324 AX AMERICAX FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



hour. The express trains, however, upon the main lines, run 

 usually as fast as fifty miles an hour, sometimes sixty. For the 

 accommodation, comfort, and advantage of all but those who 

 choose and can afford to pay well, their railroad system is inferior 

 to ours. 



It was " Waterloo Day," and there had been a review of the 

 forces at Portsmouth, before the Duke of Wellington and Prince 

 Albert ; the Queen had been off the harbor in her yacht, and 

 received a salute ; there had been a balloon ascension, and a 

 carousal with long speeches. There was to be an illumination 

 yet, and the town was full some of the streets packed with sol- 

 diers and sailors and women. We spent several hours trying to 

 get lodgings ; every hotel, inn, tavern, and lodging-house, high 

 and low, was full. The best thing that kindness or covetousness 

 could be induced to offer, was room to lay upon a carpet on the 

 floor, and this nowhere that we thought it likely we should be 

 allowed to sleep. We got supper at a small inn, and the landlady 

 informed us frankly that she charged us twice as much for it as 

 she usually would, because it was " holiday." 



It was late at night when, by advice of policemen and favor of 

 sentinels, we had passed out through a series of ramparts, and 

 were going up a broad street of the adjoining town of Portsea. 

 " Good-night, my dear," we heard a kindly-toned voice ; and a 

 woman closed a door, and, after walking on a moment, ascended 

 the steps to another. " Could you be good enough, madam," one 

 of us took the liberty of inquiring, " to tell us of any house in 

 this vicinity where we should be likely to obtain lodging for the 

 night?" 



" No deai' me ! who are you ? " 



We are strangers in the town ; travelers, who reached here 

 this evening, and we have been looking for several hours to find 

 some place where we could sleep, but all the inns are full." 



