"Yes," said Hugh, "that's sure enough true, Mr. Sturgis. I knew well Uncle Jack Robinson, the Bakers, Bridger, Beckwourth, and a whole lot of men that came into the country in the thirties or before. I have met old Bill Williams and Perkins, and know old man Culbertson well. I guess likely he's alive now."
"Why, even you, Jack," said Mr. Sturgis, "know old man Monroe, and he, according to all accounts, came into the country in 1813."
"That's so, Uncle George," said Jack; "that goes back a long way, doesn't it?"
"Well now, do you realize that probably before any of us die this whole western country will be crowded full of people; that there will be railroads running in all directions, and that the centre of population of the country will be probably moved from Pittsburg, where it is now, to somewhere in the Mississippi valley, and perhaps not far from the big river itself?" said Mr. Sturgis.
"I haven't been out here so many years," he continued, "but I have seen changes take place in this country that have astonished me, and I can see that these changes are going to keep taking place, and that almost before we know it sections of country through which now we can travel for weeks at a time without seeing any people will be full of ranches and farms and towns. We think of the United States as being a big country now, but I believe it hasn't made a beginning yet."
"Well, Mr. Sturgis," said Hugh, "I guess likely what you say is right. But what's going to happen to all the old things that used to be in the country? What's going to happen to the game, to the buffalo, to the Indians?"
"Why," said Mr. Sturgis, "the game, and buffalo, and Indians are natural things, and they cannot stand up in the face of civilized things. The game will be killed off except in little spots like Yellowstone Park; the Indians will be crowded onto their reservations and kept there, and will either be turned into farmers or cow men, or else will starve to death. The people of this country are going to see, I believe, that all this waste region, for that is what they call it, shall be made to produce something. Cattle will take the place of buffalo, sheep will take the place of deer and antelope. After a while farmers will come in, and then the big cattle and sheep men will be crowded out in turn. The farmers will raise crops from the ground instead of sheep and cattle. People will have farms and a few head of cattle, but the days of the 'cattle kings' will pass away. It's a process of evolution, my boy," he said to Jack, "and you and I will see it work itself out."