into violent, disproportionate, but utterly ineffective objurgation
of his cattle, jump into the air and kick his heels together in some
paroxysm of indignation against them,--an act, however, which was
received always with heavy bovine indifference, the dogged scorn of
swaying, repudiating heads, or the dull contempt of lazily flicking
tails.

Towards sunset one or two straggling barns and cottages indicated their
approach to the outskirts of a country town or settlement. Here the team
halted, as if the belligerent-looking teamster had felt his appearance
was inconsistent with an effeminate civilization, and the oxen were
turned into an open waste opposite a nondescript wooden tenement, half
farmhouse and half cabin, evidently of the rudest Western origin. He may
have recognized the fact that these "shanties" were not, as the ordinary
traveler might infer, the first rude shelter of the original pioneers
or settlers, but the later makeshifts of some recent Western immigrants
who, like himself, probably found themselves unequal to the settled
habits of the village, and who still retained their nomadic instincts.
It chanced, however, that the cabin at present was occupied by a New
England mechanic and his family, who had emigrated by ship around Cape
Horn, and who had no experience of the West, the plains, or its people.
It was therefore with some curiosity and a certain amount of fascinated
awe that the mechanic's only daughter regarded from the open door of her
dwelling the arrival of this wild and lawless-looking stranger.

Meantime he had opened the curtains of the wagon and taken from its
interior a number of pots, pans, and culinary utensils, which he
proceeded to hang upon certain hooks that were placed on the outer ribs
of the board and the sides of the vehicle. To this he added a roll of
rag carpet, the end of which hung from the tailboard, and a roll of pink