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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/16586-h.zip b/16586-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0421e08 --- /dev/null +++ b/16586-h.zip diff --git a/16586-h/16586-h.htm b/16586-h/16586-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1eb9345 --- /dev/null +++ b/16586-h/16586-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4272 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;CHARSET=iso-8859-1"> + <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Visual Page 2.0 for Windows"> + <title>"The Voyage of the Rattletrap"</title> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Voyage of the Rattletrap, by Hayden Carruth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Voyage of the Rattletrap + +Author: Hayden Carruth + +Illustrator: H. M. Wilder + +Release Date: August 24, 2005 [EBook #16586] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP *** + + + + +Produced by Cyril N. Alberga + + + + + +</pre> + +<h1 align="center">THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP</h1> + +<h5 align="center">BY</h5> + +<h3 align="center"><br> +HAYDEN CARRUTH</h3> +<h5 align="center">AUTHOR OF "THE ADENTURES OF JONES" ETC.</h5> +<h5> </h5> +<h5 align="center">ILLUSTRATED</h5> + +<h3 align="center"><br> +BY H. M. WILDER</h3> +<p align="center"><img src="images/tvotr-03.jpg" alt="Colophon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="165" width="142"></p> + +<h5 align="center">NEW YORK<br> +<br> +NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS</h5> +<h5 align="center">1897</h5> +<p align="center"><img src="images/tvotr-01.jpg" alt="Cover" + align="bottom" border="0" height="544" width="373"></p> + +<h4 align="center">TO<br> +<br> +JOHN BRIAR<br> +<br> +A POOR COOK BUT A GOOD FELLOW</h4> +<p><br> +<br> +<br> +<a name="TOC"></a> +</p> +<h3>CONTENTS:</h3> +<br> +<table summary="Table of Contents: Chapters" border="0"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td colspan="2"> + <h4>CHAPTER</h4> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#I"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>I.</td> + <td>Getting Ready</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#II"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>II.</td> + <td>Outward Bound</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#III"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>III.</td> + <td>From Lookout Lake To The Missouri River</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#IV"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>IV.</td> + <td>Into Nebraska</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#V"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>V.</td> + <td>Across The Niobrara</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#VI"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>VI.</td> + <td>By Cañons To Valentine</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#VII"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>VII.</td> + <td>Through The Sand Hills</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#VIII"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>VIII</td> + <td>On The Antelope Flats</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#IX"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>IX.</td> + <td>Off For The Black Hills</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#X"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>X.</td> + <td>Among The Mountains</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#XI"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>XI.</td> + <td>Deadwood</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td><a href="#XII"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>XII.</td> + <td>Homeward Bound</td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> +<br><br> +<table summary="Table of Contents: Illustrations " border="0"> + <tbody> + <tr> + <td width="27"> </td> + <td> + <h4>ILLUSTRATIONS</h4> + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"> </td> + <td> </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-02"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Map</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-04"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>The Voyage First Suggested</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-05"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Preparations</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-06"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Grandpa Oldberry Presages Disaster</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-07"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 23px; height: 18px;"></a></td> + <td>Snoozer</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-08"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Mutiny Of The Pony</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-09"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Effect Of A Strange Noise</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-10"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Plan For Rousing A Sound Sleeper</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-11"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>First Lesson In Hay Twisting</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-12"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Investigations</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-13"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Hats</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-14"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Milking The Heifer That Wore A Sleigh Robe</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-15"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Wet But Hopeful</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-16"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Anti-Horse-Thieves</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-17"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Jack Shoots A Grouse</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-18"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Flight Of The Blacksmith</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-19"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Studying Botany</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-20"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>"When The Winds Are Breathing Low"</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-21"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Sad Result Of Dishonesty</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-22"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>First Night Camp In The Sand Hills</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-23"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Dark Doings Of The Cook</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-24"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>No Horse-Feed</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-25"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>The Careful Corn Owner</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-26"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>A Study In Red Men</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-27"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>A Good Salesman</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-28"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Big Bear Looks Into The Educational Situation</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-29"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>A Lesson In Finance</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-30"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>The Rattletrap In The Storm</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-31"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Effect Of A Dog On A Mexican</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-32"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Post-Mortem On A Grizzly</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-33"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>'Gene Starts A Cook-Book</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-34"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Lack Of Confidence In Mankind</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-35"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Flying Cord-Wood</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-36"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>The Deserted Ranch</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-37"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Old "Blenty Vaters"</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-38"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>In The Prairie Fire</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td width="27"><a href="#I-39"><img src="images/point.jpg" + alt="Link icon" align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a></td> + <td>Well! Well! Well!"</td> + </tr> + </tbody> +</table> +<br> +<p align="center"><a name="I-02"></a><img src="images/tvotr-02.jpg" + alt="Map of the voyage" align="bottom" border="0" height="369" + width="701"></p> + +<h2 align="center">THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP</h2> + +<h2 align="center"></h2> +<p><a name="I"></a> +</p> +<h3>I: GETTING READY</h3> +<p>Perhaps we were pretty big boys--Jack and I. In fact, I'm afraid we +were so big that we haven't grown much since. +But Ollie was a boy, anyhow; he couldn't have been more than a dozen +years old, and we looked upon him as being +a very small boy indeed; though when folks saw us starting off, some of +them seemed to think that we were as boyish +as he, because, they said, it was such a foolish thing to do; and in +some way, I'm sure I don't know how, boys +have got the reputation of always doing foolish things. "They're three +of a kind," said Grandpa Oldberry, +as he watched us weigh anchor; "their parents oughter be sent fer."</p> +<p>Well, it's hard to decide where to begin this true history. We +didn't keep any log on this voyage of the Rattletrap. +But I'll certainly have to go back of the time when Grandpa Oldberry +expressed his opinion; and perhaps I ought +to explain how we happened to be in that particular port. As I said, +we--Jack and I--were pretty big boys, so big +that we were off out West and in business for ourselves, though, after +all, that didn't imply that we were very +old, because it was a new country, and everybody was young; after the +election the first fall it was found that +the man who had been chosen for county judge wasn't quite twenty-one +years of age yet, and therefore, of course, +couldn't hold office; and we were obliged to wait three weeks till he +had had his birthday, and then to have a +special election and choose him again. Everybody was young except +Grandpa Oldberry and Squire Poinsett.</p> +<p>But I was trying to account for our being in the port of Prairie +Flower. Jack had a cheese-factory there, and +made small round cheeses. I had a printing-office, and printed a small +square newspaper. In my paper I used to +praise Jack's cheeses, and keep repeating how good they were, so people +bought then; and Jack used, once in a while, +to give me a cheese. So we both managed to live, though I think we +sometimes got a little tired of being men, and +wished we were back home, far from thick round cheeses and thin square +newspapers.</p> +<p>One evening in the first week in September, when it was raining as +hard as it could rain, and when the wind +was blowing as hard as it could blow, and was driving empty boxes and +barrels, and old tin pails, and wash-boilers, +and castaway hats and runaway hats and lost hats, and other things +across the prairie before it, Jack came into +my office, where I was setting type (my printer having been blown away, +along with the boxes and the hats), and +after he had allowed the rain to run off his clothes and make little +puddles like thin mud pies on the dusty floor, +he said: <a name="I-04"></a><img src="images/tvotr-04.jpg" + alt="The Voyage First Suggested" align="left" border="0" height="537" + hspace="5" width="444"></p> +<p>"I'm tired of making poor cheeses."</p> +<p>"Well," I answered, "I'm tired of printing a poor newspaper."</p> +<p>"Let's sell out and go somewhere," continued Jack.</p> +<p>"All right," I said. "Let's."</p> +<p>So we did.</p> +<p>Of course the Rattletrap wasn't a boat which sailed on the water, +though I don't know as I thought to mention +this before. In fact, a water boat wouldn't have been of any use to us +in getting out of Prairie Flower, because +there wasn't any water there, except a very small stream called the Big +Sioux River, which wandered along the prairie, +sometimes running in one direction and sometimes in the other, and at +other times standing still and wondering +if it was worth while to run at all. The port of Prairie Flower was in +Dakota. This was when Dakota was still a +Territory, three or four years, perhaps, before it was cut into halves +and made into two States. So, there being +no water, we of course had to provide ourselves with a craft that could +navigate dry land; which is precisely what +the Rattletrap was-namely, a "prairie schooner."