“Three times a week!” exclaimed Ephraim; “why, it comes four or five times a day, unless I am very much mistaken.”
The clerk turned to a fellow-clerk behind him and said in a low tone something at which both laughed.
“How do you suppose the mails get here four or five times a day?” asked the clerk.
“Upon the mail trains, of course,” replied Ephraim, tartly; and then the clerks laughed again.
“Well, sir,” said the man at the window, “we don’t appear to understand each other; but it may straighten things out if I tell you that the New York mails come here upon a stage-coach, which takes twenty-four hours to make the journey, and which reaches here on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.”
Ephraim was about to make an angry reply, but the clerk shut the window and made further discussion impossible. For a moment Ephraim was puzzled. He stopped to think what he should do next, and while he was standing there, he noticed a curious crowd gathering about him, a crowd which seemed to regard him with peculiar interest. And now and then a rude fellow would make facetious comments upon Ephraim’s dress, at which some of the vulgar would laugh. Ephraim was somewhat bewildered, and his confusion became greater when he observed that all of the bystanders wore knee-breeches and very ugly high collars and cravats, in which their chins were completely buried. Ephraim perceived near to him a gentleman who held in his hand a newspaper. Encouraged by his friendly countenance, Ephraim said to him,—
“I am rather confused, sir, by some unexpected changes that I have found about here this morning, will you be good enough to give me a little information?”
“With pleasure, sir.”
“I have missed some important letters that I looked for from New York and the West. I wish to communicate with my correspondents at once. Will you please tell me where I can find the telegraph office?”
“The telegraph office! I don’t understand you, sir.”