Afar there swelled the sound of morning revelries.
Franklin wanted breakfast, and instinctively turned toward the stone hotel at the depot, where he learned were quartered the engineers and contractors on the railroad work.

He seated himself at one of the many tables in the vast, barren dining room.

Half the attendants were haughty young women, and half rather slovenly young men.
Franklin fell under the care of one of the latter, who greeted him with something of the affection of an old acquaintance.

Coming to the side of his chair, and throwing an arm carelessly across Franklin's shoulder, the waiter asked in a confidential tone of voice, "Well, Cap, which'll you have, hump or tongue ?" Whereby Franklin discovered that he was now upon the buffalo range, and also at the verge of a new etiquette.
After breakfast Franklin paused for a moment at the hotel office, almost as large and empty as the dining room.

Different men now and then came and passed him by, each seeming to have some business of his own.