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As the long colu

sand hills there was disclosed a vast and splendid panorareen in the full covering of spring A

crooked and broken thread of ti the general course of the shallow streaiant

cottonwoods were dwarfed now by the distances In between, and for miles

up and down the flat expanse, there rose the blue s the location of sorouped here and there, proved the presence of the

livestock under herd

Over all shone a pleasant sun Now and again the dark shadow of a h lights for the

ti, the faint looures of the wagons

rising high,between,

so that the whole seeoria of the

desert

"Look!" exclai up his horse "Look, Caleb, the

Northern train is in and waiting for us! A hundred wagons! They're

caht of this vast re-enforceht heart to everytrain Now, indeed, Oregon was sure

There would be, all told, four hundred--five hundred--above six hundred

wagons Nothing could withstand thereat trains blended before the final emparkment men and women

who had never met before shook hands, talked excitedly, e their own kind Soon the vast valley

at the foot of the Grand Island of the Platte--ninety th it

then was--became one vast bivouac whose parallel had not been seen in