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Frank's Ranche; Or, My Holiday in the Rockies / Being a Contribution to the Inquiry into What We Are to Do with Our Boys cover

Frank's Ranche; Or, My Holiday in the Rockies / Being a Contribution to the Inquiry into What We Are to Do with Our Boys

Chapter 2: DEDICATORY LETTER.
By E. Marston
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About This Book

A series of epistolary travel narratives follows a restless young man who abandons failed agricultural ventures to seek a new life in the American West. Early attempts at farming and a creamery give way to mountain ranching, long drives, and life in remote camps. The account moves from an ocean passage and eastern towns to rail journeys across the plains and the dramatic landscapes of the Rockies and Yellowstone. Hard labor, severe winters, wildlife encounters, and frontier characters illustrate the difficulties of roughing it, while practical observations and reflections on parent–child expectations and advice for would-be settlers are woven throughout.

DEDICATORY LETTER.

My dear Friend M.,

I cannot but dedicate this little volume to you who have been my pleasant travelling companion for many thousands of miles in the great western world. But for you I should probably never have undertaken such a journey; and for how many acts of thoughtful kindness by the way am I not indebted to you? Can I forget that you always insisted on my taking the best bunk in the cabin, the best seat in stage-coaches, the best room in hotels, the best bed in sleeping cars? Can I forget that it was your warmhearted friendship for Frank which induced you to "rough it" with me in his little log shanty? And ought I not gratefully to remember the inexhaustible resources of that wonderful travelling bag and the cruse of cordials which, in time of need, were ever at my service? No man could have had a more pleasant, unselfish, and kind companion than you were, and my only regret is that I have not been able to produce a record of our journeyings more worthy of your acceptance.

Yours faithfully,
E. M.
London,
Christmas, 1885.