It made her heart beat wildly.

It seemed now that she must be almost there.

Railroads were things belonging to the East and civilization.

But the way was lonely still for days, and then she crossed more railroads, becoming more and more frequent, and came into the line of towns that stretched along beside the snake-like tracks.
She fell into the habit of staying overnight in a town, and then riding on to the next in the morning; but now her clothes were becoming so dirty and ragged that she felt ashamed to go to nice-looking places lest they should turn her out; so she sought shelter in barns and small, mean houses.

But the people in these houses were distressingly dirty, and she found no place to wash.
She had lost track of the weeks or the months when she reached her first great city, the only one she had come near in her uncharted wanderings.
Into the outskirts of Chicago she rode undaunted, her head erect, with the carriage of a queen.