ravagance undreamed
of in transportation.

The train was full. Every seat was taken; aisles were crowded with
standing passengers who stumbled over bundles and valises with every
pitch in the uncertain road-bed; women fought, bravely with memories
too recent to be healed, and children crowed in lusty abandon or
shrieked as they fell between the slippery seats. The men were making
acquaintances; the communities from which they came were sufficiently
interwoven to link up relationships with little difficulty, and
already they were exchanging anecdotes in high hilarity or discussing
plans and prospects with that mutual sympathy which so quickly arises
among those who seek their fortunes together under strange
conditions.

One or two of the passengers had already made the trip to Manitoba,
and were now on the journey a second time, accompanied by their wives
and families. These men were soon noted as individuals of some
moment; they became the centre of little knots of conversation, and
their fellow-immigrants hung in reverent attention upon every word
from their lips. Their description of the great plains, where one
might look as far as the eye could carry in every direction without
seeing house or tree or any obstruction of the vision, fell with all
the wonder of the Arabian Nights upon the eager company. Stories of
the trail, of Red River cart and ox-team, of duck shooting by the
prairie sleughs, the whiff of black powder from their muzzle-loaders
and the whistle of sharp wings against the sky; of the clatter of
wild geese which made sleep impossible, and the yelp of prairie
wolves snapping up through the darkness; of thunder and lightning, of
tempest and rain, of storm and blizzard and snow and cold--cold that
crackled in the empty heavens like breaking glass and withered the
cheek like fire; of Indians, none too certain, slipping like
moccasined ghosts down the twilight, or peering unexpectedly through
cabin windows; of hardship and privation and strength and courage and
possibilities beyond the measure of the imagination--these fell from
the lips of the favoured old-timers, punctuated with jest and
prophecy and nicely-timed intervals of silence.

"And is there no stones there, or stumps?" asked a woman, big of
bicep and deep of chest from years of wrestling with the rocks and
timbers of Lanark. "Has the bush all been cleared away?"

"Bush? There's no bush to clear. The prairie's as bald as yer
table--no reflecti