of a broad shallow river which the maps showed to be the Platte, and
which seemed to be made of two-thirds sand to one-third water. Now and
again mounted horsemen appeared in the distance whom Mr. Dayton said were
"cow-boys;" but no cows were visible, and the rapidly moving figures were
neither as picturesque nor as formidable as they had expected them to be.

Flowers were still abundant, and their splendid masses gave the charm of
color to the rather arid landscape. Soon after noon dim blue outlines came
into view, which grew rapidly bolder and more distinct, and revealed
themselves as the Rocky Mountains,--the "backbone of the American
Continent," of which we have all heard so much in geographies and the
newspapers. It was delightful, in spite of dust and glare, to sit with
that sweep of magnificent air rushing into their lungs, and watch the
great ranges grow and grow and deepen in hue, till they seemed close at
hand. To Katy they were like enchanted land. Somewhere on the other side
of them, on the dim Pacific coast, her husband was waiting for her to
come, and the wheels seemed to revolve with a regular rhythmic beat to the
cadence of the old Scotch song,--

"And will I see his face again;
And will I hear him speak?"

But to Clover the wheels sang something less jubilant, and she studied the
mountains on her little travelling-map, and measured their distance from
Burnet with a sigh. They were the walls of what seemed to her a sort of
prison, as she realized that presently she should be left alone among
them, Katy and Polly gone, and these new friends whom she had learned to
like so much,--left alone with Phil and, what was worse, with Mrs. Watson!
There was a comic side to the latter situation, undoubtedly, but at the
moment she could not enjoy it.

Katy carried out her intention. She made a long call on Mrs. Watson in her
section, and listened patiently to her bemoanings over the noise of the
car which had kept her from sleeping; the "lady in gray over there" who
had taken such a long time to dress in the morning that she--Mrs.
Watson--could not get into the toilet-room at the precise moment that she
wished; the newspaper boy who would not let her "just glance over" the
Denver "Republican" unless she bought and paid for it ("and I only wanted
to see the Washington news, my dear, and something about a tin wedding in
East Dedham. My mother came from there, and I recognized one of the names
and--But he t