CHAPTER V

THE PRAIRIE

After a hot and tedious journey, George and his companion alighted one
afternoon at a little station on a branch line, and Edgar looked about
with interest when the train went on again. A telegraph office with a
baggage-room attached occupied the middle of the low platform, a tall
water-tank stood at the end, and three grain elevators towered high
above a neighboring side-track. Facing the track, stood a row of
wooden buildings varying in size and style: they included a
double-storied hotel with a veranda in front of it, and several untidy
shacks. Running back from them, two short streets, thinly lined with
small houses, led to a sea of grass.

"Sage Butte doesn't strike one as a very exhilarating place," George
remarked. "We'll stroll round it, and then see about rooms, since we
have to stay the night."

They left the station, but the main street had few attractions to
offer. Three stores, with strangely-assorted, dusty goods in their
windows fronted the rickety plankwalk; beyond these stood a livery
stable, a Chinese laundry, and a few dwelling-houses. Several
dilapidated wagons and buggies were scattered about the uneven road.
In the side street, disorderly rows of agricultural implements
surrounded a store, and here and there little board dwellings with wire