road, and everybody
I have talked with has recommended it as high and dry."

"So it is," she nodded; and chuckled fatly. "But laws sakes, you don't
need to go that fur. You can as well stop off at North Platte, or Sidney
or Cheyenne. They'll sculp you sure at Benton, unless you watch out mighty
sharp."

"How so, may I ask?"

"You're certainly green," she apprised. "Benton's roarin'--and I know what
that means. Didn't North Platte roar? I seen it at its beginnin's. My old
man and me, we were there from the fust, when it started in as the
railroad terminal. My sakes, but them were times! What with the gamblin'
and the shootin' and the drinkin' and the high-cockalorums night and day,
'twasn't no place for innocence. Easy come, easy go, that was the word. I
don't say but what times were good, though. My old man contracted
government freight, and I run an eatin' house for the railroaders, so we
made money. Then when the railroad moved terminus, the wust of the crowd
moved, too, and us others who stayed turned North Platte into a strictly
moral town. But land sakes! North Platte in its roarin' days wasn't no
place for a young man like you. Neither was Julesburg, or Sidney, or
Cheyenne, when they was terminuses. And I hear tell Benton is wuss'n all
rolled into one. Young man, now listen: You stop off at North Platte,
Nebrasky. It's healthy and it's moral, and it's goin' to make Omyha look
like a shinplaster. I'll watch after you. Maybe I can get you a job in my
man's store. You've j'ined some church, I reckon? Now if you're a
Baptist----?"

But since I had crossed the Missouri something had entered into my blood
which rendered me obstinate against such allurements. For her North
Platte, "strictly moral," and the guardianship of her broad motherly wing
I had no ardent feeling. I was set upon Benton; foolishly, fatuously set.
And in after days--soon to arrive--I bitterly regretted that I had not
yielded to her wholesome, honest counsel.

Nevertheless this was true, at present:

"But I have already purchased my ticket to Benton," I objected. "I
understand that I shall find the proper climate there, and suitable
accommodations. And if I don't like it I can move elsewhere. Possibly to
Salt Lake City, or Denver."

She snorted.

"In among them Mormons? My Gawd, young man! Where they live in
conkibinage--several women to one man, like a buffler herd or other beasts
of the field? I guess your mother never heard you talk like