Page:The Innocents Abroad (1869).djvu/137

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GASTLY EXPERIENCE.[1]
117

To close our first day in Paris cheerfully and pleasantly, we now sought our grand room in the Grand Hotel du Louvre and climbed into our sumptuous bed, to read and smoke—but alas!

It was pitiful,
In a whole city-full,
Gas we had none.

No gas to read by—nothing but dismal candles. It was a shame. We tried to map out excursions for the morrow; we puzzled over French “guides to Paris;” we talked disjointedly, in a vain endeavor to make head or tail of the wild chaos of
A GAS-TLY SUBSTITUTE
the day’s sights and experiences; we subsided to indolent smoking; we gaped and yawned, and stretched—then feebly wondered if we were really and truly in renowned Paris, and drifted drowsily away into that vast mysterious void which men call sleep.

  1. Joke by the Doctor.