that.
Denver--well, Denver mightn't be bad, though I do hear tell that folks
nigh starve to death there, what with the Injuns and the snow. Denver
ain't on no railroad, either. If you want health, and to grow up with a
strictly moral community, you throw in with North Platte of Nebrasky, the
great and growin' city of the Plains. I reckon you've heard of North
Platte, even where you come from. You take my word for it, and exchange
your ticket."

It struck me here that the good woman might not be unbiased in her
fondness for North Platte. To extol the present and future of these
Western towns seemed a fixed habit. During my brief stay in Omaha--yes, on
the way across Illinois and Iowa from Chicago, I had encountered this
peculiar trait. Iowa was rife with aspiring if embryonic metropolises. Now
in Nebraska, Columbus was destined to be the new national capital and the
center of population for the United States; Fremont was lauded as one of
the great railroad junctions of the world; and North Platte, three hundred
miles out into the plains, was proclaimed as the rival of Omaha, and
"strictly moral."

"I thank you," I replied. "But since I've started for Benton I think I'll
go on. And if I don't like it or it doesn't agree with me you may see me
in North Platte after all."

She grunted.

"You can find me at the Bon Ton restaurant. If you get in broke, I'll take
care of you."

With that she settled herself comfortably. In remarkably short order she
was asleep and snoring.

CHAPTER II

TO BETTER ACQUAINTANCE

The train had started amidst clangor of bell and the shouts of good-bye
and good-luck from the crowd upon the station platform. We had rolled out
through train yards occupied to the fullest by car shops, round house,
piled-up freight depot, stacks of ties and iron, and tracks covered with
freight cars loaded high to rails, ties, baled hay, all manner and means
of supplies designed, I imagined, for the building operations far in the
West.

Soon we had left this busy Train Town behind, and were entering the open
country. The landscape was pleasing, but the real sights probably lay
ahead; so I turned from my window to examine my traveling quarters.

The coach--a new one, built in the company's shops and decidedly upon a
par with the very best coaches of the Eastern roads--was jammed; every
seat taken. I did not see My Lady of the Blue Eyes, nor her equal, but
almost the whole gamut of society was repres