Page:Travel letters from New Zealand, Australia and Africa (1913).djvu/498

 how we enjoyed seeing it! The green at Home is a healthier and better-looking green than the green in the tropics.

—We have spent this day passing through Ohio and Indiana. They are better states than New Jersey, and our enthusiasm is increasing. We are passengers on an all-steel train, and in no other country in the world are equally good railroad accommodations to be had Early in the afternoon, nearly a thousand miles from the sea, we came to the fourth or fifth city of the world: Chicago. An American we saw last in New Zealand, Dr. Beeson, met us at this place. Our social relations are rapidly improving.

—This morning, when the conductor came in to take my tickets, he said:

"Why, hello!"

I knew him: we were getting almost in sight of Home. When we went into the dining-car, the negro waiter spoke to us by name Shortly afterwards, the conductor sat down beside us, and, looking out of the south window, said:

"I never knew before you could see Potato Hill so plainly from this side of the river."

Then the Pullman conductor came in, and said:

"The next station is Atchison."