36 WINTER SKETCHES. 



mers or ** travellers," as they call themselves, 

 were also storm-bound. As we were all regis- 

 tering our names together, the clerk replied to 

 the question of one as to the charges. ''Three 

 dollars and fifty cents per day is the rate, but 

 it is two dollars and fifty cents for travellers. 

 You are a traveller, aren't you ? " ** Yes, sir," 

 he replied. When the same question was pro- 

 posed to me, my conscience did not forbid 

 me to answer in the affirmative. So I was 

 adopted into the fraternity and thereby learned 

 many of the tricks of the trade. I played 

 euchre with my fellow " travellers " to while 

 away the tedious hours. My partner travelled 

 for a crockery house, and of our opponents one 

 travelled for a California wine house, and the 

 other for a patent medicine firm. Others in 

 the room travelled for dry-goods, grocery, 

 saddlery, hardware, and all sorts of houses, 

 one of them for a peanut firm, carrying with 

 him a large bag of samples, the commodities of 

 the others being packed in enormous trunks. 

 My modest roll of baggage astonished them, 

 and when they asked what my business was, I 

 told them it was the horse business, and that I 

 could not very well bring my sample into the 

 house. 



