It was high up, the most difficult shot even facing it, but
tearing as fast as one could in the opposite direction to jump on to a
moving train, it was a rather remarkable feat to be able to hit it, with
just a glance backwards, wasn't it, Mamma?! And no wonder people don't
care to "run up against him!" As the scraps of the bottle fell, he
bounded on the steps and was dragged in by his companions, while with
cheers from both trains and waving of hats we steamed our different
ways. Tom was transported with admiration. How those things please
English men, don't they? And I am sure he thought far more of
"Ruby-Mine-Bill" than all the clever people we had met in New York. And
certainly skill of this sort does affect one. The Senator can shoot like
that. Nelson told us. "He's had some near squeaks in his life and come
off top; and everyone in this country knows him."
The land along which we were passing, and indeed what has been ever
since we entered the mining country, is the most bleak and desolate on
the earth, I should think; not a living thing or blade of grass except
once when we passed a stream where low bushes bordered it; only barren
hills with a little scrub on them and a rough stony surface.
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