rivers it grows so fast, also groves of Pecan nut trees. {Side note} Lafayette. pop. 7855 alt. 40 feet Sugar Cane. corn & cotton mostly grown. Went through Garden City at 340 p.m. all the houses here are painted white with red roofs. seems to be all employees of a big Lumber Coy whose mills where along the track. at 5 p.m. saw an old Timer Engine at Lafayette Miss. called Morgan Louisana & Texas took a couple of snaps of it. a great quantity of sugar cane grown around here. some just cutting now. and hundreds of cars loaded along the tracks Crossed into Texas about 6 pm Seeing quite a few Banana trees in back yards. but do not do good enough to grow for selling as the bananas & bunches are too small. {Side note} Houston Texas pop 138.276 Elevation 47 feet. cotton rice mostly grown around here Had our supper on train, the Porter gets us a pot of hot water for tea for a quarter tip. Having quite a time with H, she gets lost and was 6 cars down the train when Lillie found her. Porter says we will be at Houston Texas by 10 30 pm, would have liked to have seen it, but all went to bed early. Dec 8th Looks like rain this morning We will be crossing the Texas plains all day today. going through the desert nothing but bushes & scrub trees. saw one house in about 10 miles went through a small place called Spofford, weather clear & warm here, at Marfa