plains of snow beneath it. When we
got to the queer little place where they "keep strangers" at St. Louis,
they were very civil, and said that after supper we could have the
kitchen to ourselves. I found a large, prononcee, competent, bustling
widow, hugely stout, able to manage all men and everything else, and a
very florid sister like herself, top heavy with hair. There were
besides two naughty children in the kitchen, who cried incessantly, and
kept opening and shutting the door. There was no place to sit down but
a wooden chair by the side of the kitchen stove, at which supper was
being cooked for ten men. The bustle and clatter were indescribable,
and the landlady asked innumerable questions, and seemed to fill the
whole room. The only expedient for me for the night was to sleep on a
shake-down in a very small room occupied by the two women and the
children, and even this was not available till midnight, when the dance
terminated; and there was no place in which to wash except a bowl in
the kitchen. I sat by the stove till supper, wearying of the noise and
bustle after the quiet of Estes Park.

The landlady asked, with great eagerness, who the gentleman was who was
with me, and said that the men outside were saying that they were sure
that it was "Rocky Mountain Jim," but she was sure it was not. When I
told her that the men were right, she exclaimed, "Do tell! I want to
know! that quiet, kind gentleman!" and she said she used to frighten
her children when they were naughty by telling them that "he would get
them, for he came down from the mountains every week, and took back a
child with him to eat!" She was as proud of having him in her house as
if he had been the President, and I gained a reflected importance! All
the men in the settlement assembled in the front room, hoping he would
go and smoke there, and when he remained in the kitchen they came round
the window and into the doorway to look at him. The children got on
his knee, and, to my great relief, he kept them good and quiet, and let
them play with his curls, to the great delight of the two women, who
never took their eyes off him. At last the bad-smelling supper was
served, and ten silent men came in and gobbled it up, staring steadily
at "Jim" as they gobbled. Afterwards, there seemed no hope of quiet,
so we went to the post-office, and while waiting for stamps were shown
into the prettiest and most ladylike-looking room I have seen in th