miles will be a long ride. Then I fear that the accommodation is as
rough as Chalmers's, and that solitude will be impossible. We have
been strolling in the street every since it grew dark to get the little
air which is moving.

ESTES PARK!!! September 28.

I wish I could let those three notes of admiration go to you instead of
a letter. They mean everything that is rapturous and
delightful--grandeur, cheerfulness, health, enjoyment, novelty,
freedom, etc., etc. I have just dropped into the very place I have
been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams. There is
health in every breath of air; I am much better already, and get up to
a seven o'clock breakfast without difficulty. It is quite
comfortable--in the fashion that I like. I have a log cabin, raised on
six posts, all to myself, with a skunk's lair underneath it, and a
small lake close to it. There is a frost every night, and all day it
is cool enough for a roaring fire. The ranchman, who is half-hunter,
half-stockman, and his wife are jovial, hearty Welsh people from
Llanberis, who laugh with loud, cheery British laughs, sing in parts
down to the youngest child, are free hearted and hospitable, and pile
the pitch-pine logs half-way up the great rude chimney. There has been
fresh meat each day since I came, delicious bread baked daily,
excellent potatoes, tea and coffee, and an abundant supply of milk like
cream. I have a clean hay bed with six blankets, and there are neither
bugs nor fleas. The scenery is the most glorious I have ever seen, and
is above us, around us, at the very door. Most people have advized me
to go to Colorado Springs, and only one mentioned this place, and till
I reached Longmount I never saw any one who had been here, but I saw
from the lie of the country that it must be most superbly situated.
People said, however, that it was most difficult of access, and that
the season for it was over. In traveling there is nothing like
dissecting people's statements, which are usually colored by their
estimate of the powers or likings of the person spoken to, making all
reasonable inquiries, and then pertinaciously but quietly carrying out
one's own plans. This is perfection, and all the requisites for health
are present, including plenty of horses and grass to ride on.

It is not easy to sit down to write after ten hours of hard riding,
especially in a cabin full of people, and wholesome fatigue may make my
letter flat