A lady in conversation with a railway engineer observed, “It must be very
nice to be a railway engineer, and be able to travel about anywhere you
want to go to for nothing.”
“Yes, madam,” was the reply, “It would, as you say, be very nice to
travel about for nothing, _if we were not paid for it_. But you see,” he
remarked, “railway engineers are like the cabman’s horse. The cabman has
a very thin horse. ‘Doesn’t your horse have enough to eat?’ inquired a
benevolent lady passenger. ‘Oh yes, ma’am,’ replied cabby, ‘I give him
lots o’ victuals to eat, only, you see, he hasn’t any time to eat ’em.’
So it is with the railway engineer; he has lots of pleasure of all kinds,
only he has not any time to take it.”