Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/135

Rh mit Thranen ass, replied Amanda, polite even at the last gasp.

"I read my Goethe in decent English, and don't know any thing about training asses," returned Lavinia, severely.

That was too much! Amanda cast her paper down, and had her laugh out, as the only means of saving herself from suffocation. The others gazed upon her in blank amazement, till she found breath enough to enlighten them, when such peals of merriment arose, that the guard popped his head in to see if he had not unwittingly shipped a load of lunatics.

"That was splendid! But now we must sober down, for a gorgeous being is about to get in," said Amanda, as they stopped at a station.

The gorgeous being entered, and found three demure ladies rapt in newspapers. They apparently saw nothing but the words before them; yet every one of them knew that the handsome young man had bowed in the most superior manner; also, that he was dressed in brown velvet, long gaiters, buttoned to the knee, a ravishing blue tie, buff gloves, and pouch and powder-horn slung over his