When finally we crossed the Platte River, the men of the company
rejoiced, although I was unable to learn why, except that it marked, as
mother suggested, the first stage of the journey, the second of which
would come to an end at Fort Bridger, and the third in that land where
we hoped to settle.
Not long after crossing this river we had a first glimpse of that
enormous mass which travelers speak of as Court House Rock, which, so
those who have seen both say, looks from the distance not unlike the
Capitol at Washington. A few miles farther on we saw another huge pile
called Chimney Rock.
I doubt not but that both would have been well worth the seeing, yet
our desire to look at them more closely was not gratified. The trail
leads some distance off, and when mother proposed to father that we
might halt for a day in order to get a nearer view of the curiosities,
he shook his head decidedly, saying, almost gruffly, that we who were
bent on finding new homes had no time to fritter away in looking at
this odd thing or at that.
Eben Jordan, however, borrowing one of his father's horses, rode off
to Chimney Rock by himself, and when he came back he told Ellen and me
that we need not shed many tears because of failing to see it close at
hand, because it was nothing more than a lot of big stones that looked
as if they might have been carelessly plastered together with mud.
[Illustration]
Of course this couldn't be the fact; but Eben has no eye for scenery
and, I dare say, might turn his nose up at what every one else would
believe wonderful or full of beauty.