CHAPTER 25 From Cairo to Hickman.
THE scenery, from St.Louis to Cairo--two hundred miles--is varied and beautiful.

The hills were clothed in the fresh foliage of spring now, and were a gracious and worthy setting for the broad river flowing between.

Our trip began auspiciously, with a perfect day, as to breeze and sunshine, and our boat threw the miles out behind her with satisfactory despatch.
We found a railway intruding at Chester, Illinois; Chester has also a penitentiary now, and is otherwise marching on.

At Grand Tower, too, there was a railway; and another at Cape Girardeau.

The former town gets its name from a huge, squat pillar of rock, which stands up out of the water on the Missouri side of the river--a piece of nature's fanciful handiwork--and is one of the most picturesque features of the scenery of that region.