As the sun went down and the evening chill came on, we made preparation for bed.

We stirred up the hard leather letter-sacks, and the knotty canvas bags of printed matter (knotty and uneven because of projecting ends and corners of magazines, boxes and books).

We stirred them up and redisposed them in such a way as to make our bed as level as possible.
And we did improve it, too, though after all our work it had an upheaved and billowy look about it, like a little piece of a stormy sea.

Next we hunted up our boots from odd nooks among the mail-bags where they had settled, and put them on.

Then we got down our coats, vests, pantaloons and heavy woolen shirts, from the arm-loops where they had been swinging all day, and clothed ourselves in them--for, there being no ladies either at the stations or in the coach, and the weather being hot, we had looked to our comfort by stripping to our underclothing, at nine o'clock in the morning.