</p> +<p>"I've got a team of horses and a wagon," went on Jack, that rainy +night when we were talking. "You've +got a pony and a saddle. We've both got guns. When we drive out of town +some stray dog will follow us. What more +'ll we want?"</p> +<p>"Nothing," I said, as I clapped my stick down in the space-box. "We +can put a canvas cover on +the wagon and sleep in it at night, and cook our meals over a +camp-fire, and--and--have a time."</p> +<p>"Of course--a big time. It's a heavy spring-wagon, and there is just +about room in it behind the seat for +a bed. We can put on a cover that will keep out rain as well as a tent, +and carry a little kerosene-oil stove to +use for cooking if we can't build a fire out-doors for any reason. We +can take along flour, and-and--and salt, +and other things to eat, and shoot game, and--and--and have a time."</p> +<p>We became so excited that we sat down and talked till midnight about +it. By this time the rain had stopped, +and when we went out the stars were shining, and the level ground was +covered with pools of water.</p> +<p>"If it was always as wet as this around here we could go in a +genuine schooner," said Jack.</p> +<p>"Yes, that's so. But what shall we call our craft?"</p> +<p>"I think 'Rattletrap' would be a good name," said Jack.</p> +<p>"I don't think it's a very pretty name," I replied.</p> +<p>"You wait till you get acquainted with that wagon, and you will say +it's the best name in the world, whether +it's pretty or not. You don't know that wagon yet. The tongue is +spliced, the whiffletrees are loose, the reach +is cracked, the box is tied together with a rope, the springs creak, +the wheels wabble, lean different ways, and +never follow one another."</p> +<p>"Do they all turn in the same direction?" I asked.</p> +<p>"I don't believe they do. It would be just like one to turn backward +while the other three were going forward."</p> +<p>"We'll call our craft the Rattletrap, then. Good-night."</p> +<p>"Good-night," said Jack; and we parted, each to dream of our +approaching cruise. <a name="I-05"></a><img src="images/tvotr-05.jpg" + alt="Preparations" align="left" border="0" height="347" hspace="5" + width="471"></p> +<p>In a week we were busy getting ready to start. I found, when I +looked over the wagon as it stood back of the +cheese-factory, that it was much as Jack had described it, only I +noticed that the seat as well as the springs +creaked, and that a corner was broken off the dash-board. But we set to +work upon it with a will. We tightened +up the nuts and screws all over it, and wound the broken pole with +wire. We nailed together the box so that the +rope could be taken off, and oiled the creaking springs. We had no +trouble in finding a top, as half the people +in the country had come in wagons provided with covers only a year or +so before. We got four bows and attached +them to the box, one at each end, and the other two at equal distances +between. These bows were made of hard-wood, +and were a quarter of an inch thick and an inch and a half wide. They +ran up straight on either side for two or +three feet, and then rounded over, like a croquetwicket, being high +enough so that as we stood upright in the wagon-box +our heads would just nicely clear them. Over this skeleton we stretched +our white canvas cover, and tied it down +tightly along the sides. This made what we called the cabin. There was +an ample flap in front, which could be let +down at night and fastened back inside during the day. At the rear end +the cloth folded around, and was drawn together +with a "puckering-string," precisely like a button-bag. By drawing the +string tightly this back end could +be entirely closed up; or the string could be let out, and the opening +made any size wanted. After the cover was +adjusted we stood off and admired our work.</p> +<p>"Looks like an elephant on wheels," said Jack.</p> +<p>"Or an old-fashioned sun-bonnet for a giantess," I added.</p> +<p>"Anyhow, I'll wager a cheese it'll keep out the rain, unless it +comes down too hard," said Jack. "Now +for the smaller parts of our rigging, and the stores."</p> +<p>On the back end we fastened a feed-box for the horses, as long as +the wagon-box was wide, and ten or twelve +inches square, with a partition in the middle. We put stout iron rings +in the corners of this, making a place to +tie the horses. On the dash-board outside we built another box, for +tools. This was wedge-shaped, about five inches +wide at the top, but running down to an inch or two at the bottom, and +had a hinged cover. We put aboard a satchel +containing the little additional clothing which we thought we should +need. Things in this line which did not seem +to be absolutely necessary were ruled out--indeed, for the sake of +lightness we decided to take just as little +of everything that we could. We made another box, some two feet long, a +foot deep, and fourteen inches wide, with +a hinged cover, which we called the "pantry," for our supply of food. +This we stood in the wagon with +the satchel. Usually in the daytime after we started each of these rode +comfortably on the bed back of the seat. +This bed was a rather simple affair, made up of some bed-clothing and +pillows arranged on a thick layer of hay +in the bottom of the wagon-box. Our small two-wick oil-stove we put in +front next to the dash-board, a lantern +we hung up on one of the bows, and a big tin pail for the horses we +suspended under the wagon.</p> +<p>"Since you're going to be cook," I said to Jack, "you tend to +getting the dishes together."</p> +<p>"They'll be few enough," he answered. "I don't like to wash 'em. Tin +mostly, I guess; because +tin won't break."</p> +<p>So he put a few knives and forks and spoons, tin plates and cups, a +frying-pan, a small copper kettle, and a +few other utensils in another box, which also found a home on the bed. +Other things which we did not forget were +a small can of kerosene; two half-gallon jugs, one for milk and one for +water; a basket for eggs; a nickel clock +(we called it the chronometer); and in the tool-box a hatchet, a +monkey-wrench, screw-driver, small saw, a piece +of rope, one or two straps, and a few nails, screws, rivets, and +similar things which might come handy in case +of a wreck.</p> +<p>"Now for the armament and the life-boat," said Jack.</p> +<p>For armament Jack contributed a double-barrelled shot-gun and a +heavy forty-five-calibre repeating rifle, and +I a light forty-four-calibre repeating rifle, and a big revolver of the +same calibre (though using a slightly shorter +cartridge), with a belt and holster. This revolver we stored in the +tool-box, chiefly for use in case we were boarded +by pirates, while the guns we hung in leather loops in the top of the +cover. In the tool-box we put a good supply +of ammunition and plenty of matches. We also each carried a match-box, +a pocket compass, and a stout jack-knife.</p> +<p>"Now, how's your life-boat?" asked Jack.</p> +<p>I led her out. She was a medium-sized brown Colorado pony, well +decorated with brands, and with a white face +and two white feet. She wore a big Mexican saddle and a horse-hair +bridle with a silver bit.</p> +<p>"She'll do," said Jack. "In case of wreck, we'll escape on her, if +possible. She'll also be very +handy in making landings where the harbor is poor, and in exploring +unknown coasts."<a name="I-06"></a><img src="images/tvotr-06.jpg" + alt="Grandpa Oldberry Presages Disaster" align="left" border="0" + height="558" hspace="5" width="466"></p> +<p>All of this work took several days, but when it was done the +Rattletrap was ready for the voyage, and we decided +to start the next morning.</p> +<p>"She's as prairie-worthy a craft as ever scoured the plain," was +Jack's opinion; "and if we can +keep the four wheels from starting in opposite directions we'll be all +right."</p> +<p>But where was Ollie all this while? And who was Ollie, anyhow? Ollie +was Jack's little nephew, and he lived +back East somewhere--I don't remember where. The nearer we got ready to +start, the more firmly Jack became convinced +that Ollie would like to go along, so at last he sent for him to come, +and he arrived the night before our start. +Ollie liked the idea of the trip so much that he simply stood and +looked at the wagon, the guns, the pony, and +the horses, and was speechless. At last he managed to say:</p> +<p>"Uncle Jack, it'll be just like a picnic, won't it?"</p> +<p>The next morning we started as early as we could. But it was not +before people were up.</p> +<p>"Where be they going?" asked Grandpa Oldberry.</p> +<p>"Oh, Nebraska, and Wyoming, and the Black Hills, and any crazy place +they hear of," answered Squire +Poinsett.</p> +<p>"They'll all be scalped by Injuns," said Grandpa Oldberry. "Ain't +the Injuns bad this fall?"</p> +<p>"So I was a-reading," returned the Squire. "And in the hills I +should be afeared of b'ar."</p> +<p>"Right," assented Grandpa. "B'ar and sim'lar varmints. And more +'specially hossthieves and sich-like +cutthroats. I disremember seeing three scalawags starting off on such a +fool trip since afore the war."</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="II"></a> +</p> +<h3>II: OUTWARD BOUND</h3> +<p><br> +The port of Prairie Flower was in the eastern part of the Territory of +Dakota. It stood out on an open plain a +half-dozen miles wide, which seemed to be the prairie itself, though it +was really the valley of the Big Sioux +River, that funny stream which could run either way, and usually stood +still in the night and rested. To the east +and west the edges of this valley were faintly marked by a range of +very low bluffs, so low that they were mere +wrinkles in the surface of the earth, and made the valley but very +little lower than the great plain which rolled +away for miles to the east and for leagues to the west.</p> +<p>It was a beautiful morning a little after the middle of September +that the Rattletrap got away and left Prairie +Flower behind. The sun had been up only half an hour or so, and the +shadow of our craft stretched away across the +dry gray plain like a long black streak without end. The air was fresh +and dewy. The morning breeze was just beginning +to stir, and down by the river the acres of wild sunflowers were +nodding the dew off their heads, and beginning +to roll in the first long waves which would keep up all day like the +rolling of the ocean. We shouted "Good-bye" +to Grandpa Oldberry and Squire Poinsett, but they only shook their +heads very seriously. The cows and horses picketed +on the prairie all about the little clump of houses which made up the +town looked at us with their eyes open extremely +wide, and no doubt said in their own languages, like Grandpa Oldberry, +that they had no recollection of seeing +any such capers as this for many years.</p> +<p>"See here," I said, suddenly, to Jack, "where's that dog you said +was going to follow us?"</p> +<p>"You just hold on," answered Jack.</p> +<p>"Oh, are we going to have a dog, too?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"You wait a minute," insisted Jack.</p> +<p>Just then we passed the railroad station. Jack craned his head out +of the front end of the wagon. Ollie and +I did the same. Lying asleep on the corner of the station platform we +saw a dog. He was about the size of a rather +small collie; or, to put it another way, perhaps he was half as big as +the largest-size dog. If dogs were numbered +like shoes, from one to thirteen, this would have been about a No. 7 +dog. He was yellow, with short hair, except +that his tail was very bushy. One ear stood up straight, and the other +lopped over, very much wilted. Jack whistled +sharply. The dog tossed up his head, straightened up his lopped ear, +let fall his other ear, and looked at us. +Jack whistled again, and the dog came. He ran around the wagon, barked +once or twice, sniffed at the pony's heels +and got kicked at for his familiarity, yelped sharply, and came and +looked up at us, and wagged his bushy tail +with a great flourish.</p> +<p>"He wants to get in. Give him a boost, Ollie," said Jack.</p> +<p>Ollie clambered over the dash-board and jumped to the ground. He +pushed the dog forward, and he leaped. up and +scrambled into the wagon, jumped over on the bed, where he folded his +head and tail on his left side, turned around +rapidly three times, and lay down and went to sleep, one ear up and one +ear down.<a name="I-07"></a><img src="images/tvotr-07.jpg" alt="Snoozer" + align="left" border="0" height="459" hspace="5" width="449"></p> +<p>"He's just the dog for the Rattletrap," said Jack. "We'll call him +Snoozer."</p> +<p>"That looks a good deal like stealing to me, Uncle Jack," said +Ollie. "Doesn't he belong to somebody?"</p> +<p>"No," said Jack, "he doesn't belong to anybody but us. He came here +a week ago with a tramp. +The tramp deserted him, and rode away on the trucks of a freight train; +but Snoozer didn't like that way of travelling, +because there wasn't any place to sleep, so he stayed behind. Since +then he has tried to follow every man in town, +but none of them would have him. He's a regular tramp dog, not good for +anything, and therefore just the dog for +us."