“No, sir; none on this trip.”
“That is very unfortunate for the new and splendid steamer,” he added, chuckling.
“Yes, sir, it is rather bad; but we have to make the best of it. We hope to do better by and by.”
“I hope you will, for you seem to have plenty of room to spare.”
“Yes, sir; rather more than we wish we had.”
“I shall be obliged to have some new cars built, for we had about two hundred through passengers by this trip, and we could not seat them all in three cars.”
“I wouldn’t have any built just yet, Major Toppleton,” I answered pleasantly.
“There will be more passengers before there are less. On our morning trip down, and our afternoon trip up, we are always crowded,” chuckled the major.
“If you have more than you can accommodate comfortably, we should be glad to take some of them.”
“I dare say you would, Wolf; but the fact of it is, you are so slow that people will not ride with you.”