How long did it take you to come from Leland Stanford to Boston

From A treasury of American anecdotes; sly, salty, shaggy stories of heroes and hellions, beguilers and buffoons, spellbinders and scapegoats, gagsters and gossips, from the grassroots and sidewalks of America by Benjamin Albert Botkin. 

A colleague from Leland Stanford . . . insisted that once, when he was having tea in a Boston home, the lady of the house inquired, “How long did it take you to come from Leland Stanford to Boston?” “About four days,” replied my friend, “at least I was four nights on the train .” “Why, really,” said his hostess, “I never was on a train so long in my life. But then, of course, I’m here already.”