Page:Curtis Club in Yellowstone Park.djvu/11

 Omaha party. As they went to the hotel it seemed that they were all talking at once telling the Aldrich boys about the trip. The Aldrich boys could scarcely get in a word about Denver and the many things they had seen.

The next morning Dr. Curtis and the twelve boys again boarded the train from which they would alight the following morning at Yellowstone. There is not space enough to tell about the mountains, the canyons, the climbing of the railroad, the interesting divide at the top of the continent, or the surprisingly clear air of the western high country. The next morning at Yellowstone, all were eager to plunge at once into the great unknown. While the Aldrich boys, who were going on to California arranged with the Union Pacific station agent for the care of their surplus baggage, the other boys got from a neighboring restaurant enough sandwiches for lunch, and all were off.

It was agreed that they should meet that evening at the Fountain Hotel.

Four of the boys managed to squeeze into a stage coach that was about to start into the Park with some Englishmen in it. The others, with Dr. Curtis, got a special stage coach to take them as far as the falls of the Fire Hole River. They were going to fish and tramp the rest of the way up the river and the stage coach was coming back to Yellowstone to get a party of ladies from Boston.

The special stage soon reached the Madison River and the boys enjoyed the delightful scenery that unfolded as they followed the river up the narrow rock-walled canyon it had cut for itself to get a way out of the mountains that towered on both sides, with pine trees clinging in every possible crevice. It was a day to be remembered. Dr. Curtis and his eight boys lunched by a clear, cold mountain spring beside the splendid Government Road and about four o'clock as they were tramping up the road beyond the falls of the Fire Hole River they were startled by a sudden shout, and Sam Robinson and the rest of his party jumped out from behind a big rock by the roadside,