As he clambered slowly out, the general impression was that of a man about three sizes smaller than the one who had entered. We left the car the instant the train stopped at Auburn, but as we hastened away we were hailed with loud shouts by the train crew, who followed us on the run, headed by the brakeman. We stopped behind a row of boxcars as they joined us. With whoops and howls they slapped one another on the back, danced about, doubled up and fairly rolled on the ground in convulsions of laughter. “Say, didn’t our old man hand that fellow some chunks of language? Say now; didn’t he?” gasped the brakeman when he could speak. “He passed it out like a regular dictionary. Just the same kind of dope that Little Tom-tit has been feeding us on so long,” sputtered the fireman, who it seems had left the engine on the way down to join the gleeful circle about the manhole while the circus was going on within. “Well, I guess I punctured his tire, all right,” vouchsafed the conductor. “Guess he’ll go a little easy on efficiency and discipline with this crew for a while.” “I wouldn’t have missed that performance for five hundred dollars,” broke in the rear brakeman. “It was the richest thing I ever heard.” “You should have heard Miss Innocence here stringing him along when he first came aboard. Her eyes kept a-glowing bigger and bigger, and his chest kept a-swelling and a-swelling, till I thought I’d bust. Oh, he was a wonderful man, all right, all right.” “Well, boys,” remarked the conductor, whipping off his cap. “You all admit you enjoyed a good show, that would have had a very different ending if it hadn’t been for the quick wit of this gritty lady. Chip in now, and pay for your reserved seats.” Money rattled into the cap and despite our protestations the conductor forced it into Dan’s hands. With quip and jest the men bade us good-bye, and we passed over to the main street in search of a restaurant. Our hunger appeased, we marched boldly to the station and took a passenger train to Sacramento, where we made connection with the river boat for San Francisco.