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Page 27
"She's the only one I've got," she informed Mrs. Dayton; "so of course
she's all-important to me. Jane Phillips--that's Henry's youngest
sister--often says that really of all the women she ever knew Ellen is the
most--And there's plenty to do always, of course, with three children and
such a large elegant house and company coming all the--It's lucky that
there's plenty to do with. Henry's very liberal. He likes to have things
nice, so Ellen she--Why, when I was packing up to come away he brought me
that _repouss�_ fruit-knife there in my bag--Oh, it's in my other bag!
Never mind; I'll show it to you some other time--solid silver, you know.
Bigelow and Kennard--their things always good, though expensive; and my
son-in-law he said, 'You're going to a fruit country, and--' Mrs. Peters
doesn't think there is so much fruit, though. All sent on from California,
as I wrote,--and I guess Ellen and Henry were surprised to hear it."
Katy held serious counsel with herself that night as to what she should do
about this extraordinary "guide, philosopher, and friend" whom the Fates
had provided for Clover. She saw that her father, from very over-anxiety,
had made a mistake, and complicated Clover's inevitable cares with a most
undesirable companion, who would add to rather than relieve them. She
could not decide what was best to do; and in fact the time was short for
doing anything, for the next evening would bring them to Denver, and poor
Clover must be left to face the situation by herself as best she might.
Katy finally concluded to write her father plainly how things stood, and
beg him to set Clover's mind quite at rest as to any responsibility for
Mrs. Watson, and also to have a talk with that lady herself, and explain
matters as clearly as she could. It seemed all that was in her power.
Next day the party woke to a wonderful sense of lightness and exhilaration
which no one could account for till the conductor told them that the
apparently level plain over which they were speeding was more than four
thousand feet above the sea. It seemed impossible to believe it. Hour by
hour they climbed; but the climb was imperceptible. Now four thousand six
hundred feet of elevation was reported, now four thousand eight hundred,
at last above five thousand; and still there seemed about them nothing
but a vast expanse of flat levels,--the table-lands of Nebraska. There was
little that was beautiful in the landscape, which was principally made up
of wide reaches of sand, dotted with cactus and grease-wood and with the
droll cone-shaped burrows of the prairie-dogs, who could be seen gravely
sitting on the roofs of their houses, or turning sudden somersaults in at
the holes on top as the train whizzed by. They passed and repassed long
links of a broad shallow river which the maps showed to be the Platte, and
which seemed to be made of two-thirds sand to one-third water. Now and
again mounted horsemen appeared in the distance whom Mr. Dayton said were
"cow-boys;" but no cows were visible, and the rapidly moving figures were
neither as picturesque nor as formidable as they had expected them to be.
Flowers were still abundant, and their splendid masses gave the charm of
color to the rather arid landscape. Soon after noon dim blue outlines came
into view, which grew rapidly bolder and more distinct, and revealed
themselves as the Rocky Mountains,--the "backbone of the American
Continent," of which we have all heard so much in geographies and the
newspapers. It was delightful, in spite of dust and glare, to sit with
that sweep of magnificent air rushing into their lungs, and watch the
great ranges grow and grow and deepen in hue, till they seemed close at
hand. To Katy they were like enchanted land. Somewhere on the other side
of them, on the dim Pacific coast, her husband was waiting for her to
come, and the wheels seemed to revolve with a regular rhythmic beat to the
cadence of the old Scotch song,--
"And will I see his face again;
And will I hear him speak?"
But to Clover the wheels sang something less jubilant, and she studied the
mountains on her little travelling-map, and measured their distance from
Burnet with a sigh. They were the walls of what seemed to her a sort of
prison, as she realized that presently she should be left alone among
them, Katy and Polly gone, and these new friends whom she had learned to
like so much,--left alone with Phil and, what was worse, with Mrs. Watson!
There was a comic side to the latter situation, undoubtedly, but at the
moment she could not enjoy it.
Katy carried out her intention. She made a long call on Mrs. Watson in her
section, and listened patiently to her bemoanings over the noise of the
car which had kept her from sleeping; the "lady in gray over there" who
had taken such a long time to dress in the morning that she--Mrs.
Watson--could not get into the toilet-room at the precise moment that she
wished; the newspaper boy who would not let her "just glance over" the
Denver "Republican" unless she bought and paid for it ("and I only wanted
to see the Washington news, my dear, and something about a tin wedding in
East Dedham. My mother came from there, and I recognized one of the names
and--But he took it away quite rudely; and when I complained, the
conductor wouldn't attend to what I--"); and the bad piece of beefsteak
which had been brought for her breakfast at the eating-station. Katy
soothed and comforted to the best of her ability, and then plunged into
her subject, explaining Phil's very delicate condition and the necessity
for constant watchfulness on the part of Clover, and saying most
distinctly and in the plainest of English that Mrs. Watson must not expect
Clover to take care of her too. The old lady was not in the least
offended; but her replies were so incoherent that Katy was not sure that
she understood the matter any better for the explanation.
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