CHAPTER II 



LOCATING A HOMESTEAD 



The clang ! clang ! clang ! of the locomotive 

 bell, which we had so often heard during the 

 last few days, warned us that once more we were 

 pulling into a station, and as it must be our 

 destination, we seized our hand-baggage and 

 were soon making our way with other travellers, 

 through mud ankle-deep, towards a building 

 that looked like an enormous box turned upside 

 down, with rows of little square holes cut out 

 to receive the windows. 



The town of B , having a Land Office 



and being a divisional point on the railroad, has 

 at least one hostelry superior to those common 

 to the general run of prairie towns ; this, however, 

 being frequented by the real estate speculators, 

 drummers, as the commercial travellers are 

 called, and that financial element which per- 

 v^ades a prairie town on " the boom," and we 

 3eing only poor settlers, it became us to put up at 

 I humbler white box, typical of the ordinary hotel. 



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