Dayton expressed it, and to settle themselves and
their belongings in these new quarters. Mrs. Ashe and Amy, it was decided,
should occupy the state-room, and the other ladies were to dress there
when it was convenient. Sections were assigned to everybody,--Clover's
opposite Phil's so that she might hear him if he needed anything in the
night; and Mr. Dayton called for all the bonnets and hats, and amid much
laughter proceeded to pin up each in thick folds of newspaper, and fasten
it on a hook not to be taken down till the end of the journey. Mabel's
feathered turban took its turn with the rest, at Amy's particular request.
Dust was the main thing to be guarded against, and Katy, having been duly
forewarned, had gone out in the morning, and bought for herself and Clover
soft hats of whity-gray felt and veils of the same color, like those
which Mrs. Dayton and Polly had provided for the journey, and which had
the advantage of being light as well as unspoilable.
But there was no dust that first morning, as the train ran smoothly across
the fertile prairies of Illinois first, and then of Iowa, between fields
dazzling with the fresh green of wheat and rye, and waysides studded with
such wild-flowers as none of them had ever seen or dreamed of before. Pink
spikes and white and vivid blue spikes; masses of brown and orange cups,
like low-growing tulips; ranks of beautiful vetches and purple lupines;
escholtzias, like immense sweeps of golden sunlight; wild sweet peas;
trumpet-shaped blossoms whose name no one knew,--all flung broadcast over
the face of the land, and in such stintless quantities that it dazzled the
mind to think of as it did the eyes to behold them.
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