262 The White Goat 



tion, and I had not travelled as far as they did ; 

 so you see my mouth must utter no complaints. 

 No ; my mileage fell short of the Greely expe- 

 dition ; but no goat will ever tempt me through 

 such adventures again. Alas, that a man should 

 come to shrink from discomforts which once 

 but let me tell you about some of them. 



Because nothing but good fellowship and 

 kindness were shown me there, I suppress the 

 name of the town at the railroad's end where 

 I waited from Saturday till Monday for the north- 

 bound stage. It was Saturday, October ninth, my 

 journal reminds me. 



"They gave me a room. ... I was glad to 

 see as little of it as possible. I washed in the 

 public trough and basin which stood in the office 

 between the saloon and the dining room; and 

 I spent my time either in the saloon watching a 

 game of poker that never ceased, or in wander- 

 ing about in the world outside. A Chinaman 

 named Madden . . . played poker and of course 

 lost to his American friends, . . . swearing in 

 the most ludicrous jargon. . . . Yet he was good- 

 natured . . . the men seemed to like him ... at 

 night he returned to the never ending game and 

 lost some more. ... I went to my room to go 



