ll my goods.

"Gee-up," I shouted to my cows, and cracked my blacksnake over their
backs; and they strained slowly into the yoke. The wagon began
chuck-chucking along into the unknown.

"Stop!" said my passenger. "I've got to wait here for my--for my
husband."

"I can't stop," said I, "till I get to timber and water."

"But I must wait," she pleaded. "He can't help but find us here, because
it's the only way to come; but if we go on we may miss him--and--and--
I've just got to stop. Let me out, if you won't stop."

I whoaed up and she made as if to climb out.

"He may not get out of Dubuque to-day," I said. "He said so. And for you
to wait here alone, with all these movers going by, and with no place to
stay to-night will be a pretty pokerish thing to do."

Finally we agreed that I should drive on to water and timber, unless
the road should fork; in which case we were to wait at the forks no
matter what sort of camp it might be.

The Ridge Road followed pretty closely the route afterward taken by the
Illinois Central Railroad; but the railroad takes the easiest grades,
while the Ridge Road kept to the high ground; so that at some places it
lay a long way north or south of the railway route on which trains were
running as far as Manchester within about two years. It veered off
toward the head waters of White Water Creek on that first day's journey;
and near a new farm, where they kept a tavern, we stopped because there
was water in the well, and hay and firewood for sale. It was still
early. The yellow-haired woman, whose name I did not know, alighted, and
when I found that they would keep her for the night, went toward the
farm-house without thanking me--but she was too much worried about
something to think of that, I guess; but she turned and came back.

"Which way is Monterey Centre?" she asked.

"Away off to the westward," I answered.

"Is it far?"

"A long ways," I said.

"Is it on this awful prairie?" she inquired.

"Yes," said I, "I guess it is. It's farther away from timber than this I
calculate."

"My lord," she burst out. "I'll simply die of the horrors!"

She looked over the trail toward Dubuque, and then slowly went into the
house.

So, then, these two with all their strange actions were going to
Monterey County! They would be neighbors of mine, maybe; but probably
not. They looked like town people; and I knew already the distance that
separated farmers from the dwellers in the towns--a