The wire to Aunt Adelaide ran:
“Practically at end of journey. Take stage to Lost Trail this morning. Am well. Don’t worry about me.
“MARY.”
And the telegraph operator, dimly remembering that he had heard Lost Trail was a “pizen mean country,” and that it was tucked some two hundred miles back in the foot-hills, did not find it very hard to forgive the girl, who was “practically at end of journey,” particularly as the dimple had come out of hiding, and he had never been called upon to telegraph the word “practically” before. He was a progressive man and liked to extend his experiences.
After sending the telegram, Miss Carmichael, quite herself by reason of the hill air, felt that she was getting along famously as a traveller, but that it was an expensive business, and she was glad to be “practically” at the end of her journey. And, drawing from her pocket a square envelope of heavy Irish linen, a little worn from much reading, but primarily an envelope that bespoke elegance of taste on the part of her correspondent, she read:
“LOST TRAIL, WYOMING.
“My Dear Miss Carmichael,—Pray let me assure you of my gratification that the preliminaries have been so satisfactorily arranged, and that we are to have you with us by the end of June. The children are profiting from the very anticipation of it, and it will be most refreshing to all us isolated ones to be able to welcome an Eastern girl as a member of our family.
“Although the long journey across the continent is trying, particularly to one who has not made it before, I hope you may not find it utterly fatiguing. Please remember that after leaving the train, it will be necessary to take a stage to Lost Trail. If it is possible, I shall meet you with the buckboard at one of the stage stations; otherwise, keep to the stage route, being careful to change at Dax’s Ranch.
“Unfortunately, the children vary so in their accomplishments that I fear I can make no suggestions as to what you may need to bring with you in the way of text-books. But I think you will find them fairly well grounded.
“I had a charming letter from Mrs. Kirkland, who said the pleasantest things possible of you. I am glad the wife of our Senator was able conscientiously to commend us.
“With our most cordial good wishes for a safe journey, believe me, dear Miss Carmichael,
“Sincerely yours,
“SARAH YELLETT.”
In the mean time, “Town” came yawning to breakfast. It was not so prankish as it had been the night before, when it accepted the sheepman’s broad-gauge hospitality and made merry till the sun winked from behind the mountains. It made its way to the low, shedlike eating-house with a pre-breakfast solemnity bordering on sulkiness. Not a petticoat was in sight to offset the spurs and sombreros that filed into breakfast from every point in the compass, prepared to eat primitively, joke broadly, and quarrel speedily if that sensitive and often inconsistent something they called honor should be brushed however lightly.
But the eternal feminine was within, and, discovering it, the temper of “Town” was changed; it ate self-consciously, made jokes meet for the ears of ladies, and was more interested in the girl in the sailor-hat than it was in remembering old feuds or laying the foundations of new.