</p> +<p>Snoozer was the last thing we shipped, and after taking him aboard +we were soon out of the harbor of Prairie +Flower, and bearing away across the plain to the southwest. In twenty +minutes we ware among the billowing sunflowers, +standing five or six feet high on other side of the road, which seemed +like a narrow crack winding through them. +Ollie reached out and gathered a handful of the drooping yellow +blossoms. The pony was tied behind carrying her +big saddle, and tossing her head about, and showing that she was very +suspicious of the whole proceedings, and +especially of a small flag which Ollie had fastened to the top of the +wagon-cover, which fluttered in the fresh +morning breeze. Snoozer slept on and never stirred. At last the road +came to the river, and then followed close +along beside its bank, which was only a foot or so high. Ollie was +interested in watching the long grass which +grew in the bottom of the stream and was brushed all in one direction +by the sluggish current, like the silky fur +of some animal. After a while we came to a gravelly place which was a +ford, and crossed the stream, stopping to +let the horses drink. The water was only a foot deep. As we came up on +the higher ground beyond the river we met +the south wind squarely, and it came in at the front of the cover with +a rush. We heard a sharp flutter behind, +and then the wagon gave a shiver and a lurch, and the horses stopped; +then there was another shock and lurch, and +it rolled back a few inches.</p> +<p>"There," exclaimed Jack, "some of those wheels have begun to turn +backward! I told you!"</p> +<p>I looked back. Our puckering-string had given way, and the rear of +the cover had blown out loosely. This had +been more than the pony could stand, and she had broken her rope and +run back a dozen rods, where she stood snorting +and looking at the wagon.</p> +<p>"First accident!" I cried. "She'll run home, and we'll have to go +back after her."</p> +<p>"Perhaps we can get around her," said Jack. "We'll try."</p> +<p>We left Ollie to hold the horses, and I went out around among the +sunflowers, while Jack stood behind the wagon +with his hat half full of oats. I got beyond her at last, and drove her +slowly toward the wagon. She snorted and +stamped the ground angrily with her forward feet; but at last she +ventured to taste of the oats, and finding more +in the feed-box on the rear of the wagon, she began eating them and +forgot her fright.</p> +<p>"I guess we'd better not tie her, but let her follow," said Jack. +"As soon as we have gone a +little ways she'll come to think the wagon is home, and stick to it."</p> +<p>"Yes," I said. "I think she is really as great a tramp as Snoozer, +and just the pony for us." +"Are we all tramps?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"Well," said Jack, "I'm afraid Grandpa Oldberry thinks we don't lack +much of it. He says varmints +will catch us."</p> +<p>"Do you think they will?" went on Ollie, just a little bit anxiously.</p> +<p>"Oh, I guess not," said Jack. "You see, we've got four guns. Then +there's Snoozer."</p> +<p>"But will they try to catch us?"</p> +<p>"Well, I don't know. Grandpa Oldberry says the varmints are awfully +thick this fall."</p> +<p>"But what are varmints?"</p> +<p>"Oh, wolves, and b'ars, and painters, and--"</p> +<p>"What are painters?"</p> +<p>"Grandpa means panthers, I guess. Then there's Injuns, and +hoss-thieves, and--"</p> +<p>"There's a prairie-chicken!" I cried, as one rose up out of the long +grass.</p> +<p>"Perhaps we can get one for dinner," said Jack.<a name="I-08"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-08.jpg" alt="Mutiny of the Pony" align="left" + border="0" height="563" hspace="5" width="585"></p> +<p>He took his gun and went slowly toward where the other had been. +Another whirred away like a shot. Jack fired, +but missed it. We started on, leaving the pony tossing her head and +stamping her feet in a great passion on account +of the report of the gun; but when she saw that we paid no attention to +her and were rapidly going out of sight +she turned, after taking a long look back at distant Prairie Flower, +and came trotting along the road, with her +stirrups dangling at her sides, and soon was following close behind.</p> +<p>Before we realized it the chronometer showed that it was almost +noon. By this time we had left the sea of sunflowers +and crept over the wrinkle at the western edge of the valley, and were +off across the rolling prairie itself. Still +Snoozer never stirred.</p> +<p>"I wonder when he'll wake up?" said Ollie.</p> +<p>"You'll see him awake enough at dinnertime," said Jack.</p> +<p>"Well, you'll see me awake enough then, too," answered Ollie. "I'm +hungry."</p> +<p>"We hardy pioneers plunging into the trackless waste of a new and +unexplored country never eat but one +meal a day," said Jack. "And that's always raw meat--b'ar-meat, +generally."</p> +<p>"Well," said Ollie, "I don't see any b'ar-meat, or even +prairie-chicken-meat. Why didn't you +hit the prairie-chicken, Uncle Jack?"</p> +<p>"I'm not used to shooting at such small game," answered Jack, +solemnly. "My kind of game is b'ar--b'ar +and other varmints."</p> +<p>Just then we passed a house, and down a little way from it, close to +the road, was a well.</p> +<p>"Here's a good place to have dinner," said Jack; so we drove out by +the side of the road and stopped. +"If I'm to be cook," said Jack to me, "then you've got to take care of +the horses and do all the +outside work. I'll be cook; you'll be rancher. That's what we'll call +you--rancher."</p> +<p>I unhitched the horses, tied them behind the wagon, and gave them +some oats and corn in the feed-box. The pony +I fed in the big tin pail near by. The grass beside the road was so +dry, and it was so windy, that we decided it +was not safe to build a fire outdoors, so Jack cooked pancakes over the +oil-stove inside. These with some cold +meat he handed out to Ollie and me as we sat on the wagon-tongue, while +he sat on the dash-board. We were half-way +through dinner when we heard a peculiar whine, followed by a low bark, +in the wagon, and then Snoozer leaped out, +stretched himself, and began to wag his tail so fast that it looked +exactly like a whirling feather duster. We +fed him on pancakes, and he ate so many that if Jack had not fried some +more we'd have certainly gone hungry.</p> +<p>"I told you he was a true tramp," said Jack. "Just see his appetite!"</p> +<p>After we had finished, and the horses had grazed about on the dry +grass some time, we started on. We hoped to +reach a little lake which we saw marked on the map, called Lake +Lookout, for the night camp; so we hurried along, +it being a good distance ahead. All the afternoon we were passing +'between either great fields where the wheat +had been cut, leaving the stubble, or beside long stretches of prairie. +There were a few houses, many of them built +of sod. Not much happened during the afternoon. Ollie followed the +example of Snoozer, and curled up on the bed +and had a long nap. We saw a few prairie-chickens, but did not try to +shoot any of them. The pony trotted contentedly +behind. Just before night I rode her ahead, looking for the lake. I +found it to be a small one, perhaps a half-mile +wide, scarcely below the level of the prairie, and generally with +marshy shores, though on one side the beach was +sandy and stony, with a few stunted cottonwood-trees, and here I +decided we would camp. I went back and guided +the Rattletrap to the spot. Soon Jack had a roaring fire going from the +dry wood which Ollie had collected. I fed +the horses and turned them loose, and they began eagerly on the green +grass which grew on the damp soil near the +lake. The pony I picketed with a long rope and a strap around one of +her forward ankles, between her hoof and fetlock, +as we scarcely felt like trusting her all night. Snoozer got up for his +supper, and after that stretched himself +by the fire and blinked at it sleepily. The rest of us did much the +same. After a while Ollie said.</p> +<p>"I think that bed in the wagon looks pretty narrow for two. How are +three going to sleep in it?"</p> +<p>"I don't think three are going to sleep in it," said Jack.</p> +<p>"Where are you going to sleep, then, Uncle Jack?"</p> +<p>Jack laughed. "I think," he said, "that the rancher and the cook +will sleep in the wagon, and +let you sleep under the wagon. Nothing makes a boy grow like sleeping +rolled up in a blanket under a wagon. You'll +be six inches taller if you do it every night till we get back."</p> +<p>"Well, I don't think so," said Ollie, just a little alarmed at the +prospect. "I'd prefer to sleep +in the wagon. Maybe what Grandpa Oldberry said about wild animals is +so. You say you like to shoot 'em, so you +stay outside and do it--I don't."</p> +<p>At last it was arranged that Ollie and I should sleep inside and +Jack under the wagon. We were surprised to +find how early we were ready for bed. The long ride and the fresh air +had given us an appetite for sleep. So we +soon turned in, the dog staying outside with Jack.</p> +<p>"Good-night, Uncle Jack!" called Ollie, as we put out the lantern +and covered up in the narrow bed. +"Look out for painters!"</p> +<p>I was almost asleep when Ollie shook me, and whispered, "What's that +noise?"</p> +<p>I listened, and heard a regular, hollow, booming sound, something +like the very distant discharge of cannon.</p> +<p>"It's the horses walking on the ground-always sounds that way in the +night," I answered.</p> +<p>Again I was almost asleep when Ollie took hold of my arm, and said, +"What's that?"<a name="I-09"></a><img src="images/tvotr-09.jpg" + alt="Effect of a Strange Noise" align="left" border="0" height="407" + hspace="5" width="361"></p> +<p>I once more listened, and recognized a peculiar creaking noise as +that made by the horses cropping off the grass. +I explained to Ollie, and then dropped off sound asleep. I don't know +how long it was, but after some time I was +again roused up by a nervous shake.</p> +<p>"Listen to that," whispered Ollie. "What can it be?"</p> +<p>I sat up cautiously and listened. It was a strange, rattling, +unearthly sound, which I could not account for +any better than Ollie.</p> +<p>"It's a bear," he whispered. "I heard them make that noise at the +park back home."</p> +<p>I was puzzled, and concluded that it must be some wild animal. I +took down one of the guns, crept softly to +the front end of the wagon, raised the flap, and looked out. The wind +was still, and the night air met my face +with a cool, damp feeling. The moon had just risen and the lake was +like silver. I could see the horses lying asleep +like dark mounds. But the mysterious noise kept up, and even grew +louder. I grasped the gun firmly, and let myself +cautiously out of the front end of the wagon. Then I climbed back in +less softly and hung up the gun.</p> +<p>"Wh-what is it?" asked Ollie, in a faint whisper.</p> +<p>"It's your eloquent Uncle Jack snoring," I said. "He's one of +Grandpa Oldberry's sim'lar varmints."</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="III"></a> +</p> +<h3>III: FROM LOOKOUT LAKE TO THE MISSOURI RIVER</h3> +<p><br> +Our first night in the Rattletrap passed without further incident--that +is, the greater part of it passed, though +Ollie declared that it lacked a good deal of being all passed when we +got up. The chief reason for our early rise +was Old Blacky, a member of our household (or perhaps wagonhold) not +yet introduced in this history. Old Blacky +was the mate of Old Browny, and the two made up our team of horses. Old +Browny was a very well-behaved, respectable +old nag, extremely fond of quiet and oats. He invariably slept all +night, and usually much of the day; he was a +fit companion for our dog. It was the firm belief of all on board that +Old Browny could sleep anywhere on a fairly +level stretch of road without stopping.</p> +<p>But Old Blacky was another sort of beast. He didn't seem to require +any sleep at all. What Old Blacky wanted +was food. He loved to sit up all night and eat, and keep us awake. He +seldom even lay down at night, but would +moon about the camp and blunder against things, fall over the +wagon-tongue, and otherwise misbehave. Sometimes +when we camped where the grass was not just to his liking he would put +his head into the wagon and help himself +to a mouthful of bedquilt or a bite of pillow. He was little but an +appetite mounted on four legs, and next to +food he loved a fight. Besides the name of Old Blacky, we also knew him +as the Blacksmith's Pet; but this will +have to be explained later on.</p> +<p>On this first morning, just as it was becoming light in the east, +Old Blacky began to make his toilet by rubbing +his shoulder against one corner of the wagon. As he was large and +heavy, and rubbed as hard as he could, he soon +had the wagon tossing about like a boat; and as the easiest way out of +it, we decided to get up. It was cool and +dewy, with the larger stars still shining faintly. We found Jack under +the wagon. Ollie stirred him up, and said:<a name="I-10"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-10.jpg" alt="Plan for Rousing a Sound Sleeper" + align="left" border="0" height="467" hspace="5" width="446"></p> +<p>"See any varmints in the night, Uncle Jack?"</p> +<p>"Yes," answered Jack, as he unrolled himself from his blanket. "Or +at least I felt one. That +disgraceful Old Blacky nibbled at my ear twice. The first time I +thought it was nothing less than a bear."</p> +<p>"Did he disturb Snoozer?"</p> +<p>"I guess nothing ever disturbs Snoozer. He never moved all night. +How's the firewood department, Ollie?"</p> +<p>"All right," replied Ollie. "Got up enough last night."</p> +<p>"Then build the fire while I get breakfast."