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Show CHAPTER LVIII. A GOOD TRADE. A former resident of Pueblo, whose name I am not at liberty to mention, gave me the story I am now about to relate. I fear the peculiar style of the story-teller will betray him; however, that is not my lookout. " Soon after the town of Pueblo was laid out in 1859 there was a good deal of activity among the enterprising band of Pike's Peakers who were camped there, waiting developments. These developments consisted chiefly in waiting for and watching the straggling immigrants who, from day to day wended their way slowly up the Arkansas valley from ' the States,' and who, as soon as they arrived at the site of the embryo town, at the mouth of Le Fontaine qui Bouille, were waited upon by the squatters who had preceded them, and were duly inspected for the purpose of ascertaining where they came from, where they were going, and what amount and character of capital and 'plunder' they had brought along with them for the good of the community. The community meant, of course, the old settlers. The old settlers meant those who were then in camp. The tenderfeet were those who came the next day. The fresh arrivals of each day were waited upon, assigned quarters in camp, where there was ' wood, water and grass,' a mental invoice taken of their visible effects, and negotiations at once opened for barter and trade, and timely suggestions and advice imparted as to profitable investment, having in view, of course, the de- 281 |