“Hi and Jim and I are going on up to the diggin’s right away. See that line of travel?” And Billy pointed to the constant procession of wagons and of people afoot, extending from the settlement as far as the eye could reach, westward into the hills fifteen miles distant. They’re all going. Left-over’s quit and joined another outfit. He couldn’t wait. Jim and Hi are buying supplies. Did you notice the prices? Eggs are two dollars and a half a dozen. Milk fifty cents a quart. Flour ten dollars for a fifty-pound sack. Reckon beans and sowbelly will do for us. They say even game is scarce around the diggin’s. “If you fellows don’t mind I believe I’ll stay around here for a while till people cool down a little,” said the Reverend Mr. Baxter. “Cool down!” exclaimed Billy. “Huh! The stage driver says he passed ten thousand emigrants all heading this way!” “Then I guess I won’t be missed,” laughed Mr. Baxter. “How about you, Dave?” asked Billy. Davy hesitated. What the “boy” (who was a girl) had told them rather weighed on his mind. And the same old story of “beans and sowbelly” did not sound inviting any longer. “We saw Mr. Majors. He offered Dave a job freighting and a pass to Leavenworth,” put in Mr. Baxter. “Take it if you want to, Dave,” said Billy, quickly. “Life in the diggin’s will be mighty tough, but I’ve got started and I’m going in. You do as you please.” “Well,” faltered Dave, “I reckon maybe I’ll stay out a while.” “All right,” quoth Billy. “We’ll see you before we leave. We want to pull right out, though.” Nothing could stop Hi and Jim and Billy; and sure enough that afternoon they did pull out for the diggings forty and more miles west, among the mountains. They settled with Mr. Baxter and Dave for the two shares in the Hee-Haw outfit, and left with a cheer. Davy felt a momentary twinge of regret that he was not going, too; but when he remembered what Mr. Majors had said about “haphazard looking” and a “bird in the hand” he decided that, after all, he had done what was best. The work of bridging the plains was a great work and very necessary if these settlements at the mountains were to live. “Let’s go over to Auraria and see that, Dave,” invited Mr. Baxter. “Then we can find a place to stop in over night. I’m tired of bedding out on the ground.” Cherry Creek was almost dry. Camps and cabins had been located right in the middle of it, so they easily walked across. Auraria was larger than Denver, but the buildings were not so good. They were of rough cottonwood logs, whereas the Denver logs were smoothed and many were of pine brought down from the timber in the hills. Auraria had the newspaper, the _Rocky Mountain News_, whose press and type and so forth had been hauled overland by the editor, Mr. W. N. Byers. Like Denver City, Auraria was bustling with all kinds of people. “How are you, strangers? Don’t you want to buy a city lot and make your fortune?” invited an alert man of the two Hee-Haws.