Page:A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (1879).djvu/195

LETTER X.

 

A White World—Bad Travelling—A Millionaire's Home—Pleasant Park—Perry's Park—Stock-raising—A Cattle King—The Arkansas Divide—Birdie's Sagacity—Luxury—Monument Park—Deference to Prejudice—A Death Scene—The Manitou—A loose Shoe—The Ute Pass—Bergens Park—A Settler's Home—Hayden's Divide—Sharp Criticism—Speaking the truth.

 

Colorado Springs, October 28.

It is difficult to make this anything of a letter. I have been riding for a whole week, seeing wonders and greatly enjoying the singular adventurousness and novelty of my tour, but ten hours or more daily spent in the saddle in this rarefied, intoxicating air, disposes one to sleep rather than to write in the evening, and is far from conducive to mental brilliancy. The observing faculties are developed, and the reflective lie dormant.

That night on which I last wrote was the coldest I have yet felt. I pulled the rag carpet from the floor and covered myself with it, but could not get warm. The sun rose gloriously on a shrouded earth. Barns, road, shrubs, fences, river, lake, all lay under the glittering snow. It was light and powdery, and