180 THE COUNTRY BOY 



At each gate we said good-bye to the women 

 of the family ; and some of the ^irls I had seen 

 traces of beauty in, now looked like e^oddesses 

 and queens. But their advice was all about the 

 same. The general tone was to stay away. 

 Finally, near the depot, one old woman varied 

 the advice by saying to me, as she shook hands : 



"Homer, if you fail this time, come home 

 and give up this here making pictures, and 

 help your father work, as he's getting pretty 

 old!" 



Father went with me to Woodburn, ten 

 miles below Silverton, where we were to catch 

 the main line of the Southern Pacific. There 

 we spent the whole afternoon waiting for the 

 California overland that came about six in the 

 evening. 



We spent the time talking of what I should 

 do when I got to San Francisco; of the great 

 sights I must naturally see, as it was evidently 

 to be different from Portland. 



Finally we had only an hour more to wait 

 for the train, and I got to thinking of this — 

 that father had protected me from hard labor 

 all of my life, simply because it had been my 

 mother's wish that I should some day be a 



