CHAPTER XII. 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND. 



iFort[)-fourt() SDag. 



North Evans Hotel^ 

 North Evans, New York, 

 June 23, 1876. 



T had been my intention to leave the 

 " Queen City '' on the afternoon of 

 the twenty-first, but I was delayed by 

 my advance agents, who required more 

 time to arrange the preliminaries of 

 my lectures between Buffalo and Cleve- 

 land. Babcock went forward to Dun- 

 kirk, Farrington to Erie, while it was 

 decided that my brother should accom- 

 pany me as far as Angola. There were other reasons 

 too, for a longer sojourn at Buffalo, as it was here I 

 met my wife for the last time during my journey, and 

 we had decided that it would be impracticable to meet 

 again before my return from San Francisco. While 

 I anticipated a pleasant and uninterrupted journey, she 

 had some misgivings as to my ride across the Plains, 

 and tried at the last to dissuade me, but I was sanguine 

 of the outcome and thoroughly determined to continue, 



at any odds, a journey so delightfully begun. At eight 



(201) 



