"Benton? Why, certainly. All the world is flowing to Benton. We gained three thousand people in two weeks--much to the sorrow of poor old Cheyenne and Laramie. No doubt there are five thousand people there now, and all busy. Yes, a young man will find his opportunities in Benton. I think your choice will please you. Money is plentiful, and so are the chances to spend it." She bestowed upon me another sparkling glance. "And since we are both going to Benton I will say 'Au revoir,' sir." She left me quivering. "You do live there?" I besought, after; and received a nod of the golden head as she entered the sacred Ladies' Waiting Room. Until the train should be made up I might only stroll, restless and strangely buoyed, with that vision of an entrancing fellow traveler filling my eyes. Summoned in due time by the clamor "Passengers for the Pacific Railway! All aboard, going west on the Union Pacific!" here amidst the platform hurly-burly of men, women, children and bundles I had the satisfaction to sight the black-clad figure of My Lady of the Blue Eyes; hastening, like the rest, but not unattended--for a brakeman bore her valise and the conductor her parasol. The scurrying crowd gallantly parted before her. It as promptly closed upon her wake; try as I might I was utterly unable to keep in her course. Obviously, the train was to be well occupied. Carried on willy-nilly I mounted the first steps at hand; elbowed on down the aisle until I managed to squirm aside into a vacant seat. The remaining half was at once effectually filled by a large, stout, red-faced woman who formed the base of a pyramid of boxes and parcels. My neighbor, who blocked all egress, was going to North Platte, three hundred miles westward, I speedily found out. And she almost as speedily learned that I was going to Benton. She stared, round-eyed. "I reckon you're a gambler, young man," she accused. "No, madam. Do I look like a gambler?" "You can't tell by looks, young man," she asserted, still suspicious, "Maybe you're on spec', then, in some other way." "I am seeking health in the West, is all, where the climate is high and dry." "My Gawd!" she blurted. "High and dry! You're goin' to the right place. For all I hear tell, Benton is high enough and dry enough. Are your eye-teeth peeled, young man?" "My eye-teeth?" I repeated. "I hope so, madam. Are eye-teeth necessary in Benton?" "Peeled, and with hair on 'em, young man," she assured. "I guess you're a pilgrim, ain't you? I see a leetle green in your eye. No, you ain't a tin-horn. You're some mother's boy, jest gettin' away from the trough. My sakes! Sick, too, eh? Weak lungs, ain't it? Now you tell me: Why you goin' to Benton?" There was an inviting kindness in her query. Plainly she had a good heart, large in proportion with her other bulk. "It's the farthest point west that I can reach by railroad, and everybody I have talked with has recommended it as high and dry."