I had enough bottles and soap and boot-jacks and such things to carry it along to where it joins onto the Union Pacific, fourteen hundred miles from here, I should exhibit to you in that little internal improvement a spectacle of inconceivable sublimity.  So, don’t you see?  We’ve got the rail road to fall back on; and in the meantime, what are we worrying about that $200,000 appropriation for?  That’s all right.  I’d be willing to bet anything that the very next letter that comes from Harry will—­”

The eldest boy entered just in the nick of time and brought a letter, warm from the post-office.

“Things do look bright, after all, Beriah.  I’m sorry I was blue, but it did seem as if everything had been going against us for whole ages.  Open the letter—­open it quick, and let’s know all about it before we stir out of our places.  I am all in a fidget to know what it says.”

The letter was opened, without any unnecessary delay.