ir for a
week and more. Poor Mrs. Carver Standish II found explanations most
difficult.

"Carver's so in love with the country and riding and all that he just
won't come back," she said.

But Carver's grandfather, the old Colonel, found no such difficulty.

"My grandson," he said, his fine head thrown back, and his blue eyes
glowing with pride, "my grandson is discovering the dignity of labor on a
Wyoming ranch!"

CHAPTER XX

COMRADES

Wyoming, to be appreciated, should be explored on horseback and not viewed
from the observation platform of a limited train. Barren stretches of
sagebrush and cactus, and grim, ugly buttes guard too well the secret that
golden wheat-fields lie beyond them; the rugged, far-away mountains never
tell that their canyon-cut sides are clothed with timber and carpeted with
a thousand flowers; and tired, dusty travelers, quite unaware of these
things, find themselves actually longing for Nebraska to break the
monotony!

The half-dozen weary persons who on the afternoon of September 6th sat on
the observation platform of the Puget Sound Limited, together with the
scores who peered from its windows in vain search of something besides
sagebrush, were no exception to the rule. To a man, they were all giving
fervent thanks that Fate had cast their lots in California or New England
or, at the worst, Iowa. The assurances of the brakeman, who was loquacious
beyond his kind, that once past Elk Creek they would strike a better
country brought some much-needed cheerfulness; and Elk Creek itself
afforded such amusement and entertainment that they really began to have a
better impression of Wyoming. Apparently, there were civilized persons
even in so desolate an environment as this!

The sources of their entertainment, for they were several, stood on the
little station platform at Elk Creek. The central figure was a tall,
middle-aged man, whose hands were filled with trunk checks and tickets,
and to whom three very excited girls were saying good-by all at the same
time. Three boys, two in khaki and one in traveling clothes, were shaking
hands heartily; a fresh-faced young woman with marigolds at her waist
stood a little apart from the others and talked earnestly with a tall
young man; and a hatless, brown-haired girl in a riding suit seemed to be
everywhere at once.

"Oh, I can't bear to think it's all over!" the interested travelers heard
her say, as she embraced the three girls in turn.