In fact, travel on it was just a trifle lonely.

One's fellow-travellers were excellent company, but they were few! It was one of Edward Bok's greatest surprises, but it was also one of his greatest stimulants.

To go where others could not go, or were loath to go, where at least they were not, had a tang that savored of the freshest kind of adventure.
And the way was so simple, so much simpler, in fact, than its avoidance, which called for so much argument, explanation, and discussion.

One had merely to do all that one could do, a little more than one was asked or expected to do, and immediately one's head rose above the crowd and one was in an employer's eye--where it is always so satisfying for an employee to be! And as so few heads lifted themselves above the many, there was never any danger that they would not be seen.
Of course, Edward Bok had to prove to himself that his conception of conditions was right.

He felt instinctively that it was, however, and with this stimulus he bucked the line hard.