All about them was the prairie, its long grass gently billowed by the spring breeze.

On the far right, blue in the haze, was a continuous range of lofty bluffs.

On the left the waters of the Platte, muddied by the spring freshets, flowed over beds of quicksand between groves of cottonwood that pleasantly fringed its banks.

The hard labour and the constant care demanded by the dangers that surrounded them prevented any from feeling the monotony of the landscape.
Besides the regular trials of the march there were wagons to be "snaked" across the streams, tires to be reset and yokes to be mended at each "lay-by," strayed stock to be hunted, and a thousand contingencies sufficient to drive from their minds all but the one thought that they had been thrown forth from a Christian land for the offence of worshipping God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
Joel Rae, walking beside his wagon, meditated chiefly upon the manner in which his Witness would first manifest itself.

The wonder came, in a way, while he thus meditated.