and whenever she dislikes anything she resents it by
bucking. I rode sidewise till I was well through the town, long enough
to produce a severe pain in my spine, which was not relieved for some
time even after I had changed my position. It was a lovely Indian
summer day, so warm that the snow on the ground looked an incongruity.
I rode over the Plains for some time, then gradually reached the
rolling country along the base of the mountains, and a stream with
cottonwoods along it, and settlers' houses about every halfmile. I
passed and met wagons frequently, and picked up a muff containing a
purse with 500 dollars in it, which I afterwards had the great pleasure
of restoring to the owner. Several times I crossed the narrow track of
the quaint little Rio Grande Railroad, so that it was a very cheerful
ride.

RANCH, PLUM CREEK, October 24.

You must understand that in Colorado travel, unless on the main road
and in the larger settlements, there are neither hotels nor taverns,
and that it is the custom for the settlers to receive travelers,
charging them at the usual hotel rate for accommodation. It is a very
satisfactory arrangement. However, at Ranch, my first halting place,
the host was unwilling to receive people in this way, I afterwards
found, or I certainly should not have presented my credentials at the
door of a large frame house, with large barns and a generally
prosperous look. The host, who opened the door, looked repellent, but
his wife, a very agreeable, lady-like-looking woman, said they could
give me a bed on a sofa. The house was the most pretentious I have yet
seen, being papered and carpeted, and there were two "hired girls."
There was a lady there from Laramie, who kindly offered to receive me
into her room, a very tall, elegant person, remarkable as being the
first woman who had settled in the Rocky Mountains. She had been
trying the "camp cure" for three months, and was then on her way home.
She had a wagon with beds, tent, tent floor, cooking-stove, and every
camp luxury, a light buggy, a man to manage everything, and a most
superior "hired girl." She was consumptive and frail in strength, but a
very attractive person, and her stories of the perils and limitation of
her early life at Fort Laramie were very interesting. Still I
"wearied," as I had arrived early in the afternoon, and could not out
of politeness retire and write to you. At meals the three "hired men"
and two "hired girls"