how was he to know that? There was another young man whom he had

met already in the train; he guessed he was honest, and would

prefer to chum with him upon the whole. All this without any sort

of excuse, as though I had been inanimate or absent. I began to

tremble lest every one should refuse my company, and I be left

rejected. But the next in turn was a tall, strapping, long-limbed,

small-headed, curly-haired Pennsylvania Dutchman, with a soldierly

smartness in his manner. To be exact, he had acquired it in the

navy. But that was all one; he had at least been trained to

desperate resolves, so he accepted the match, and the white-haired

swindler pronounced the connubial benediction, and pocketed his

fees.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in making up the train. I am

afraid to say how many baggage-waggons followed the engine,

certainly a score; then came the Chinese, then we, then the

families, and the rear was brought up by the conductor in what, if

I have it rightly, is called his caboose. The class to which I

belonged was of course far the largest, and we ran over, so to

speak, to both sides; so that there were some Caucasians among the

Chinamen, and some bachelors among the families. But our own car

was pure from admixture, save for one little boy of eight or nine

who had the whooping-cough. At last, about six, the long train

crawled out of the Transfer Station and across the wide Missouri

river to Omaha, westward bound.

It was a troubled uncomfortable evening in the cars. There was

thunder in the air, which helped to keep us restless. A man played

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