roads have been constructed.

At the West changes equally great have taken place. Cities have risen
up in the wilderness, mines of silver and gold have been opened, and
immense farms and cattle ranches[2] produce food enough to feed all
America. Three great lines of railroads have been built which connect
with railroads at the East, and stretch across the continent from
the Atlantic to the Pacific. Into that vast country beyond the
Mississippi hundreds of thousands of industrious people are moving
from all parts of the earth, and are building homes for themselves
and for their children.

[Illustration: THE MEETING OF THE ENGINES FROM THE EAST AND THE WEST
AFTER THE LAST SPIKE WAS DRIVEN[3] ON THE COMPLETION OF THE FIRST
RAILROAD TO THE PACIFIC IN 1869.]

[Illustration: PILING SILVER BRICKS. (From the silver mines in
Colorado.)]

[Illustration: HOW THEY USED TO SHOOT BUFFALO IN THE FAR WEST.]

[Illustration: INDIANS ATTACKING A STAGE-COACH IN THE FAR WEST FORTY
YEARS AGO; BEFORE THE FIRST PACIFIC RAILROAD WAS BUILT.]

[Footnote 1: Prospered: to prosper is to succeed, to get on in life,
to grow rich.]

[Footnote 2: Ranches (ran'chez): farms at the West for raising horses
and cattle, or sheep.]

[Footnote 3: The last spikes (one of gold from California, one of
silver from Nevada, and one made of gold, silver, and iron from
Arizona) were driven just as the clock struck twelve (noon) on May
10th, 1869, at Promontory Point, near Salt Lake, Utah. Every blow
of the hammer was telegraphed throughout the United States.]

264. Celebration of the discovery of America by Columbus; the
unfinished pyramid; making history.--Four hundred years have gone
by since the first civilized man crossed the ocean and found this
new world which we call America. We are now about to celebrate that
discovery made by Columbus, not only in the schools throughout the
country, but by a great fair--called the "World's Columbian
Exposition"--to be held at Chicago; and we shall invite all who will
to come from all parts of the globe and join us in the celebration.

[Illustration: FIRST GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES.]

[Illustration: SECOND GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES.]

On one of the two great seals[4] of the United States a pyramid is
represented partly finished. That pyramid stands for our country.
It shows how much has been done and how much still remains to be done.
The men whose lives we have read in this little book were all bui