A few months later found me back in the States, penniless from my sojourn in Europe, eager to get home in contemplation of a hurried preparation for the University. The return trip was not so disagreeable in that there were no cattle to care for and an occasional bask in the sun on deck, with an abundance of literature in my bunk, the time was whiled away very pleasantly. The day after arriving in Newport News found me in Norfolk. I waited till night for the purpose of swinging the nine o'clock blind baggage. I loitered around the station in the afternoon, in the mean time finding out all I possibly could concerning the different trains that leave Norfolk. Along about half after eight it began to rain and by nine o'clock it was pouring. I was sitting on the inside of the station when the "train yeller" announced the departing train. The rain was coming down in torrents, and the night was a fearfully dark one, so I had no trouble whatever in getting on the blind baggage without being observed. I crawled up on the platform and lay flat, keeping as close to the baggage door as I could for the rain had already drenched me to the skin even in the few moments I had lain there waiting for the train to pull out. We were soon off and I lay on the platform, drenched to the skin. It was rather late, and then, too, on account of the inclemency of the weather, there were only a few people around the country stations so I felt secure in my position. About an hour after we had departed from Portsmouth we steamed into the little town of Wilson, and there I would have been caught had I not been just a bit faster than that rural constable. It had not rained at Wilson and there were a great many people gathered at the station. As the train pulled up to the station people were walking on either side of the track, up and down, and it was almost impossible for me to escape observance as the lamps from the station were shining brightly, thus bringing me in full view of the people loitering thereabouts.