On A Donkey's Hurricane Deck

<h3><SPAN name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE">EPILOGUE</SPAN></h3> <p class="toclink"><SPAN href="#TOC-II">TOC</SPAN></p> <div id="epiloguediv"> <p>This tale will be hard to swallow, because truth is stronger than fiction.</p> <p>The trip was more healthful for Pod than for me.</p> <p>There are four distinct distances across the American continent, viz:</p> <p>Three thousand miles as the crow flies.</p> <p>Three thousand five hundred as the train steams.</p> <p>Four thousand by overland trail for a man.</p> <p>A million miles as a donkey goes.</p> <p>The most monotonous constant companion for a long journey is a man.</p> <p>There are more people who descend to the level of a jackass than donkeys that rise to the plane of man.</p> <p>If Pye Pod had been killed or drowned, or had died on the journey he would have been condemned and ridiculed as a fool by the same people who now applaud and envy him for his achievement.</p> <p>If I had died on the first day of the trip the world would have called me lucky; now that I lived through it, I'm d——d lucky!</p> <div class="signature">M. A'R.</div> </div> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/btmmark.jpg" width-obs="600" height-obs="16" alt="" title="marker for bottom of book" /></div> <div class="transnote"> <SPAN name="TRANSCRIBER_ENDNOTE"></SPAN>TRANSCRIBER ENDNOTE: <p>End-of-line hyphens have been retained or discarded to maintain internal consistency, when possible.</p> <p>In table of contents, for page 213, "XXVII." changed to "XXVIII." For the page 219 entry, "Accross" changed to "Across".</p> <p>Page 49: in "he did it them.", "them" to "then".</p> <p>Page 50: the quotation mark at the end of the paragraph that ends with "[...] to his quarters." has no obvious mate, unless at the beginning of the paragraph on page 49 "Those who were not 'let in' to [...]" If so, then this would be a long quotation containing five paragraphs, with only two quotation marks, other than embedded short quotations. It has been formatted (e.g. by indentation) as such herein.</p> <p>Some instances of the odd use of quotation marks have been retained. Others--which seemed clearly wrong or misleading, have been changed. Some were changed silently, but a few of these are listed below.</p> <p>Page 102: one "the" removed from "visiting the homes of the the great".</p> <p>Page 107: "protographs" to "photographs".</p> <p>Page 109: "into his hay loft.." to "into his hay loft." Similar corrections on page 121 and 126. Also fixed a double comma on page 255.</p> <p>Page 120: "semed" to "seemed".</p> <p>Page 130: "Exixer" to "Elixir". Missing quotation mark inserted after "moral?".</p> <p>Page 166: "accompained" to "accompanied".</p> <p>Page 173: period added to the end of "The topography of the country varied but little".</p> <p>Page 190: period added to the end of a paragraph.</p> <p>Page 193: quotation mark with no mate removed from start of paragraph beginning with "I did not discuss further".</p> <p>Page 200: quotation mark with no mate removed from "I recalled how I had been swindled [...]".</p> <p>Page 211: "wheeel" to "wheel".</p> <p>Page 212: in "caught the animated beg before it", "beg" to "bag".</p> <p>Page 216: missing quotation mark inserted for "a pity to have [...]".</p> <p>Page 218: "Fnally" to "Finally".</p> <p>Page 224: "smaal" to "small".</p> <p>Page 246: excess quotation mark removed after "companion.".</p> <p>Page 253: "Hhat" to "That".</p> <p>Page 258: "I thing the whole" to "I think the whole".</p> <p>Page 260: "Buy" to "But".</p> <p>Page 278: "comething" to "something". Also, "house" to "hours".</p> <p>Page 308: missing quotation mark inserted. Also in illustration facing page 312.</p> <p>Page 313: missing "it" inserted.</p> <p>Page 341: quotation mark inserted after "patient.".</p> <p>Page 376: "I answered. coarsely," to "I answered coarsely,".</p> <p>Page 377: quotation mark inserted after "of water,".</p> <p>Page 381: "to save him-" to "to save himself."</p> <p>Page 410: missing quotation mark inserted before "Ain't nobody livin'". Also, extraneous single quote deleted after "blasted cat,". Also, "wasn"t" to "wasn't".</p> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />