The grandeur of having old silver made no impression on
them. They saw that Grandma Padgett had one pair of horses hitched to
her moving-wagon instead of three pairs, and they secretly rated her
resources by this fact.
It was very cheerful moving in this long caravan. When there was a
bend in the 'pike, and the line of vehicles curved around it, the
sight was exhilarating.
Some of the Virginians sat on their horses to drive. There was singing,
and calling back and forth. And when they passed a toll-gate, all the
tollkeeper's family and neighbors came out to see the array. Jonathan
and Robert rode in his father's easiest wagon, while Thrusty Ellen, and
her mother enjoyed Grandma Padgett's company in the carriage. As they
neared Richmond, which lay just within the Indiana line, men went ahead
like scouts to secure accommodations for the caravan. At Louisburg,
the last of the Ohio villages, aunt Corinne was watching for the boundary
of the State. She fancied it stretched like a telegraph wire from pole
to pole, only near the ground, so the cattle of one State could not stray
into the other, and so little children could have it to talk across,
resting their chins on the cord.
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