</p> +<p>This pleased Ollie, and he soon had a good fire going. I caught Old +Blacky, who had started off to walk around +the lake, woke up Old Browny, who was sleeping peacefully with his nose +resting on the ground, quieted the pony, +who was still suspicious, with a few pats on the neck, and gave them +all their oats. Soon the rest of us also had +our breakfast, including Snoozer, who seemed to wake up by instinct, +and after waiting a little for somebody to +come and stretch him, stretched himself, and began waving his tail to +attract our attention to his urgent need +of food.</p> +<p>"Before we get back home that dog will want us to feed him with a +spoon," said Jack.</p> +<p>It was only a little while after sunrise when we were off for +another day's voyage. We were headed almost due +south, and all that day and the three or four following (including +Sunday, when we stayed in camp), we did not +change our general direction. We were aiming to reach the town of +Yankton, where we intended to cross the Missouri +River and turn to the west in Nebraska. The country through which we +travelled was much of it prairie, but more +was under cultivation, and the houses of settlers were numerous. The +land on which wheat or other small grains +had been grown was bare, but as we got farther south we passed great +fields of corn, some of it standing almost +as high as the top of our wagon-cover.</p> +<p>For much of the way we were far from railroads and towns, and got +most of our supplies of food from the settlers +whose houses we passed or, indeed, sighted, since the pony proved as +convenient for making landings as Jack had +predicted she would. Ollie usually went on these excursions after milk +and eggs and such like foods. The different +languages which he encountered among the settlers somewhat bewildered +him, and he often had hard work in making +the people he found at the houses understand what he wanted. There Were +many Norwegians, and the third day we passed +through a large colony of Russians, saw a few Finns, and heard of some +Icelanders who lived around on the other +side of a lake.</p> +<p>"It wouldn't surprise me," said Ollie one day, "to find the man in +the moon living here in a +sod house."</p> +<p>Perhaps a majority--certainly a great many--of all these people +lived in houses of this kind. Ollie had never +seen anything of the sort before, and he became greatly interested in +them. The second day we camped near one for +dinner.</p> +<p>"You see," said Jack, "a man gets a farm, takes half his front yard +and builds a house with it. +He gains space, though, because the place he peels in the yard will do +for flowerbeds, and the roof and sides of +his house are excellent places to grow radishes, beets, and similar +vegetables."</p> +<p>"Why not other things besides radishes and beets?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"Oh, other things would grow all right, but radishes and beets seem +to be the natural things for sod-house +growing. You can take hold of the lower end and pull 'em from the +inside, you know, Ollie."</p> +<p>"I don't believe it, Uncle Jack," said Ollie, stoutly. "Ask the +rancher," answered Jack. +"If you're ever at dinner in a sod house, and want another radish, just +reach up and pull one down through +the roof, tops and all. Then you're sure they're fresh. I'd like to +keep a summer hotel in a sod house. I'd advertise' +fresh vegetables pulled at the table.'"</p> +<p>"I'm going to ask the man about sod houses," returned Ollie. He went +up to where the owner of the +house was sitting outside, and said:</p> +<p>"Will you please tell me how you make a sod house?"</p> +<p>"Yes," said the man, smiling. "Thinking of making one?"</p> +<p>"Well, not just now," replied Ollie. "But. I'd like to know about +them. I might want to build +one--sometime," he added, doubtfully.</p> +<p>"Well," said the man, "it's this way: First we plough up a lot of +the tough prairie sod with +a large plough called a breaking-plough, intended especially for +ploughing the prairie the first time. This turns +it over in a long, even, unbroken strip, some fourteen or sixteen +inches wide and three or four inches thick. We +cut this up into pieces two or three feet long, take them to the place +where we are building the house, on a stone-boat +or a sled, and use them in laying up the walls in just about the same +way that bricks are used in making a brick +house. Openings are left for the doors and windows, and either a +shingle or sod roof put on. If it's sod, rough +boards are first laid on poles, and then sods put on them like +shingles. I've got a sod roof on mine, you see."</p> +<p>Ollie was looking at the grass and weeds growing on the top and +sides of the house. They must have made a pretty +sight when they were green and thrifty earlier in the season, but they +were dry and withered now.</p> +<p>"Do you ever have prairie-fires on your roofs?" asked Ollie, with a +smile.</p> +<p>"Oh, they do burn off sometimes," answered the man. "Catch from the +chimney, you know. Did you +ever see a hay fire?"</p> +<p>"No."</p> +<p>"Come inside and I'll show you one."</p> +<p>In the house, which consisted of one large room divided across one +end by a curtain, Ollie noticed a few chairs +and a table, and opposite the door a stove which looked very much like +an ordinary cook-stove, except that the +place for the fire was rather larger. Back of it stood a box full of +what seemed to be big hay rope. The man's +wife was cooking dinner on the stove.</p> +<p>"Here's a young tenderfoot," said the man, "who's never seen a hay +fire."</p> +<p>"Wish I never had," answered the woman. The man laughed. "They're +hardly as good as a wood fire +or a coal fire," he said to Ollie; "but when you're five hundred miles, +more or less, from either wood +or coal they do very well." The man took off one of the griddles and +put in another "stick" of hay. +Then he handed one to Ollie, who was surprised to find it almost as +heavy as a stick of wood. "It makes a +fairly good fire," said the man. "Come outside and I'll show you how to +twist it."<a name="I-11"></a><img src="images/tvotr-11.jpg" + alt="First Lesson in Hay Twisting" align="left" border="0" height="375" + hspace="5" width="342"></p> +<p>They went out to a haystack near by, and the man twisted a rope +three or four inches in diameter, and about +four feet long. He kept hold of both ends till it was wound up tight; +then he brought the ends together, and it +twisted itself into a hard two-strand rope in the same way that a bit +of string will do when similarly treated. +There was quite a pile of such twisted sticks on the ground. "You see," +said the man, "in this country, +instead of splitting up a pile of fuel we just twist up one." Ollie +bade the man good-bye, took another look +at the queer house, and came down to the wagon.</p> +<p>"So you saw a hay-stove, did you?" said Jack. "I could have told you +all about 'em. I once stayed +all night with a man who depended on a hay-stove for warmth. It was in +the winter. Talk about appetites! I never +saw such an appetite as that stove had for hay. Why, that stove had a +worse appetite than Old Blacky. It devoured +hay all the time, just as Old Blacky would if he could; and even then +its stomach always seemed empty. The man +twisted all of the time, and I fed it constantly, and still it was +never satisfied."</p> +<p>"How did you sleep?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"Worked right along in our sleep--like Old Browny," answered Jack.</p> +<p>The last day before reaching Yankton was hot and sultry. The best +place we could find to camp that night was +beside a deserted sod house on the prairie. There was a well and a +tumble-down sod stable. There were dark bands +of clouds low down on the southeastern horizon, and faint flashes 'of +lightning.</p> +<p>"It's going to rain before morning," I said. "Wonder if it wouldn't +be better in the sod house?"</p> +<p>We examined it, but found it in poor condition, so decided not to +give up the wagon. "The man that lived +there pulled too many radishes and parsnips and carrots and such things +into it, and then neglected to hoe his +roof and fill up the holes," said Jack. "Besides, Old Blacky will have +it rubbed down before morning. +'When I sleep in anything that Old Blacky can get at, I want it to be +on wheels so it can roll out of the way."</p> +<p>We went to bed as usual, but at about one o'clock we were awakened +by a long rolling peal of thunder. Already +big drops of rain were beginning to fall. Ollie and I looked out, and +found Jack creeping from under the wagon.</p> +<p>"That's a dry-weather bedroom of mine," he observed, "and I think +I'll come up-stairs."</p> +<p>The flashes of lightning followed each other rapidly, and by them we +could see the horses. Old Browny was sleeping +and Old Blacky eating, but the pony stood with head erect, very much +interested in the storm. Jack helped Snoozer +into the wagon, and came in himself. We drew both ends of the cover as +close as possible, lit the lantern, and +made ourselves comfortable, while Jack took down his banjo and tried to +play. Jack always tried to play, but never +quite succeeded. But he made a considerable noise, and that was better +than nothing.</p> +<p>The wind soon began to blow pretty fresh, and shake the cover rather +more than was pleasant. But. nothing gave +way, and after, as it seemed, fifty of the loudest claps of thunder we +had ever heard, the rain began to fall in +torrents.</p> +<p>"That is what I've been waiting for," said Jack. "Now we'll see if +there's a good cover on this +wagon, or if we've got to put a sod roof on it, like that man's house."</p> +<p>The rain kept coming down harder and harder, but though there seemed +to be a sort of a light spray in the air +of the wagon, the water did not beat through. In some places along the +bows it ran down on the inside of the cover +in little clinging streams, but as a household we remained dry. Jack +was still experimenting on the banjo, and +the dog had gone to sleep. Suddenly a flash of lightning dazzled our +eyes as if there were no cover at all over +and around us, with a crash of thunder which struck our ears like a +blow from a fist. Jack dropped the banjo, and +the dog shook his head as if his ears tingled. We all felt dizzy, and +the wagon seemed to be swaying around.<a name="I-12"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-12.jpg" alt="Investigations" align="left" border="0" + height="585" hspace="5" width="404"></p> +<p>"That struck pretty close," I said. "I hope it didn't hit one of the +horses." "If it +hit Old Blacky, I'll bet a cooky it got the worst of it," answered +Jack, taking up his banjo again. "Look +out, Ollie, and maybe you'll see the lightning going off limping."</p> +<p>It was still raining, though not so hard. Soon we began to hear a +peculiar noise, which seemed to come from +behind the wagon. It was a breaking, splintering sort of noise, as if a +board was being smashed and split up very +gradually.</p> +<p>"Sounds as if a slow and lazy kind of lightning was striking our +wagon," said Jack.</p> +<p>Ollie's face was still white from the scare at the stroke of +lightning, and his eyes now opened very wide as +he listened to the mysterious noise. Jack pulled open the back cover an +inch and peeped out. Then he said:</p> +<p>"I guess Old Blacky's tussle with the lightning left him hungry; +he's eating up one side of the feed-box."</p> +<p>Then we laughed at the strange noise, and in a few minutes, the rain +having almost ceased, we put on our rubber +boots and went out to look after the other horses. Old Browny we found +in the lee of the sod house, not exactly +asleep, but evidently about to take a nap. The pony had pulled up her +picket-pin and retreated to a little hollow +a hundred yards away. We caught her and brought her back. By the light +of the lantern we found that the great stroke +of lightning had struck the curb of the well, shattering it, and making +a hole in the ground beside it. The storm +had gone muttering off to the north, and the stars were again shining +overhead.</p> +<p>"What a stroke of lightening that must have been to do that!" said +Ollie, as he looked at the curb +with some awe.</p> +<p>"It wasn't the lightning that did that," returned his truthful Uncle +Jack. "That's where Old +Blacky kicked at the lightning and missed it."</p> +<p>Then we returned to the wagon and went to bed. The next morning at +ten o'clock we drove into Yankton. We found +the ferry-boat disabled, and that we should have to go forty miles up +the river to Running Water before we could +cross. We drove a mile out of town, and went into camp on a high bank +overlooking the milky, eddying current of +the Missouri.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="IV"></a> +</p> +<h3>IV: INTO NEBRASKA</h3> +<p><br> +We were a good deal disappointed in not getting over into Nebraska, +because we had seen enough of Dakota, but there +was no help for it. A log had got caught in the paddlewheel of the +ferry-boat and wrecked it, and there was no +other way of crossing.</p> +<p>"Old Blacky could swim across," said Jack, "but Browny would go to +sleep and drown."