“You must remember that we’re a thousand miles from its delta,” expostulated Jack.
“That’s nothin’; the Hudson’s so wide at Noo York the politicians can’t get enough money together at one time to build a bridge acrost it, see Buddy?”
And let it be said in Bill’s behalf that that part of the Mississippi which is visible to the eye where the Burlington railway parallels it does make a mighty poor showing.
The boys were conspicuous for their silence all the rest of the way to St. Paul for Bill had made up his mind that he wouldn’t let even his pal run down his Hudson River, and Jack had taken a mental vow that, pal or no pal, he would never again point out any wonder, ancient or modern, whether produced by nature or fashioned by the hand of man again to Bill, because the latter always pooh-poohed everything unless it was in or intimately associated with the city of Bagdad-on-the-Hudson.
As the train was nearing Livingstone, Montana, late in the afternoon of the following day the boys had entirely forgotten that the muddy waters of the Mississippi had been the innocent cause of making them a little sore at each other and all was to the merry with them again.
Livingstone is the junction where the change is made for Gardiner, the “gateway of the Yellowstone,” and everybody in the car was talking about the hot-springs, the geysers, the ‘Devil’s Paint Pot,’ ‘Hell’s Half-Acre’ and other wonders to be seen there. Moreover quite a number of passengers were tourists who had made this long western trip for the express purpose of seeing the Park.
“We should by all means have seen the Park since we are so near it. It was a great mistake of mine to have bought our tickets through to Seattle without a stop-over here,” said Jack who was genuinely regretful that he had not thought of it at the time, but it was too late now.
“Never youse mind,” bolstered up Bill cheerily, “we’ll stop off when we comes back and we’ll have all the time we needs and plenty o’ coin to do it on.”
“That listens all right too but I have observed it is very seldom indeed that a fellow ever returns over the same trail that he sets out on, and that the time to see a thing is when he passes by the first time. Well, we’ll get the gold we’re after and then I’m going to make a tour of the world strictly for pleasure.”
“I’m with youse Jack,” responded Bill heartily.