water snakes, tree snakes, and mouse snakes,
harmless but abominable. Seven rattlesnakes have been killed just
outside the cabin since I came. A snake, three feet long, was coiled
under the pillow of the sick woman. I see snakes in all withered
twigs, and am ready to flee at "the sound of a shaken leaf." And
besides snakes, the earth and air are alive and noisy with forms of
insect life, large and small, stinging, humming, buzzing, striking,
rasping, devouring!

[8] The curative effect of the climate of Colorado can hardly be
exaggerated. In traveling extensively through the Territory afterwards
I found that nine out of every ten settlers were cured invalids.
Statistics and medical workers on the climate of the State (as it now
is) represent Colorado as the most remarkable sanatorium in the world.

I. L. B.

Letter V

A dateless day--"Those hands of yours"--A Puritan--Persevering
shiftlessness--The house-mother--Family worship--A grim Sunday--A
"thick-skulled Englishman"--A morning call--Another atmosphere--The
Great Lone Land--"Ill found"--A log camp--Bad footing for
horses--Accidents--Disappointment.

CANYON, September.

The absence of a date shows my predicament. THEY have no newspaper;
_I_ have no almanack; the father is away for the day, and none of the
others can help me, and they look contemptuously upon my desire for
information on the subject. The monotony will come to an end
to-morrow, for Chalmers offers to be my guide over the mountains to
Estes Park, and has persuaded his wife "for once to go for a frolic";
and with much reluctance, many growls at the waste of time, and many
apprehensions of danger and loss, she has consented to accompany him.
My life has grown less dull from their having become more interesting
to me, and as I have "made myself agreeable," we are on fairly friendly
terms. My first move in the direction of fraternizing was, however,
snubbed. A few days ago, having finished my own work, I offered to
wash up the plates, but Mrs. C., with a look which conveyed more than
words, a curl of her nose, and a sneer in her twang, said "Guess you'll
make more work nor you'll do. Those hands of yours" (very brown and
coarse they were) "ain't no good; never done nothing, I guess." Then
to her awkward daughter: "This woman says she'll wash up! Ha! ha! look
at her arms and hands!" This was the nearest approach to a laugh I
have heard, and have nev