<a name="I-13"></a><img src="images/tvotr-13.jpg" + alt="Hats" align="left" border="0" height="508" hspace="5" width="458"></p> +<p>It is rather doubtful, however, about even Blacky's ability to have +swum the river, since it was a half-mile +wide, and with a rather swift current. In the afternoon we walked back +to Yankton and bought the biggest felt hats +we could find, with wide and heavy leather bands. We knew that we +should now soon be out in the stock-growing country, +and that, as Jack said, "the cowboys wouldn't have any respect for us +unless we were top-heavy with hat."</p> +<p>We were camped on the high bank of the river, opposite a farm-house. +It was getting dusk when we got back to +the wagon, with our heads aching from our new hats, which seemed to +weigh several pounds apiece. Jack, as cook, +announced that there was no milk on hand, and sent Ollie over to the +neighboring house to see if he could get some. +Ollie returned, and reported that the man was away from home, but that +the woman said we could have some if we +were willing to go out to the barn-yard and milk one of the cows. The +others decided that it was my duty to milk, +but I asked so many foolish questions about the operation that Jack +became convinced that I didn't know how, and +said he would do it himself. We all went over to the house, borrowed a +tin pail from the woman, and went out to +the yard.</p> +<p>We found about a dozen cows inside, of various sizes, but all +long-legged and long-horned.</p> +<p>"Must be this man belongs to the National Trotting-Cow Association," +said Jack, as he crawled under +the barbed-wire fence into the yard. "That red beast over there in the +corner ought to be able to trot a mile +in less than three minutes."</p> +<p>He cautiously went up to a spotted cow which seemed to be rather +tamer than. the rest, holding out one hand, +and saying, "So, bossy," in oily tones, as if he thought she was the +finest cow he had ever seen. When +he was almost to her she looked at him quickly, kicked her nearest +hind-foot at him savagely, and walked off, switching +her tail, and shaking her head so that Ollie was afraid it would come +off and be lost.</p> +<p>"Can't fool that cow, can I?" said Jack, as he turned to another. +But he had no better luck this time, +and after trying three or four more he paused and said:</p> +<p>"These must be the same kind of cows Horace Greeley found down in +Texas before the war. When he came back +he said the way they milked down there was to throw a cow on her back, +have a nigger hold each leg, and extract +the milk with a clothes-pin."</p> +<p>But at last he found a brindled animal in the corner which allowed +him to sit down and begin. He was getting +on well when, without the least warning, the cow kicked, and sent the +pail spinning across the yard, while Jack +went over backwards, and his new hat fell off. There was one calf in +the yard which had been complaining ever since +we came, because it had not yet had its supper. The pail stopped +rolling right side up, and this calf ran over +and put his head in it, thinking that his food had come at last. Jack +picked himself up and ran to rescue the pail. +The calf raised his head suddenly, the pail caught on one of his little +horns, and he started off around the yard, +unable to see, and jumping wildly over imaginary objects. Jack +followed. A cow, which was perhaps the mother of +the calf, started after Jack. The family dog, hearing the commotion, +came running down from the house and began +to pursue the cow. This wild procession went around the yard several +times, till at last the pail came off the +calf's head, and Jack secured it. Then he picked up his hat, the brim +of which another calf had been chewing, rinsed +out the pail at the pump, and tried another cow.</p> +<p>This time he selected the worst-looking one of the lot, but to the +surprise of all of us she stood perfectly +still, only switching him a few times with her tail. As soon as he got +a couple of quarts of milk he stopped and +came out of the yard. Ollie and I had, of course, been laughing at him +a good deal, but Jack paid no attention +to it. As we walked towards the house he said:</p> +<p>"Well, there's one consolation: after all of that work and trouble, +the woman can't put on the face to +charge us for the milk." A moment later he said to her: "I've got about +two quarts; how much is it?"</p> +<p>"Ten cents," answered the woman. "Didn't them cows seem to take +kindly to you?"</p> +<p>"Well, they didn't exactly crowd around me and moo with delight," +replied Jack, as he handed over +a dime with rather bad grace.</p> +<p>That evening a neighbor called on us as we sat about our camp-fire, +and we told him the experience with the +cows.<a name="I-14"></a><img src="images/tvotr-14.jpg" + alt="Milking the Heifer that Wore a Sleigh-Robe" align="left" + border="0" height="452" hspace="5" width="469"></p> +<p>"Puts me in mind of the time a fellow had over at the Santee Agency +a year or so ago," said our visitor. +"There's a man there named Hawkins that's got a tame buffalo cow. Of +course you might as well try to milk +an earthquake as a buffalo. Well, one day a man came along looking for +work, and Hawkins hired him. Milking-time +came, and Hawkins sent the man out to milk, but forgot to tell hint +about the buffalo. The man was a little green, +and it was sort of dark in the barn, and the first thing he tried to +milk was the buffalo cow. She kicked the pail +through the window, smashed the stall, and half broke the man's leg the +first three kicks. He hobbled to the house, +and says to Hawkins: 'Old man, that there high-shouldered heifer of +yourn out there has busted the barn and half +killed me, and I reckon I'll quit and go back East, where the cows +don't wear sleigh-robes and kick with four feet +at once.'"</p> +<p>Bright and early the next morning we got off again. Nothing of +importance happened that day. We were travelling +through a comparatively old-settled part of the country, and the houses +were numerous. A young Indian rode with +us a few miles, but he was a very civilized sort of red man. He had +been at work on a farm down near Yankton, and +was on his way to the Ponca Reservation to visit his mother. As an +Indian he rather disgusted Ollie.</p> +<p>"If I were a big six-foot Indian," he said, after our passenger had +gone, "I think I'd carry +a tomahawk, and wear a feather or two at least. I don't see what's the +advantage of being an Indian if you're going +to act just like a white man."</p> +<p>We camped that night in a beautiful nook in a bluff near a little +stream. The next day we reached Running Water. +The ferry-boat was a little thing, with a small paddle-wheel on each +side operated by two horses on tread-mills. +A man stood at the stern with a long oar to steer it. The river was not +so wide here as at Yankton, but the current +was swifter, which no doubt gave the place its name. It looked very +doubtful if we should ever get across in the +queer craft, but after a long time we succeeded in doing so. It gave us +a good opportunity to study the water of +the river, which looked more like milk than water, owing to the fine +clay dissolved in it. The ferry-man thought +very highly of the water, and told us proudly that a glass of it would +never settle and become clear.</p> +<p>"It's the finest drinking-water in the world," he said. "I never +drink anything else. Take a +bucket of it up home every evening to drink overnight. You don't get +any of this clear well-water down me."</p> +<p>We tasted of it, but couldn't see that it was much different from +other water.</p> +<p>"Boil it down a little, and give it a lower crust, and I should +think it would make a very good custard-pie," +said Jack.</p> +<p>We found Niobrara to be a little place of a few hundred houses. We +went into camp on the edge of the town, where +we stayed the next day, as it was Sunday. Early Monday morning we were +out on the road which led along the banks +of the Niobrara River. We were somewhat surprised at the smallness of +this stream. It was of considerable width +but very shallow, and in many places bubbled along over the rocks like +a wide brook. We spoke of its size to a +man whom we met. Said he:</p> +<p>"Yes, it ain't no great shakes down here around its mouth, but you +just wait till you get up in the neighborhood +of its head-waters. It's a right smart bit of a river up there."</p> +<p>"But I thought a river was usually bigger at its mouth than at its +source," I said.</p> +<p>"Depends on the country it runs through," answered the man. "Some +rivers in these parts peter +out entirely, and don't have no mouth a' tall--just go into the ground +and leave a wet spot. This here Niobrara +comes through a dry country, and what the sun don't dry up and the wind +blow away the sand swallers mostly, though +some water does sneak through, after all; and in the spring it's about +ten times as big as it is now. The Niobrara +goes through the Sand Hills. Anything that goes through the Sand Hills +comes out small. You fellers are going through +the Sand Hills--you'll come out smaller than you be now."</p> +<p>This was the first time we had heard of the Sand Hills, but after +this everybody was talking about them and +warning us against them.</p> +<p>"Why," said one man, "you know that there Sarah Desert over in +Africa somewhere? Well, sir, that +there Sarah is a reg'lar flower-garden, with fountains a-squirting and +the band playing 'Hail Columbia,' 'longside +o' the Newbraska Sand Hills. You'll go through 'em for a hundred miles, +and you'll wish you'd never been born!"</p> +<p>This was not encouraging, but as they were still several days' +travel ahead, we resolved not to worry about +them.</p> +<p>But the country rapidly began to grow drier and more sandy, +especially after the road ceased to follow the river. +Before we left the river valley, however, Ollie made an important +discovery in a thicket on the edge of the bank. +This was a number of wild plum-trees full of fruit. We gathered at +least a half-bushel of plums, and several quarts +of wild grapes.</p> +<p>About the middle of the afternoon we came up on a great level +prairie stretching away to the west as far as +we could see. There seemed to be but few houses, and the scattering +fields of corn were stunted and dried up. It +had apparently been an extremely dry season, though the prospects for +rain that night were good, and grew better. +It was hot, and a strong south wind was blowing. Night soon began to +come on, but we could find no good camping-place. +We had not passed a house for four or five miles, nor a place where we +could get water for the horses. As it grew +dark, however, it began to rain. It kept up, and increased to such an +extent that in half an hour there were pools +of water standing along the road in many places, and we decided to +stop. It was wet work taking care of the horses, +but the most discouraging thing was the report from the cook that there +was no milk with which to make griddle-cakes +for supper, and as he did not know how to make anything else, the +prospect was rather gloomy. But through the rain +we finally discovered a light a quarter of a mile away, and Ollie and I +started out to find it. Jack refused to +go, on the plea that he was still lame from his Yankton trip after milk.<a + name="I-15"></a><img src="images/tvotr-15.jpg" alt="Wet but Hopeful" + align="left" border="0" height="486" hspace="5" width="360"></p> +<p>We blundered away through the rain and darkness, and after stumbling +in a dozen holes, running into a fence, +and getting tangled up in an abandoned picket-rope, at last came up to +the house. It was a little one-room board +house such as the settlers call a "shack." The door was open, and +inside we could see a man and woman +and half a dozen children and a full dozen dogs. We walked up, and when +the man saw us he called "Come in!" +tossed two children on the bed in the corner, picked up their chairs, +which were home-made, and brought them to +us.</p> +<p>"Wet, ain't it?" he exclaimed. "Rainy as the day Noah yanked the +gang-plank into the Ark. I was +a-telling Martha there was a right smart chance of a shower this +afternoon. What might you-uns' names be, and where +might you be from, and where might you be going?"</p> +<p>We told him all about ourselves, and he went on:</p> +<p>"Rainy night. Too late to help the co'n, though. Co'n's poor this +year; reckon we'll have to live on taters +and hope. Tater crop ain't no great shakes, though. Nothing much left +but hope, and dry for that. Reckon I'll go +back to old Missouri in the spring, and work in a saw-mill. No +saw-mills here, 'cause there ain't nothing to saw. +Hay don't need sawing. Martha," he added, turning to his wife, "was it +you said our roof didn't need +mending?"</p> +<p>"I said it did need it a powerful sight," answered the woman, as she +put another stick of hay in the +stove, and a stream of rain-water sputtered in the fire.</p> +<p>"Mebby you're right," said the man. "There's enough dry spots for +the dogs and children, but +when we have vis'tors somebody has got to get wet. Reckon I oughter put +on two shingles for vis'tors to set under. +You fellers will stay to supper, of course. We 'ain't got much but +bacon and taters, but you're powerful welcome."</p> +<p>"No," I said, "we really mustn't stop. What we wanted was to see if +we couldn't get a little +milk from you."</p> +<p>"Well, I'll be snaked!" exclaimed the man. "That makes me think I +ain't milked the old cow yet."</p> +<p>"I milked her more'n two hours ago, while you was cleaning your +rifle," said his wife.</p> +<p>"That so?" replied the man. "Where's the milk?"