ce
I left the States,--beautifully stamped, and looking like ingots of
virgin gold. I, of course, made a dead-set at the frontpiece, though I
do believe that to this distorted taste, and its accompanying horror of
a cap, she owed the preservation of her own beautiful hair. To please
me she laid it aside, but I am convinced that it was restored to its
proud eminence as soon as I left the valley, for she evidently had a
"sneaking kindness" for it that nothing could destroy. I have sometimes
thought that she wore it from religious principle, thinking it her duty
to look as old as possible, for she appeared fifteen years younger when
she took it off. She told me that in crossing the plains she used to
stop on Saturdays, and taking everything out of the wagons, wash them
in strong lye, to which precaution she attributed the perfect health
which they all enjoyed (the _family_, not the wagons) during the whole
journey.

There is one thing for which the immigrants deserve high praise, and
that is, for having adopted the bloomer dress (frightful as it is on
all other occasions) in crossing the plains. For such an excursion it
is just the thing.

I ought to say a word about the dances which we used to have in the
barroom, a place so low that a _very_ tall man could not have stood
upright in it. One side was fitted up as a store, and another side with
bunks for lodgers. These bunks were elegantly draperied with red
calico, through which we caught dim glimpses of blue blankets. If they
could only have had sheets, they would have fairly been enveloped in
the American colors. By the way, I wonder if there is anything
_national_ in this eternal passion for blue blankets and red calico. On
ball-nights the bar was closed, and everything was very quiet and
respectable. To be sure, there was some danger of being swept away in a
flood of tobacco-juice, but luckily the floor was uneven, and it lay
around in puddles, which with care one could avoid, merely running the
minor risk of falling prostrate upon the wet boards in the midst of a
galopade.

Of course the company was made up principally of the immigrants. Such
dancing, such dressing, and such conversation, surely was never heard
or seen before. The gentlemen generally were compelled to have a
regular fight with their fair partners before they could drag them onto
the floor. I am happy to say that almost always the stronger vessel won
the day, or rather night, except in the case of