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CHAPTER X.
The Columbia River and Pullman.
I spent three weeks, including a very pleasant Christmas, at Astoria, where the roses bloom out of doors the year around, a friend bringing me a beautiful bouquet she had picked in her yard the evening before I left. I spent my New Year festivities at Albany, and a new one on me was to see bands of sheep grazing in the large fields of winter wheat. I thought the good-natured farmers had forgotten to put up their fences, but was informed by a friend that this was customary, and if not done, the growth would be so great that there would be an abundance of straw, with less return of wheat. After a short sojourn here I went back to Portland, starting east over the Oregon
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