"Do you live in Colorado, madam?" asked Mrs. March. "Oh, yes!" replied the lady: "Colorado Springs, the little town we are just coming to, is my home." "Do you like it?" asked Mrs. March, anxiously. "Like it!" replied the lady: "like is not a strong enough word. I love it. I love these mountains so that, whenever I go away from them, I miss them all the time; and I keep seeing them before me all the while, just as you see the face of a dear friend you are separated from. I should be very ungrateful, if I did not love the place; for it has simply made me over again. I came out here three years ago on a mattress, with my doctor and nurse, and thought it very doubtful if I lived to get here; and I have been perfectly well ever since." "Did you have asthma?" asked Rob, turning very red as soon as he had asked the question. He was afraid it was improper. "My papa has the asthma." "Oh, if that is your papa's trouble, he will be sure to be entirely well. Nobody can have asthma in Colorado," replied the lady. "It is the one thing which is always cured here. My own trouble was only a throat trouble." "I am very glad to hear you speak so confidently about the asthma," said Mrs. March: "my husband has been a great sufferer from it, and it is for that we have come." "You have done the very wisest thing you could have done," said the lady "you will never be sorry for it. But here we are; good morning." The train was already stopping in front of a little brown wooden building, and the brakeman called out: "Colorado Springs." "What a pleasant lady!" said Nelly to her mother. "Yes," said Mrs. March; "but it was partly because she told us such good news for papa." As they stepped out on the platform, they were almost deafened by the shouts of two black men, who were calling out the names of two hotels: two omnibuses belonging to the different hotels were standing there, and each black man was trying to get the most passengers for his hotel. Each man called out:-- "Free 'bus--this way to the free 'bus--only first-class hotel in the city." "Mercy on us!" exclaimed Mrs. March. "Let us go to the one who speaks the lowest, if there is any difference. They must think railroad travellers are all deaf! It makes no difference to which one we go just for a dinner. We shall drive home this afternoon." So saying, she stepped into the nearest omnibus, and the rest of the party followed her. In a moment more, the driver cracked his whip, and the four horses set off on a full gallop up the hill which lies between the railway station and the town. As they drew near the hotel door, the driver turned such a sharp corner, all at full speed, that the omnibus swung round on the wheels of one side, and pitched so violently that it threw both Nelly and Rob off their seats into the laps of their father and mother who sat opposite. "Hullo!" exclaimed Rob, picking himself up, "this is the way the gods drive, I suppose!"