</p> +<p>The woman looked around a little. "Reckon the dogs or the young Uns +must 'a' swallered it. 'Tain't in sight, +nohow."</p> +<p>"Oh, we can milk 'er again!" exclaimed the man. "Old Spot sometimes +comes down heavier on the +second or third milking than she does on the first."</p> +<p>He took a gourd from a shelf, and told us to "come on;" and started +out. He wore a big felt hat, but +no coat, and he was barefooted. Just outside the door stood a bedstead +and two or three chairs. "We move 'em +out in the daytime to make more room," explained the man. The rain was +still pouring down. The man took our +lantern and began looking for the cow. He soon found her, and while I +held the lantern, and Ollie our jug, he went +down on his knees beside the cow and began to milk with one hand, +holding the gourd in the other. The cow stood +perfectly still, as if it was no new thing to be milked the second +time. We had on rubber coats, but the man was +without protection, and as he sat very near the cow a considerable +stream ran off of her hip-bone and down the +back of his neck. When the gourd was full he poured it in our jug, and +at my offering to pay for it he was almost +insulted. "Not a cent, not a cent!" he exclaimed. "Al'ays glad to +'commodate a neighbor. Good-night; +coming down in the morning to swap hosses with you."</p> +<p>He went back to the house, and we started for the wagon.</p> +<p>"He wouldn't have got quite so wet if he hadn't kept so close to the +cow," said Ollie, as we walked +along.</p> +<p>"What he needs," said I, "are eave-troughs on his cow."</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="V"></a> +</p> +<h3>V: ACROSS THE NIOBRARA</h3> +<p><br> +The next morning dawned fair. We were awakened by Old Blacky kicking +the side of the wagon-box with both hind-feet.</p> +<p>"If that man with the ever-blooming cow comes down," said Jack, +"I'll swap him Old Blacky."</p> +<p>Just then we heard a loud "Hello!" and, looking out, we found the +man leading a small yellow pony.</p> +<p>"I just 'lowed I'd come down and let you fellers make something out +of me on a hoss-trade," said the +man.</p> +<p>"Well," answered Jack, "we're willing to swap that black horse over +there. He's a splendid animal."</p> +<p>"Isn't he rather much on the kick?" the man asked. "He does kick a +little," admitted Jack, +"but only for exercise. He wouldn't hurt a fly. But he is so high-lifed +that he has to kick to ease his nerves +once in a while."</p> +<p>"Thought I seen him whaling away at your wagon," returned the man. +"Couldn't have him round my +place, 'cause my house ain't very steady, and I reckon he'd have it +kicked all to flinders inside of a week."</p> +<p>He talked for some time, but finally went off when he found that +Jack was not willing to part with any horse +except Old Blacky.</p> +<p>The road was so sandy that the rain had not made much difference +with it, and we were soon again moving on at +a good rate. We were travelling in a direction a little north of west, +and from one to half a dozen miles south +of the Niobrara River. It would have been nearer to have kept north of +the river, but we were prevented by the +Sioux and Ponca Indian reservations, through which no one was allowed +to go. Our intention was to cross to the +north of the river at Grand Rapids and get into the Keya Paha country, +about which we heard a great deal, keep +Straight west, and, after crossing the river twice more, reach Fort +Niobrara and the town of Valentine, beyond +which were the Sand Hills. This route would keep us all the time from +twenty to thirty miles north of the railroad..<a name="I-16"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-16.jpg" alt="Anti-Hourse-Thieves" align="left" + border="0" height="468" hspace="5" width="467"></p> +<p>We had not gone far this morning when we met two men on horseback +riding side by side. They looked like farmers, +only we noticed that each carried a big revolver in a belt and one of +them a gun. They simply said "Good-morning," +and passed on. In about half an hour we met another pair similarly +mounted and armed, and in another half-hour +still two more.</p> +<p>"Must be a wedding somewhere, or a Sunday--school picnic," said Jack.</p> +<p>"But why do they all have the guns?" asked Ollie, innocently.</p> +<p>"Oh, I don't know," answered Jack. "Varmints about, I suppose."</p> +<p>In a few minutes we came to a man working beside the road, and asked +him what it all meant. He looked around +in a very mysterious manner, and then half whispered the one word +"Vigilantees!" with a strong accent +on each syllable.</p> +<p>"Oh!" said Jack, "vigilance committee."</p> +<p>"Correct," returned the man.</p> +<p>"After horse-thieves, I suppose?" went on Jack.</p> +<p>"Exactly," replied the man. "Stole two horses at Black Bird last +night at ten o'clock. Holt County +Anti-Horse-thief Association after 'em this morning at four. That's the +way we do business in this country!"</p> +<p>We drove on, and Jack said:</p> +<p>"What the Association wants to do is to buy Old Blacky and put him +in a pasture for bait. In the morning +the members can go out and gather up a wagon-load of disabled +horse-thieves that have tried to steal him in the +night and got kicked over the fence."</p> +<p>We either met or saw a dozen other men on horseback, always in +pairs; but whether or not they caught the thief +we never heard.<a name="I-17"></a><img src="images/tvotr-17.jpg" + alt="Jack Shoots a Grouse" align="right" border="0" height="491" + hspace="5" width="384"></p> +<p>So far we had had very poor luck in finding game; but in the +afternoon of this day Jack shot a grouse, and we +camped rather earlier than usual, so that he might have ample time to +cook it. There were also the plums and grapes +to stew. We made our camp not far from a house, and, after a vast +amount of extremely serious labor on the part +of the cook, had a very good supper.</p> +<p>The next day passed with but one incident worth recalling. In the +afternoon we crossed the Niobrara at Grand +Rapids on a tumbledown wooden bridge, and turned due west through the +Keya Paha country. This is so called from +the Keya Paha River (pronounced Key-a-paw), a branch of the Niobrara +which comes down out of Dakota and joins it +a few miles below Grand Rapids. The country seemed to be much the same +as that through which we had travelled, +perhaps a little flatter and sandier. Just across the river we saw the +first large herd of stock, some five or +six hundred head being driven east by half a dozen cowboys.</p> +<p>A short distance beyond the river we came to a little blacksmith +shop beside the road. As soon as Jack saw it +he said:</p> +<p>"We ought to stop and get the horses shod. I was looking at the +holes the calks of Old Blacky's shoes made +in the wagon-box last night, and they are shallow and irregular. He +needs new shoes to do himself justice. If this +blacksmith seems like a man of force of character, we'll see what he +can do."</p> +<p>Jack looked at the blacksmith quizzically when we drove up, and +whispered to us, "He'll do," and we +unhitched. The pony had never been shod, and did not seem to need any +artificial aids, so we left her to graze +about while the others were being attended to.</p> +<p>"Just shoe the brown one first, if it doesn't make any difference," +said Jack.</p> +<p>"All right," answered the blacksmith, and he went to work on this +decent old nag, who slept peacefully +throughout the whole operation.</p> +<p>He then began On Old Blacky. He soon had shoes nailed on the old +reprobate's forward feet, and approached his +rear ones. Old Blacky had made no resistance so far, and had contented +himself with gnawing at the side of the +shop and switching his tail. He even allowed the blacksmith to take one +of his hind-feet between his knees and +start to pull off the old shoe. Then he began to struggle to free his +leg. The blacksmith held on. Old Blacky saw +that the time for action had arrived, so he drew his leg, with the +foolish blacksmith still clinging to it, well +up forward, and then threw it back with all his strength. <a + name="I-18"></a><img src="images/tvotr-18.jpg" + alt="Flight of the Blacksmith" align="left" border="0" height="439" + hspace="5" width="450">The leg did not fly off, but the +blacksmith did, and half-way across the shop. He picked himself up, +and, after looking at the horse, said:.</p> +<p>"'Pears's if that ain't a colt any more."</p> +<p>"No," answered Jack; "he's fifteen or sixteen."</p> +<p>"Old enough to know better," observed the blacksmith. "I'll try him +again."</p> +<p>He once more got the leg up, and again Old Blacky tried to throw him +off. But this time the man hung on. After +the third effort Blacky looked around at him with a good deal of +surprise. Then he put down the leg to which the +man was still clinging, and with the other gave him a blow which was +half a kick and half a push, which sent the +man sprawling over by his anvil.</p> +<p>"The critter don't seem to take to it nohow, does he?" said the +blacksmith, cheerfully, as he again +got up.</p> +<p>"He's a very peculiar horse," answered Jack. "Has violent likes and +dislikes. His likes are for +food, and his dislikes for everything else."</p> +<p>"I'll tackle him again, though," said the man.</p> +<p>But Blacky saw that he could no longer afford to temporize with the +fellow, and now began kicking fiercely with +both feet in all directions, swinging about like a warship to get the +proper range on everything in sight, and +finally ending up by putting one foot through the bellows.</p> +<p>"Reckon I've got to call in assistance," said the man, as he started +off. He came back with another +man, who laid hold of one of Blacky's forward legs and held it up off +the floor. The blacksmith then seized one +of his hind ones and got it up. This left the old sinner so that if he +would kick he would have to stand on one +foot while he did it, and this was hardly enough for even so bad a +horse as he was. He did not wholly give up, +however, but after a great amount of struggling they at last got him +shod.</p> +<p>"We'll call him the Blacksmith's Pet," said Jack.</p> +<p>Good camping-places did not seem to be numerous, and just after the +sun had gone down we turned out beside the +road near a half-completed sod house. There was no other house in +sight, and this had apparently been abandoned +early in the season, as weeds and grass were growing on top of the +walls, which were three or four feet high. There +was also a peculiar sort of well, a few of which we had seen during the +day. It consisted of four one-inch boards +nailed together and sunk into the ground. The boards were a foot wide, +thus making the inside of the shaft ten +inches square. This one was forty or fifty feet deep, but there was a +long rope and slender tin bucket beside it. +The water was not good, but there was no other to be had. Near the +house Ollie found the first cactus we had seen, +which showed, if nothing else did, that we were getting into a dry +country. He took it up carefully and stowed +it away in the cabin to take back home as evidence of his extensive +travels.</p> +<p>For several days we had not been able to have a camp-fire, owing to +the wind and dryness of the prairie, for +had we started a prairie fire it might have done great damage.</p> +<p>"We don't want the Holt County Anti-Prairie Fire Society after us," +Jack had said; so we bad been +using our oil-stove.</p> +<p>But this evening was very still, and there seemed to be no danger in +building a camp-fire within the walls of +the house, and we soon had one going with wood which we had gathered +along the river, since to have found wood +enough for a camp-fire in that neighborhood would have been as +impossible as to have found a stone or a spring +of water.</p> +<p>We were sitting about on the sods after supper when a man rode up on +horseback, who said he was looking for +some lost stock. We asked him to have something to eat, and he accepted +the invitation, and afterwards talked a +long time, and gave us much information which we wished about the +country. Somebody mentioned the little well, +and the man turned to Ollie and said:</p> +<p>"How would you like to slip down such a well?"</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I'm too big," answered Ollie. "Well, perhaps you are; +but there was a child last +summer over near where I live who wasn't too big. He was a little +fellow not much over two years old. The well +was a new one, and the curb was almost even with the top of the ground. +He slipped down feet first. It was a hundred +and twenty feet deep, with fifteen feet of water at the bottom; but he +fitted pretty snug, and only went down about +fifty feet at first. His mother missed him, saw that the cover was gone +from the well, and listened. She heard +his voice, faint and smothered. There was no one else at home. She +called to him not to stir, and went to the barn, +where there was a two-year-old colt. He had never been ridden before, +but he was ridden that afternoon, and I guess +he hasn't forgotten the lesson. She came to my place first, told me, +and rode away to another neighbor's. In half +an hour there were twenty men there, and soon fifty, and before morning +two hundred.</p> +<p>"There was no way to fish the child out-the only thing was to dig +down beside the small shaft. We could +hear him faintly, and we began to dig. We started a shaft about four +feet square. The sandy soil caved badly, but +men with horses running all the way brought out lumber from Grand +Rapids for curbing.