Fortunately It Was
Not Deep, So They Merely Underwent Its Cooling Influences, Which They Bore
With Admirable Equanimity, Only One Making A Bitter Complaint, That He Had
Spoiled His "Go-To-Meetins." The Farther West We Went, The More
Dangerous The Neighbourhood Became.
At all the American stations there are
placards warning people to beware of pickpockets; but from Indiana
westward they
Bore the caution, "Beware of pickpockets, swindlers, and
luggage-thieves." At many of the depots there is a general rush for the
last car, for the same reason that there is a scramble for the stern
cabins in a steamer, - viz. the explosive qualities of the boilers.
We travelled the whole of that night, our fellow-passengers becoming more
extravagant in appearance at every station, and morning found us on the
prairies. Cooper influences our youthful imaginations by telling us of the
prairies - Mayne Reid makes us long to cross them; botanists tell us of
their flowers, sportsmen of their buffaloes [Footnote: At the present time
no wild animals are to be found east of the Mississippi; so effectually
has civilization changed the character of the ancient hunting-grounds of
the Indians.] - but without seeing them few people can form a correct idea
of what they are really like.
The sun rose over a monotonous plain covered with grass, rank, high, and
silky-looking, blown before the breeze into long, shiny waves. The sky was
blue above, and the grass a brownish green beneath; wild pigeons and
turkeys flew over our heads; the horizontal line had not a single
inequality; all was hot, unsuggestive, silent, and monotonous.
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