Strapping our bundles to our backs, we started. I confess to a peculiar
sensation in the pit of my stomach as I trod the narrow plank nailed
along the apex of the roofs, and jumped from car to car, while the train
rocked heavily along, lurching around the curves, and the wild landscape
rotated past on either side. But after the first few minutes the feeling
passed and I was able to conclude the journey with all the sang-froid of
an old hand.
“After to-day, I’ll be expecting to meet women brakies most any time.
You’d make a swell member of the Union,” volunteered our guide, as we
settled ourselves in the fruit car.
The day passed and the night. About four in the morning another brakeman
appeared and roused us.
“We will stop at Uintah about sunrise,” he said. “You will have to go
back to the rear of the train, and be ready to drop off as the train
slows down for the station. Get away as quickly as you can, for if you
are discovered riding on this train, the whole bunch of us may spend a
month in jail.”
So I took another stroll along the swaying roofs and climbed onto the
rear platform of the caboose. As the train began slowing for Uintah, we
flipped off and bolted away from the track.
After many miles of wilderness the fertile valley looked very beautiful
to our tired eyes. Accustomed from childhood to an abundance of fresh
fruit the year round, the restricted diet of recent months has told on
me. Now berry vines, fruit orchards and vineyards reminded me of home,
and we determined to buy a little fruit, fresh from the garden.
Passing up a tree-bordered roadway, we came upon a long, low farmhouse,
squatted at ease upon a terraced hillside, the brown of its unpainted
wooden frame blending with the russet hues of tree trunks and knotted
loops of trailing grape vines. A fluffy maltese kitten with arching back
scampered with sidelong leaps to meet us, then frolicked up a tree. Two
dogs set up a racket and a winsome, dark-eyed girl came to the door. I
asked for ten cents worth of raspberries. With a charming smile she led
the way to the roomy kitchen, and taking down a bright tin pail, placed
it in my hands with instructions to go right into the patch and help
ourselves to what we wanted. We busied ourselves among the tall, green
canes, and as the scent of flowers and fruit came to my nostrils, it
seemed that I had been transported to the beautiful spot where I was
born.
“At last I can realise that I am nearing home,” said I, turning to Dan.
On our return to the kitchen with the luscious red berries, the laughing
maid met us, and set out dishes, spoons, sugar and a great pitcher of
yellow cream. And what a feast we had! Our hostess informed us that the
first passenger train that stopped at their little station did not come
through till nearly one o’clock, so while Dan roamed about the ranch,
the little woman and I sat on the long veranda and got acquainted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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