_Columbia House_, AVOCA, IOWA, _October Nineteenth_. Weather cloudy, threatening rain as I rode out of Atlantic in the morning at ten o'clock. Covered twenty miles and stopped for dinner at another farm, near Walnut. On my road saw a man at work in a large cornfield and, hailing him, inquired the distance to Avoca. After a few words had passed between us, I was surprised and pleased to discover that he was from my native county--St. Lawrence, New York, and knew many of my old friends and acquaintances in that quarter. Our conversation turned upon old localities and associations, much to our mutual enjoyment. The days of our youth were recalled, and although we had never met before, we parted after half an hour's chat as if we had been friends of many years' standing. My friend expressed perfect satisfaction with his rustic life on the prairie and was quite enthusiastic over the prospects of his farming operations. The soil he said was excellent, easy to cultivate and, in fact, second to none in the State. Avoca is a purely agricultural village with a population of about 1,500, all, more or less, interested in the big farms within a radius of one to two miles of the busy town. Two weekly newspapers kept the citizens _en rapport_ with the outside world and the hustling life of the large cities. One Hundred and Sixty-second Day. _Neola House_, NEOLA, IOWA, _October Twentieth_. A drizzling rain on leaving Avoca made the prospect of my ride to this point somewhat gloomy. Over the interminable prairie again my journey lay, as it had done ever since I entered the State of Iowa, but a more magnificent sight I never saw than presented itself before me this afternoon on reaching the summit of an extensive table-land between Avoca and Minden. Halted a few minutes for lunch at Minden, and met a gentleman there who had attended my lecture at Detroit, upon which he was pleased to compliment me. Neola is a small prairie settlement of about three hundred inhabitants and is surrounded by several good farms. Of the Neola House I can only say that I shall not easily forget it and its proprietor--especially the nocturnal serenade of all the cats of Neola--which deprived me of sleep throughout the night; and the extremely scant accommodations provided for the guests. The soil here is inferior in quality to that of no other section of the State. The land is well watered and was gradually filling up with an industrious class of citizens. [Illustration: OMAHA, NEBRASKA, IN 1876.] One Hundred and Sixty-third Day.