2.  As we neared Boston these demonstrations increased in frequency and violence, but the stranger kept his seat and chuckled to himself.  He shifted the position of his two portmanteaus, or placed them on the seat as if he was getting ready to leave.  As we were at least twenty-five miles from Boston, such early preparations seemed extremely ridiculous.  He became so excited at last that he could not keep his secret.  Some one must be made a confidant; and as I happened to be the nearest to him, he selected me.

3.  Turning around suddenly, and rocking himself to and fro in his chair, he said, “I have been away from home three years.  Have been in Europe.  My folks don’t expect me for three months yet, but I got through and started.  I telegraphed them at the last station—­they’ve got the dispatch by this time.”  As he said this he rubbed his hands, and changed the portmanteau on his left to the right, and then the one on the right to the left.

4.  “Have you a wife?” said I.  “Yes, and three children,” was the answer.  He then got up and folded his overcoat anew, and hung it over the back of the seat.  “You are somewhat nervous just now, are you not?” said I.

5.  “Well, I should think so,” he replied.  “I have n’t slept soundly for a week.  Do you know,” he went on, speaking in a low tone, “I am almost certain this train will run off the track and break my neck before I get to Boston.  I have had too much good luck lately for one man.  It can’t last.  It rains so hard, sometimes, that you think it’s never going to stop; then it shines so bright you think it’s always going to shine; and just as you are settle in either belief, you are knocked over by a change, to show you that you know nothing about it.”

6.  “Well, according to your philosophy,” I said, “you will continue to have sunshine because you are expecting a storm.”  “Perhaps so,” he replied; “but it is curious that the only thing which makes me think I shall get through safe is, I fear that I shall not.”

7.  “I am a machinist,” he continued; “I made a discovery; nobody believed in it; I spent all my money in trying to bring it out; I mortgaged my home—­everything went.  Everybody laughed at me—­everybody but my wife.  She said she would work her fingers off before I should give it up.  I went to England.  At first I met with no encouragement whatever, and came very near jumping off London Bridge.  I went into a workshop to earn money enough to come home with:  there I met the man I wanted.  To make a long story short, I’ve brought home 50,000 Pounds with me, and here I am.”

8.  “Good!” I exclaimed.  “Yes,” said he, “and the best of it is, she knows nothing about it.  She has been disappointed so often that I concluded I would not write to her about my unexpected good luck.  When I got my money, though, I started for home at once.”