Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-05-16
CHAPTER XIX.

CHAPTER XIX.
, The fare to Chicago by two-day
train was eighteen dollars apiece,
which included free reclining chair
car From Chicago to San Francisco
1t was thirty-three dollars more, with
eight dollars extra for the tourist
sleeper. In all, hundred and ten dol
lars, which left them precisely sixty
nine dollars and twenty cents to pay
for their meals and provide for them
in San Francisco. But fer Daggan-
courts generosity they would have
been forced to go hungry in order to
heard an even more meager sum.
They slept their bridal night, fully
dressed, in the free reclining chairs,
which, however favorably regarded by
the railway company, were wretched
substitutes for beds. The car was
crowded and hot; stout gentleman
gurgled and snored; an ailing child
whimpered at intervals throughout the
night. Matt awoke in the morning
discouraged and not without haunt
ing conjunction at seeing Chris in
such place among such people.
He was unprepared for her good
spirits when she, too. awoke; her
gaiety and laughter were as warming
to him as sunshine. She made jest
of everything and was not discouraged
at all; she was eager for breakfast,
and debated with much crinkling Of
her pretty brows, whether or not they
could afford a quarter each.
Indeed, throughout those long days,
she never wavered nor repined. Ac-
customed to ease, luxury, servants,
everything that wealth could buy, she
seemed not to give their loss thought.
She would sit in wayside eating
houses, swinging saucily on her STOOL
and nod at Matt over her appraised cup,
or give him bite of her pie when,
after elaboration, he had chosen an
apple instead. She made friends with
the newsboy, and persuaded him to
leave his stack Of books and maya
zines on their seat; she made friends
with the fat man, who had left Chi
cago with them, and borrowed his
playing cards; she romped with the
children in the aisle, and helped their
weary mothers to undress them at
night and put them to bed; she was
always the first out at a stop and the
last in, sparklingly alive and full OF
zest She had the delightful faculty
Of investing petty things with interest,
and of enriching them with magma
ton and humor; so that the dog in the
baggage car, or the sick old gentle
man with the white hat, or the college
boys filtration with the painted lady
took on observation-disclosures
value when embellished by her viva
cous fancy.
To Matt and her the frowsy old car
touched 1t with magic wand; what
did It matter IL their meals were
pinched and they had to take count OF
every nickel. They were always
counting their money and scheming
economies, but 1t was hard, for they
were young and well and hungry, and
could eat whole quarter each and
still want more. Matt was terrible
cheat, and was capable of munching air
and doing grand stand play with q
paper napkin in order to produce an
unexpected present of candy after
ward-tender articles, often detected
and hotly punished; but never without
yelling Of that girlish heart, and a
smile was sometimes very close to
tears. And all the while they were
rolling westward, over plain and des-
ert past cities and snow-capped mount
aims; and with them rolled the dog in
the baggage car, the sick old gentle
man in the white hat, the admiring
newsboy and the fat man-all that lit
tie world of which for time they
were part. ,-
1t was dark when they reached the
Oakland mole and took the ferry
across the bay to San Francisco. Dark
and foggy and biting cold, with q
smell of the sea, and of tar, and ships,
and mud-flats. They were disgorged
like cattle on the other side, stream
ing down into crowd Of hotel touts.
cabmen and transfer men with street
cars whirling on turntables and mob
bed as they turned. But there were
no cabs for them, no street cars.
Matt, weighed down with suit
case in one hand and the heavy port
manteau in the other, led the way
through the mean, evil streets. Drunk
en- sailors jostled them; squalid base
ments emitted discordant music and
the sound of women's voices; the air
smelled rankly of stale vegetables and
decaying oranges. Matt was glad to
get through this low quarter and into
the safer and more familiar region OF
Montgomery avenue. To Chris it
hardly seemed change for the bet
ter, for 1t was still poor neighbcr-
hood, and though the buildings increas-
ed. in size, they were old, with dingy
entrances, and wore an aspect of neg
lect and dilapidation.
They crossed the avenue, passed a
brilliantly lighted saloon on the cor
ner, and entered cheap rooming
house, whose exterior was scarcely
less forbidding than the others. Matt
had dilated on the old-fashioned COIL
ness Of No. Z, Washington block, but
as seen by the two tired travellers on
that foggy night 1t was hard to fit it
in with his enthusiastic description.
But a nice, motherly woman on the
second floor did something to dull the
edge Of their disappointment. This
was Miss Diehl, the agent, who, after
parley in her own spotless room, Of