CHAPTER VI. AN ENGLISH NIMROD.
If Oscar had been his own master he could have spent a few days very agreeably in looking about the city of Liverpool.
Among other things he wanted to see were the famous docks, of which he had heard and read so much; but his time belonged to the committee, who paid him liberally for it, and he did not consider that he had a right to use any portion of it for his own pleasure.
His first duty was to visit Somerset, a little town about a hundred miles distant, and present some of his letters of introduction to a celebrated hunter and traveller who lived there.
He knew where the town was and how to reach it, for his written instructions and guide-book told him all about it.
Oscar lost no time in securing his ticket, and the first train that left Liverpool for the North whirled him away toward his destination, which he reached about midnight.
Everything he saw on the way was new and strange. He did not at all like the idea of being locked in a "carriage"—for that is what a passenger car is called in England.
What if there should be a smash-up? or what if that quiet, dignified gentleman who sat opposite him and who was the only other passenger in that compartment should prove to be an escaped lunatic, who might at any moment become violent?
But the train, although it moved at a high rate of speed, carried him through in safety, and the dignified gentleman on the other seat snored lustily during the entire journey.
Oscar slept soundly at the Hare and Hounds, and awoke the next morning to find it raining in torrents.