Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-12-07
A Young Gfrl's First View OF the
World.

firing of the monoto ny OF this
the Louisville Courter-JoMrss VI, ad.
dressed. myself to the two lady passen.
gers who were my companions In the
sleeper. There were only five passen-
gers in our car, and the lady nea rest
me was a teacher from Georgetown,
Colorado, en- route to the Centennia |.
She was going for rest, she said; she
was so run down she could not sleep at
night. She was of middle age, had a
stern c~ountenance, and had forgotten,
if she ever knew how, to look pleasant.
The other party was a slender, blue
eyed girl of Is. Her clothes were slight
" eountrifed, but her face was intelli-
gent, and her voice low and sweet.
There was a homesick look about her
| that I never like to see on any face,
especially a young, fair one. | walked
over to her and sat by her side, and
found her very interesting. Would you
believe, you young people, who, at 16,
have exhausted the pleasure OF travel,
and find the world blase, that this young
girl was now taking her first Journeys
She had never before been so miles from
home, but the brave little thing had bid
her father and mother goodbye at their
rancho-house gate near Santa Fe, New
Mexico, and had entered the stage and
travelled alone six days and nights with
out resting, and at Denver was met by
her fathers friend, General Smith,
under whose care she was now going
to Ohio for a four-years' struggle with
the inconsistencies and s~trangeness of
%lo rx>~JI ool @Ln {1u~h coh0Ol hDnbc
in one of our colleges. Talk of hero
ines; I will venture not one of you trav-
eled girls would undertake such a feat
as that? Six days alone in a stage
coach. Your delicate nerves would be
all unstrung, unless there happened to
be a young gentleman with you. She
was now taking her first railroad ride,
yet she sat as composed and graceful as
though it was her fftieth. She told me
her story in a frank, childlike way, but
there was no brusQueness or awkward
ness in her manner. "The cars look
very like what I supposed them to be.
Of course I have seen pictures of them,
and father has explained to me every
separate part of the engine, so I could
tell you every section, and explain its
use and connection with the whole, and
it was the most exciting moment of my
life when / saw the great steam mon
ster come putting up to me to-dayi"
What think you of this, young ladiesF
Gould one of you tell any thing about
an engine, often as you have seen
them? 1 confess I could not, and I sat
quite dumbfounded by the side OF
this learned novice in the world.
"I have had several governesses
from the East, but they got married
soon, each of them, SO I was often with.
out a teacher for a long time, and at last
it was decided I should go East to
school. 1 was feeling a little blue just
now, when I got to thinking how far ]
was from home, and [ do dread SO the
first day at school. L am so glad you
came to talk with me. Can you tell me
how to act when | get there, and what
they will do first? At school, I mean
So [ told her all my experiences of col.
lege life, and especially all the cheer.
full, funny things about a boarding.
school, and, of course, she would find
out her dual, her schoolgirl affinity,
who would not have a thought that was
not shared with her, and I asked her to
write me how she got along, and de.
scribe her dearest friend to me when
she met her, as she surely would. Sc
she is going to write me for advice, and
tell me all her experiences, and take
me for a sort of worldly god-mother,
to whom a letter will come much quicker
than to Santa Fe, and I have taken to
my heart a blue-eyd protege, who is as
odd a bundle of humanity as l eve met.
She says her father lives in an adobe
house one story high, with a porch all
around it. The floors are only mud,
but they have velvet carpets laid
over the hard dirt floors,
and she has a very good
piano, and plenty of books, and often
girls came out from Santa Fe to spend
Mexican pony named Ogarita, and par.
rots and lots of strange pets. When we
were crossing a river on a fine railroad
bridge, the impulsive girl caught my
hand, exclaiming: "There is a steam
boat; the first one / ever saw" Sure
enough, q small steamer was rounding
a sand-bar, and bearing down upon us.
She watched it as long as the smoke
could be seen. So all along she was
spying something new, asking me ques-
lions which often I could not answer,
telling me things I did not know, and
at one moment surprising me by her
ignorance, and the next moment sur
prising me by her deep thought and
knowledge,,of intricate science. A won.
derful little woman she is, and twice as
charming to me, as a rough diamond,
than she viii be when polished and
smoothed by school training and put in
the regulation gold-setting of society.
E.nr Wbn Hoe Navar Roou Crnrvuod