were satisfied that even
if we could get no further we could live in such a land as this. The
broad prairie doubtless belonged to the United States, and we could have
our share and own a little piece of it on very easy terms, and raise our
own cattle and corn. If the people were all as kind as those we had met
we were sure at least of neighborly treatment. I have endeavored to
write this just as it seemed to us then and not clothe the impressions
with the cover of later experience. The impressions we then daily
received and the sights we saw were stranger than the wildest fiction,
and if it so strikes you, my friendly reader, do not wonder.

As we came over the hills we could see a village near the southern base
and it seemed quite near us. It was a new and strange sight to us as we
approached. The houses were only one story high and seemed built of mud
of a gray color, the roofs flat, and the streets almost deserted.
Occasionally a man could be seen, sometimes a dog, and now and then an
Indian, sitting with his back to the house. The whole view indicated a
thinly populated place, and the entire absence of wagons or animals was
a rather strange circumstance to us. It occurred to us at first that if
all the emigrants were gone our reception might be a cool one in this
city of mud. One thing was in its favor and that was its buildings were
about fire proof for they had earthen floors and flat roofs.

We rested half an hour or so just outside, and then ventured down the
hill into the street. We met an American almost the first man, and when
we asked about a suitable camping place, he pointed out the way and we
marched on. Our strange appearance attracted the attention of the
children and they kept coming out of the houses to see the curious
little train with Old Crump carrying the children and our poor selves
following along, dirty and ragged. Mrs. Bennett's dress hardly reached
below her knees, and although her skirts were fringed about the bottom
it was of a kind that had not been adopted as yet in general circle of
either Spanish-American or good United States society. The shortness of
the dress made the curious raw-hide moccasins only the more prominent,
and the whole make-up of the party was a curious sight.

We went down the hill a little further to the lower bottom to camp,
while the barefooted, bareheaded urchins followed after to get a further
look at the strangers. Before we selected a suitable place, we saw two