“Everybody looks out for Number One at such times,” said a man. “I often think that we see more of the selfishness of human nature while travelling than under any other circumstances. I suppose you were left to get along as best you could with your little ones.”
“Usually,” she replied. “Sometimes, however, a stranger, bound the same way, would give us a helping hand; but often he would blunder so as to make matters worse. Once I was both amused and frightened. I was struggling to place my children on a train just starting, and, making little headway. I called out, ‘Will some one help my children into the cars?’ when one of the largest, fattest men I ever saw, who was panting and puffing from his unusual efforts at hurrying, caught up my little boy, and, trotting on like an elephant, he struck his foot 121 against a stone, and came down sprawling into the sand, uttering a great, wild cry, and giving my little boy a throw at the same time. I felt sorry for the man, but thought I should die laughing at the queer figure he cut. And, ungrateful as it seemed, I was obliged, in going for my boy, to pass around our huge friend, and ride off, leaving him to pick himself up at his leisure.”
There was much merriment at this recital, which was increased by a portly Englishman behind her saying, in a jolly way,–
“Hi feel as if hi could happreciate that story, mem!”
“But how do you think you’ll like living west?” asked the motherly woman. “It seems to me that the likes of you won’t know how to put up with our rough ways.”
“O,” replied the clergyman’s wife, with an enthusiasm which showed what manner of spirit she was of, “I did not come out here for enjoyment, but to cheer and help my husband in laboring for Christ.”
“Well,” answered the other, wiping a tear from her eye, “the land knows we need such folks among us; and if we don’t have things as nice as you do your way, I hope you’ll find us westerners ready to do what we can for the good cause. Most of us have seen better times, and have known what it was to go to meeting every 122 Sunday, and do our mite towards supporting preaching, and we are willing to do it again.”
“See, mother,” exclaimed little Helen,–a bright, wide-awake miss of six years,–“what a large garden!”
The team had passed the irregular ridges of the bluffs extending inland from the Mississippi, and had attained the summit of a gentle swell of land commanding an extensive prairie view, and the whole landscape was bedecked with flowers of every hue and shape. The child’s wondering eyes danced with delight, and she said,–
“Mother, isn’t the man who owns this great garden very rich?”