Valentine is near the north boundary of the state, is west of the 100th meridian, and 295 miles distant from the Missouri river. When about ready to start, who should come to board the train but the man whom I thought must be a pony boy. "Oh, Mrs. P.! that bad man is going too, and see! We will have to travel in only a baggage car!" "Well, we cannot help ourselves now. The ambulance has started back, and we cannot stay here, so we are compelled to go." Mr. T. remarked: "He does look like a bad man; but don't you know you make your own company very often, and I am assured you will be well treated by the train-men, and even that bad-looking man; and to help you all I can, I will speak to the conductor in your behalf. The two chairs of the coach were placed at our use, while the conductor and stranger occupied the tool-chest. One side-door was kept open that I might sit back and yet have a good view. Mrs. P., not in the least discomforted by our position, was soon nodding in her chair, and I felt very much alone. "Where music is, his Satanic majesty cannot enter," I thought, and as I sat with book and pencil in hand, writing a few words now and then, I sang--just loud enough to be heard, many of the good old hymns and songs, and ended with, "Dreaming of home." I wanted to make that man think of "home and mother," if he ever had any. Stopping now and then to ask him some question about the country in the most respectful way, and as though he was the only one who knew anything about it, and was always answered in the most respectful manner. I sat near the door, and was prepared to jump right out into a sand-bank if anything should happen; but nothing occurred to make any one jump, only Mrs. P., when I gave her a pinch to wake her up and whisper to her "to please keep awake for I feel dreadful lonely." Well, all I got written was: Left Valentine about 3:30 in a baggage and mail car, over the sandy roads, now crossing the Niobrara bridge 200 feet long, 108 feet high; river not wide; no timber to be seen; now over a sand fill and through a sand cut 101 feet deep, and 321 feet wide at top, and 20 at bottom. Men are kept constantly at work to remove the sand that drifts into the cuts. THATCHER, seven miles from V., a few faces peer up at the train from their dug-out homes, station house, and one 8×10 deserted store-house almost entirely covered with the signs, "Butter, Vegetables, and Eggs," out of which, I am told, thousands of dollars' worth have been sold. Think it must have been canned goods, for old tin fruit cans are strewn all around. To our right is a chain of sand hills, while to the left it is a level grassy plain. The most of these lakelets, spoken of before, I am told, are only here during rainy seasons. Raining most of the time now. ARABIA, one house, and a tent that gives it an Arabic look.