</p> +<p>"The child's father came too. He listened a second at the small +shaft, and then went down the other. Two +men could work at the bottom of it. One of the men was relieved every +few minutes by a fresh worker, but the father +worked on, and did more than the others, not-withstanding the changes. +All of the time the mother sat on the ground +beside the small shaft with her arms about its top. At four o'clock in +the morning we were down opposite the prisoner. +He was still crying faintly. We saw that to avoid the danger of causing +him to slip farther down we must dig below +him, bore a hole in the board, and push through a bar. But a few +shovelfuls more were needed. The work jarred the +shaft, and the child slipped twenty---five feet deeper. At seven +o'clock we were down to where he was again, though +we could no longer bear him. We dug a little below, bored a bole, and +the father slipped through a pickaxe handle, +and fainted away as he felt the little one slide down again but rest on +the handle. We tore off the boards, took +the baby out, and drew him and his father to the surface. There were +two doctors waiting for them, and the next +day neither was much the worse for it."</p> +<p>The man got on his horse and rode away. We agreed that he had told +us a good story, but the next day others +assured us that it had all happened a year before.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="VI"></a> +</p> +<h3>VI: BY CAÑONS TO VALENTINE</h3> +<p><br> +Besides the cactus, another form of vegetation which began to attract +more and more of Ollie's attention was the +red tumbleweed. Indeed, Jack and I found ourselves interested in it +also. The ordinary tumbleweed, green when growing +and gray when tumbling, had long been familiar to us, but the red +variety was new. The old kind which we knew seldom +grew more than two feet in diameter; it was usually almost exactly +round, and with its finely branched limbs was +almost as solid as a big sponge, and when its short stem broke off at +the top of the ground in the fall it would +go bounding away across the prairie for miles. The red sort seemed to +be much the same, except for its color and +size. We saw many six or seven feet, perhaps more, in diameter, though +they were rather flat, and not probably +over three or four feet high.</p> +<p>The first one we saw was on edge, and going at a great rate across +the prairie, bounding high into the air, +and acting as if it had quite gone crazy, as there was a strong wind +blowing.</p> +<p>"Look at that overgrown red tumbleweed!" exclaimed Jack. "I never +saw anything like that before. +Jump on the pony, Ollie, and catch the varmint and bring it back here!"</p> +<p>Ollie was willing enough to do this, and the pony was willing enough +to go, so off they went. I think if the +weed had had a fair field that Ollie would never have overtaken it, but +it got caught in the long grass occasionally, +and he soon came up to it. But the pony was not used to +tumbleweed-coursing, and shied off with a startled snort. +Ollie brought her about and made another attempt. But again the +frightened pony ran around it. Half a dozen times +this was repeated. At last she happened to dash around it on the wrong +side just as it bounded into the air before +the wind. It struck both horse and rider like a big dry-land wave, and +Ollie seized it. If the poor pony had been +frightened before, she was now terror-stricken, and gave a jump like a +tiger, and shot away faster than we had +ever seen her run before. Ollie had lost control of her, and could only +cling to the saddle with one hand and hold +to the big blundering weed with the other. Fortunately the pony ran +toward the wagon. As they came up we could +see little but tumbleweed and pony legs, and it looked like nothing so +much as a hay-stack running away on its +own legs. When the pony came up to the wagon she stopped so suddenly +that Ollie went over her head.<a name="I-19"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-19.jpg" alt="Studying Botany" align="left" border="0" + height="493" hspace="5" width="466">But +he still clung to the weed, and struck the ground inside of it. He +jumped up, still in the weed, so that it now +looked like a hay-stack on two legs. We pulled him out of it, and found +him none the worse for his adventure. But +he was a little frightened, and said:</p> +<p>"I don't think I'll chase those things again, Uncle Jack--not with +that pony."</p> +<p>"Oh, that's all right, Ollie," said Jack. "I'm going to organize the +Nebraska Cross-Country Tumbleweed +Club, and you'll want to come to the meets. We'll give the weed one +minute start, and the first man that catches +it will get a prize of--of a watermelon, for instance."</p> +<p>"Well, I think I'll take another horse before I try it," returned +Ollie.</p> +<p>"Might try Old Browny," I said. "If he ever came up to a tumbleweed +he would lie right down +on it and go to sleep."</p> +<p>"Yes, and Blacky would hold it with one foot and eat it up," said +Jack. "Unless he took a notion +to turn around and kick it out of existence."</p> +<p>We looked the queer plant over carefully, and found it so closely +branched that it was impossible to see into +it more than a few inches. The branched were tough and elastic, and +when it struck the ground after being tossed +up it would rebound several inches. But it was almost as light asa +thistle-ball, and when we turned it loose it +rolled away across the prairie again as if nothing had happened.</p> +<p>"They're bad things sometimes when there is a prairie tire," said +Jack. "No matter how wide the +fire-break may be, a blazing tumbleweed will often roll across it and +set tire to the grass beyond. They've been +known to leap over streams of considerable width, too, or fall in the +water and float across, still blazing. Two +years ago the town of Frontenac was burned up by a tumbleweed, though +the citizens had made ah approved fire-break +by ploughing two circles of furrows around their village and burning +off the grass between them. These big red +ones must be worse than the others. I believe," he went on, "that +tumbleweeds might be used to carry +messages, like carrier-pigeons. The next one we come across we'll try +it."</p> +<p>That afternoon we caught a fine specimen, and Jack securely fastened +this message to it and turned it adrift:</p> +<blockquote> + <blockquote> + <p><font size="2">"Schooner Rattletrap, September --, 188-: +Latitude.<br> +42.50; Longitude, 99.35. To Whom it may Concern:<br> +From Prairie Flower, bound for Deadwood. All well<br> +except Old Blacky, who has an appetite."</font></p> + </blockquote> +</blockquote> +<p>The night after our stop by the unfinished house we again camped on +the open prairie, a quarter of a mile from +a settler's house, where we got water for the horses. This house was +really a "dugout," being more of +a cellar than a house. It was built in the side of a little bank, the +back of the sod roof level with the ground, +and the front but two or three feet above it.</p> +<p>"I'd be afraid, if I were living in it, that a heavy rain in the +night might fill it up, and float the +bedstead, and bump my nose on the ceiling," said Jack.</p> +<p>Ir had been a warm afternoon, but when we went to bed it was cooler, +though there was no wind stirring. The +smoke of our camp-fire went straight up. There was no moon, but the sky +was clear, and we remarked that we had +not seen the stars look so bright any night before. The front of our +wagon stood toward the northwest. We went +to bed, but at two o'clock we were awakened by a most violent shaking +of the cover. The wind was blowing a gale, +and the whole top seemed about to be going by the board. We scrambled +up, and I heard Jack's voice calling for +me to come out. The cover-bows were bent far over, and the canvas +pressed in on the side to the southwest till +it seemed as if it must burst. The front end of the top had gone out +and was cracking in the wind. I crept forward, +and us I did so I felt the wagon rise up on the windward side and bump +back on the ground. I concluded we were +doomed to u wreck, and called to Ollie to get out as fast us he could. +I supposed a hard storm had struck us, but +as I went over the dash-board I was astonished to see the stars shining +us brightly as ever in the deep, dark sky. +Jack was clinging to the rear wagon wheel on the windward side, which +was all that had saved it from capsizing. +He called to me to take hold of the tongue and steer the craft around +with the stern to the gale. I did so, while +he turned on the wheel. <a name="I-20"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-20.jpg" alt="When the Winds are Breathing Low" + align="left" border="0" height="514" hspace="5" width="471">As it +came around the loose sides of the cover began +to flutter and crack, while the puckering-string gave way, and the wind +swept through the wagon, carrying everything +that was loose before it, including Ollie, who was just getting over +the dash-board. He was not hurt, but just +then we heard a most pitiful yelping, as Jack's blankets and pillow +went rolling away from where the wagon had +stood. It was Snoozer going with them. The yelping disappeared in the +darkness, and we heard frying-pans, tin plates, +and other camp articles clattering away with the rest. The Rattletrap +itself had tried to run before the gale, +but I had put on the brake and stopped it. The three of us then +crouched in front of it, and waited for the wind +to blow itself out. We could see or hear nothing of the horses. There +was nota cloud in sight, and the stars still +shone down calmly and unruffled, while the wind cut and hissed through +the long prairie grass all about us. It +kept up for about ten minutes, when it began to stop as suddenly as it +had begun. In twenty minutes there was nothing +but a cool, gentle breeze coming out of the southwest. We lit the +lantern and tried to gather up our things, but +soon realized that we could not do much that night. We found the +unfortunate Snoozer crouched in a little depression +which was perhaps an old buffalo wallow, but could see nothing of the +horses. We concluded to go to bed and wait +for morning.</p> +<p>When it came we found our things scattered for over a quarter of a +mile. We recovered everything, though the +wagon-seat was broken. The horses had come back, so we could not tell +how far they had gone before the wind.</p> +<p>"I've read about those night winds on the plains," said Jack, "and +we'll look out for 'em in +the future. We'll put an anchor on Snoozer at least."</p> +<p>This intelligent animal had not forgotten his night's experience, +and stuck closely in the wagon, where he even +insisted on taking his breakfast.</p> +<p>The road we were following was gradually drawing closer to the +Niobrara, and we began to see scattering pine-trees, +stunted and broken, along the heads of the cañons or ravines +leading down to the river. There was less sand, +and we made better progress. The country was but little settled, and +game was more plentiful. We got two or three +grouse. We went into camp at night by the head of what appeared to be a +large cañon, under a tempest-tossed +old pine-tree, through which the wind constantly sighed. There was no +water, but we counted on getting it down +the ca¤on. A man went by on horseback, driving some cattle, who +told us that we could find a spring down +about half a mile.</p> +<p>"Can we get any hay down there?" I asked him. "We're out of feed for +the horses, and the grass +seems pretty poor here."</p> +<p>"Down a mile beyond the spring I have a dozen stacks," answered the +man, "and you're welcome +to all you can bring up on your pony. Just go down and help yourselves."</p> +<p>We thanked him and he went on. As soon as we could we started down. +It was beginning to get dark, and grew darker +rapidly as we went down the ravine, as its sides were high and the +trees soon became numerous. There was no road, +nothing but a mere cattle-path, steep and stony in many places. We +found the spring and watered all the horses, +left Blacky and Browny, and went on after the hay with the pony, Jack +leading her, and Ollie and I walking ahead +with the lantern. It seemed a long way as we stumbled along in the +darkness, all the time downhill. "I guess +that man wasn't so liberal as he seemed," said Jack. "The pony will be +able to carry just about enough +hay up here to make Snoozer a bed."</p> +<p>We plunged on, till at last the path became a little nearer level. +It crossed a small open tract and then wound +among bushes and low trees. Suddenly we saw something gleam in the +light of the lantern, and stopped right on the +river's bank. The water looked deep and dark, though not very wide. The +current was swift and eddying.</p> +<p>"We've passed the hay," I said. "Ir must be on that open flat we +crossed."</p> +<p>We went back, and, turning to the right, soon found it. I set the +lantern down and began to pull hay from one +of the stacks, when the pony made a sudden movement, struck the lantern +with her foot, and smashed the globe to +bits.</p> +<p>"There," exclaimed Jack, "we'll have a fine time going up that +badger-hole of a ca¤on +in the dark!"</p> +<p>But there was nothing else to do, and we made up two big bundles of +hay and tied them to the pony's back.