It was a slow train, and there were half a dozen stoppages.

Hood began to eat his sandwiches at a point where the train was delayed for a few minutes by an adverse signal; a coal-pit was close by, and the smoke from the chimney blew in at the carriage windows, giving a special flavour to the bread and meat.
There was a drunken soldier in the same compartment, who was being baited by a couple of cattle-drovers with racy vernacular not to be rendered by the pen.

Hood munched his smoky sandwich, and with his sad eyes watched the great wheel of the colliery revolve, and the trucks rise and descend.

The train moved on again.

The banter between the other three passengers was taking an angry turn; to escape the foul language as far as possible, Hood kept his head at the window.