. 



how we hate life when it is forced upon us, and how 

 we love it when there is danger of its being taken 

 away frqjn us. There sat half a dozen men who 

 would have given from five to fifty dollars each to 

 have had sixty minutes less of life, whereas the 

 wretch on the scaffold would give five thousand for 

 sixty minutes more. 



The hour went by, then another, and another, each 

 bringing accessions to the crowd of anxious, hungry, 

 unhappy waiting men and women that clung round 

 the depot like drones round a hive, and giving me 

 plenty of time to work out the foregoing specula 

 tions. Night came upon us. The only official the 

 ticket-man shut up his office and went home, prob 

 ably to a loving wife and family ; the brakeman put 

 out all but one light ; five o clock had resolved itself 

 into ten. Conveyances of all kinds, from a carriage 

 down to a swill-cart, were in demand to carry pas 

 sengers to Flushing ; fares by these novel and some 

 what dilatory vehicles ranged from one dollar to five. 

 Men became disgusted, women exhausted, and chil 

 dren irrepressible ; but still no train. When I left 

 in despair, at about midnight, the men had fallen 

 asleep on the benches, while women were frantically 

 demanding where there was a respectable hotel. 



Next day it appeared that the train had run off 



