A BUTTING DIFFICULTY. 413 



a lady's sake, but no man in this carriage should have 

 done so without my leave." On this the warwhoop again 

 arose, but nothing further. 



Soon after this little agreeable episode in American 

 railway history had happened, I fell asleep again, from 

 which slumber I was once more disagreeably aroused by 

 the nasal tones of that wrangling and quarrelling voice. 

 At first, of course, I thought that I was the object 

 of its hostility, but on turning my head I perceived 

 that the quarrelsome owner of that voice was struggling 

 with a tall countryman of his as to which way a seat 

 should or should not be turned. Each had hold of it, 

 and each was trying to turn it the way he desired, and 

 the struggle became most amusing. " I have a right to 

 turn the seat, sir, and I will," said the tallest man, 

 butting at it like a sheep. " Guess you won't though," 

 snarled the quarrelsome man ; u and mind, sir, take care 

 what you are about, sir, or I reckon I '11 get at something 

 else, sir." "Will you, sir?" replied his opponent, 

 " Guess you may get at it as soon as you please guess 

 I 'm as ready as you." Then at it they went again, 

 pushing like two bulls of Bashan, interlarding their 

 struggles for the turn of the seat with many suggestive 

 threats. At last I was so sick of the scene, that I was 

 just about to get up and say, " Come, come, enough of 

 this, let an Englishman settle the matter in a good- 

 humoured way," when, to my intense disgust, one of 

 them said to the other, " I '11 bet you sixty dollars I get 

 the seat." This allusion to dollars was too much for the 

 national feeling, and on the mention of a wager up jumped 

 half the passengers in the train, and began to bet upon 

 the belligerents. I got up too to see the fun, and made one 

 of the half circle around them. After one or two struggles 



