And he worked at his trade too. For he's a
cabinet maker. Yes, sir, he has a trade. With all the books he's read he
has a trade. And now he's up here to look over the ground; for they say
he's comin' here next spring to practice law, and even then he'll be
only twenty-one."
Surely, this was a land of haste, of easy expedients. I did not know a
great deal about the legal education of an English lawyer; but enough to
appreciate the difference between the slow and disciplined training
there and the rapid and loose preparation which I heard Mrs. Spurgeon
describe with so much pride. I went into the corner of the room to write
a letter to my grandmother.
CHAPTER X
This is the letter that I wrote:
"Dear Grandmama: I cannot describe to you the conditions that surround
me. The boundless extent of the country, the wildness and beauty of the
prairies, the roughness of this frontier town, above all the people
themselves. The house I am living in is unlike anything you ever saw;
but yet it is very comfortable. And my hostess, Mrs. Spurgeon, as well
as her granddaughter, have treated me with all the consideration that
my own kindred could do. I was very dangerously ill and they took care
of me with wonderful solicitude; particularly Zoe, who nursed me and
scarcely left my side. Now I am well, or nearly so, and they insist on
my living with them.
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