already sprung into existence.

Here the overland stages took their departure for the distant mining
town of Denver, and here the long trains of great freight-wagons were
loaded for their toilsome journey over the Santa Fe trail to the
far-away valley of the Rio Grande. Here, on side-tracks, were the
construction-cars, movable houses on wheels, in which lived the graders,
track-layers, and other members of the army of workmen employed in the
building of a railroad. Railroad men, soldiers, teamsters, traders,
Indians, and Mexicans, horses, mules, and oxen mingled here in
picturesque confusion. Nearly every man carried a rifle, and it was rare
to meet one who did not wear one or more revolvers strapped to his
waist.

It was by far the most novel and bustling scene Glen had ever looked
upon; and, as he stepped from the last railroad-car he was to see for
many months, and stretched his cramped limbs, he gazed about him in
astonishment. But there was no time for idling, and Glen had hardly
given a glance at his unfamiliar surroundings before Mr. Hobart's voice,
saying, "Come, boys, there's plenty to do, and but a few hours to do it
in," set the whole party to work in the liveliest possible manner.

There was a fine grassy level about a hundred yards from the railroad,
on the opposite side from the settlement. It was skirted by a clear but
sluggish stream, fringed by a slender growth of cottonwood-trees, and
was so evidently the very place for a camp that Mr. Hobart selected it
at once. Here the young engineers worked like beavers all through that
long, hot afternoon, and by nightfall they had pitched twenty
wall-tents, arranged in the form of an open square. One of these was
reserved for Mr. Hobart, while Mr. Brackett and the leveller were given
another, and two more were allowed to the other members of the party.
Into these they had removed all their personal belongings, while in two
other tents, carefully ditched and banked to keep out the water in case
of rain, were stored all the instruments, implements, blank-books, and
stationery provided for the expedition.

Heartily tired after this novel but interesting labor, how Glen did
enjoy his tin-cup of black coffee without milk, the fried bacon and
hard-tack, that constituted his supper, when, at sundown, one of the
axemen, who had been at work for an hour over a fire, announced that it
was ready! He would have scorned such fare at home; but, with his
present appetite, a