I knew he would never mean amiss; but I was convinced
he would almost never (in my sense) do aright.
I suppose these vague anticipations added a shade of
gloom to that already gloomy place of travel: Nebraska,
Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, scowled in my face at least, and
seemed to point me back again to that other native land
of mine, the Latin Quarter.
But when the Sierras had been climbed, and the train,
after so long beating and panting, stretched itself
upon the downward track--when I beheld that vast extent
of prosperous country rolling seaward from the woods
and the blue mountains, that illimitable spread of
rippling corn, the trees growing and blowing in the
merry weather, the country boys thronging aboard the
train with figs and peaches, and the conductors, and
the very darky stewards, visibly exulting in the
change--up went my soul like a balloon; Care fell from
his perch upon my shoulders; and when I spied my
Pinkerton among the crowd at Sacramento, I thought of
nothing but to shout and wave for him, and grasp him by
the hand, like what he was--my dearest friend.
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