The land was poor and the settlement was located too far from a market.

With leaden thunderclouds hanging over it, the place looked as desolate as the sad-colored waste.
Following the deeply rutted street, which had a narrow, plank sidewalk, they reached the Imperial Hotel--a somewhat pretentious, double-storied building of unpainted wood, with a veranda across the front.

Here Gardner took the pony from them and gave them a room which had no furniture except a chair and two rickety iron beds.

Before he left them he indicated a printed list of the things they were not allowed to do.

Harding studied it with a sardonic smile.
"I don't see much use in prohibiting people from washing their clothes in the bedrooms when they don't give you any water," he remarked.
"This place must be about the limit in the way of cheap hotels." "It isn't cheap," responded Blake; "I've seen the tariff." They found their supper better than they had reason to expect, and afterward sat out on the veranda with the proprietor and one or two of the settlers who boarded at the hotel.