There came to him a subtle, strange exhilaration.

A sensation of confidence, of certainty, arose in his heart.

He trod as a conqueror upon a land new taken.

All the earth seemed happy and care-free.

A meadow lark was singing shrilly high up in the air; another lark answered, clanking contentedly from the grass, whence in the bright air its yellow breast showed brilliantly.
As Franklin was walking on, busy with the impressions of his new world, he became conscious of rapid hoof-beats coming up behind him, and turned to see a horseman careering across the open in his direction, with no apparent object in view beyond that of making all the noise possible to be made by a freckled-faced cowboy who had been up all night, but still had some vitality which needed vent.
"Eeeeee-yow-heeeeee!" yelled the cowboy, both spurring and reining his supple, cringing steed.