</p> +<p>"She'll think it's tumbleweeds," said Ollie.</p> +<p>"If she's headed in the right direction I hope she will," answered +Jack.</p> +<p>We started up, but it was a long and toilsome climb. In many places +Jack and I had to get down on our hands +and knees and feel out the path. The worst place was a scramble up a +bank twenty feet high, and covered with loose +stones. I was ahead. The heroic little pony with her unwieldy load +sniffed at the prospect a little, and then started +bravely up, "hanging on by her toe-nails," as Ollie said. When she was +almost to the top she stepped +on a loose stone, lost her footing, went over, and rolled away into the +darkness and underbrush. Jack stumbled +over a little of the hay which had come off in the path, hastily rolled +up a torch, and lit it with a match. By +this light we found the pony on her back, like a tumble-bug, with her +load for a cushion and her feet in the air, +and kicking wildly in every direction. While Ollie held the torch, Jack +and I went to her rescue, and, after a +vast deal of pulling and lifting, got her to her feet just as the hay +torch died out. Again she scrambled up the +bank, and this time with success. We went on, found the other horses, +and were soon at the wagon. We voted the +pony all the hay she wanted, and went to bed tired.</p> +<p>The next day, the ninth out from Yankton, though it was a long run, +brought us to Valentine, the first town +on the railroad which we had seen since leaving the former place. +Before we reached it we went several miles along +the upper ends of the cañons, down a long hill so steep that we +had to chain both hind wheels, forded the +Niobrara twice, followed the river several miles, went out across the +military reservation, which was like a desert, +saw six or eight hundred negro soldiers at Fort Niobrara, and finally +drove through Valentine, and went into camp +a mile west of town. On the way we saw thousands of the biggest and +reddest tumbleweeds, and two or three new sorts +of cactus. The colored troops surprised Ollie, as he had never seen any +before.</p> +<p>"It's the western winds and the hot sun that's tanned those +soldiers," said Jack. "We'll look +just that way, too, before we get back."</p> +<p>Ollie was half inclined to believe this astonishing statement at +first, but concluded that his uncle was joking.<a name="I-21"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-21.jpg" alt="Sad Result of Dishonesty" align="left" + border="0" height="439" hspace="5" width="487"></p> +<p>We went into camp on the banks of the Minichaduza River, a little +brook which flows into the Niobrara from the +northwest. All night it gurgled and bubbled almost under our wheels. A +man stopped to chat with us as we sat around +our camp-fire after supper. We told him of our experience in getting +the hay the night before. He laughed and said: +"Ever steal any of your horse feed?"</p> +<p>"We haven't yet," answered Jack. "We try to be reasonably honest."</p> +<p>"Some don't, though," replied the man. "Most of 'em that are going +West in a covered wagon seem +to think corn in the field is public property. A fellow camped right +here one afternoon last fall. He was out of +feed, and took a grain sack on one arm and a big Winchester rifle on +the other, and went over to old Brown's cornfield. +He took the gun along not to shoot anybody, but to sort of intimidate +Brown if he should catch him. Suddenly he +saw an old fellow coming towards him carrying a gun about a foot longer +than his own. The young fellow wilted right +down on the ground and never moved. He happened to go down on a big +prickly cactus, but he never stirred, cactus +or no cactus. He thought Brown had caught him, and that he was done +for. The old man kept coming nearer and nearer. +He was almost to him. The young fellow concluded to make a brave fight. +So he jumped up and yelled. The old man +dropped his gun and ran like a scared wolf. Then the young fellow +noticed that the other also had a sack in which +he had been gathering corn. He called him back, they saw that they were +both thieves, shook hands, and went ahead +and robbed old Brown together."</p> +<p>The man got up to go. "Well, good-night, boys," he said. "Rest as +hard as you can tomorrow. You'll +strike into the Sand Hills at about nine o'clock Monday morning. Take +three days' feed, and every drop of water +you can carry; and it you waste any of it washing your hands you're +bigger fools than I think you are."</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="VII"></a> +</p> +<h3>VII: THROUGH THE SAND HILLS</h3> +<p><br> +"Come, stir out of that and get the camels ready for the desert!"</p> +<p>This was Jack's cheery way of warning Ollie and me that it was time +to get up on the morning of our start into +the Sand Hills.</p> +<p>"Any simooms in sight?" asked Ollie, by way of reply to Jack's +remark.</p> +<p>"Well, I think Old Browny scents one; he has got his nose buried in +the sand like a camel," answered +Jack.</p> +<p>It was only just coming daylight, but we were agreed that an early +start was best. It was another Monday morning, +and we knew that it would take three good days' driving to carry us +through the sand country. We had learned that, +notwithstanding what our visitor of the first night had said, there +were several places on the road where we could +get water and feed for the horses. We should have to carry some water +along, however, and had got two large kegs +from Valentine, and filled them and all of our jugs and pails the night +before. We also had a good stock of oats +and corn, and a big bundle of hay, which we put in the cabin on the bed.</p> +<p>"Just as soon as Old Blacky finds that there is no water along the +road he will insist on having about +a barrel a day," said Jack. "And if he can't get it he will balk, and +kick the dash-board into kindling-wood."</p> +<p>A little before sunrise we started. It was agreed, owing to the +increase in the load and the deep sand, that +no one, not even Snoozer, should be allowed to ride in the wagon. If +Ollie got tired he was to ride the pony. So +we started off, walking beside the wagon, with the pony lust behind, as +usual, dangling her stirrups, and the abused +Snoozer, looking very much hurt at the insult put upon him, following +behind her.</p> +<p>For three or four miles the road was much like that to which we had +been accustomed. Then it gradually began +to grow sandier. We were following an old trail which ran near the +railroad, sometimes on one side and sometimes +on the other; and this was the case all the way through the hills. The +railroad was new, having been built only +a year or two before. There was a station on it every fifteen or twenty +miles, with a side-track, and a water-tank +for the engines, but not much else.</p> +<p>There was no well-marked boundary to the Sand Hills, but gradually, +and almost before we realized it, we found +ourselves surrounded by them. We came to a crossing of the railroad, +and in a little cut a few rods away we saw +the sand drifted over the rails three or four inches deep, precisely +like snow.</p> +<p>"Well," said Jack, "I guess we're in the Sand Hills at last if we've +got where it drifts."</p> +<p>"I wonder if they have to have sand-ploughs on their engines?" said +Ollie.</p> +<p>"I've heard that they frequently have to stop and shovel it off," +answered Jack.</p> +<p>As we got farther among the sand dunes we found them all sizes and +shapes, though usually circular, and from +fifteen to forty feet high. Of course the surface of the county was +very irregular, and there would be places here +and there where the grass had obtained a little footing and the sand +had not drifted up. There were also some hills +which seemed to be independent of the sand piles.</p> +<p>We stopped for noon on a little flat where there was some struggling +grass, This flat ran off to the north, +and narrowed into a small valley through which in the spring probably a +little water flowed. We had finished dinner +when we noticed a flock of big birds circling about the little valley, +and, on looking closer, saw that some of +them were on the ground.</p> +<p>"They are sand-hill cranes," said Jack. "I've seen them in Dakota, +but this must be their home."</p> +<p>They were immense birds, white and gray, and with very long legs. +Jack took his rifle and tried to creep up +on them, but they were too shy, and soared away to the south.</p> +<p>We soon passed the first station on the railroad, called Crookston. +The telegraph-operator came out and looked +at us, admitted that it was a sandy neighborhood, and went back in. We +toiled on without any incident of note during +the whole afternoon. Toward night we passed another station, called +Georgia, and the man in charge allowed us to +fill our kegs from the water-tank. .<a name="I-22"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-22.jpg" alt="First Night Camp in the Sand Hills" + align="left" border="0" height="501" hspace="5" width="479">We went on +three or four miles and +stopped beside the trail, and a hundred yards from the railroad, for +the night. The great drifts of sand were all +around us, and no desert could have been lonelier. We had a little wood +and built a camp-fire. The evening was +still and there was not a sound. Even the Blacksmith's Pet, wandering +about seeking what he could devour, and finding +nothing, made scarcely a sound in the soft sand. The moon was shining, +and it was warm as any summer evening. Jack +sat on the ground beside the wagon and played the banjo for half an +hour. After a while we walked over to the railroad. +We could hear a faint rumble, and concluded that a train was +approaching.</p> +<p>"Let's wait for it," proposed Jack. "It will be along in a moment."</p> +<p>We waited and listened. Then we distinctly heard the whistle of a +locomotive, and the faint roar gradually ceased.</p> +<p>"It's stopped somewhere," I said.</p> +<p>"Don't see what it should stop around here for," said Jack, "unless +to take on a sand-hill crane."</p> +<p>Then we heard it start up, run a short distance, and again stop; +this it repeated half a dozen times, and then +after a pause it settled down to a long steady roar again.</p> +<p>"It isn't possible, is it, that that train has been stopped at the +next station west of here?" I said.</p> +<p>"The next station is Cody, and it's a dozen miles from here," +answered Jack. "It doesn't seem +as if we could hear it so far, but we'll time it and see."</p> +<p>He looked at his watch and we waited. For a long time the roar kept +up, occasionally dying away as the train +probably went through a deep cut or behind a hill. It gradually +increased in volume, till at last it seemed as +if the train must certainly be within a hundred yards. Still it did not +appear, and the sound grew louder and louder. +But at the end of thirty-five minutes it came around the curve in sight +and thundered by, a long freight train, +and making more noise, it seemed, that any train ever made before.</p> +<p>"That's where it was!" exclaimed Jack--"at Cody, twelve miles from +here; and we first heard +it I don't know how far beyond. If I ever go into the telephone +business I'll keep away from the Sand Hills. A +man here ought to be able to hold a pleasant chat with a neighbor two +miles off, and by speaking up loud ask the +postmaster ten miles away if there is any mail for him."</p> +<p>We were off ploughing through the sand again early the next morning. +We could not give the horses quite all +the water they wanted, but we did the best we could. We were in the +heart of the hills all day. There were simply +thousands of the great sand drifts in every direction. Buffalo bones +half buried were becoming numerous. We saw +several coyotes, or prairie wolves, skulking about, but we shot at them +without success. We got water at Cody, +and pressed on. In the afternoon we sighted some antelope looking +cautiously over the crest of a sand billow. Ollie +mounted the pony and I took my rifle, and we went after them, while +Jack kept on with the wagon. They retreated, +and we followed them a mile or more back from the trail, winding among +the drifts and attempting to get near enough +for a shot. But they were too wary for us. At last we mounted a hill +rather higher than the rest, and saw them +scampering away a mile or more to the northwest. We were surprised more +by something which we saw still on beyond +them, and that was a little pond of water deep down between two great +ridges of sand.</p> +<p>"I didn't expect to see a lake in this country," said Ollie.</p> +<p>I studied the lay of the land a moment, and said: "I think it's +simply a place where the wind has scooped +out the sand down below the water-line and it has filled up. The wind +has dug a well, that's all. You know the +telegraph-operator at Georgia told us the wells here were shallow--that +there's plenty of water down a short distance."</p> +<p>We could see that there was considerable grass and quite an oasis +around the pond. But in every other direction +there was nothing but sand billows, all scooped out on their northwest +sides where the fierce winds of winter had +gnawed at them. The afternoon sun was sinking, and every dune cast a +dark shadow on the light yellow of the sand, +making a great landscape of glaring light covered with black spots. A +coyote sat on a buffalo skull on top of the +next hill and looked at us. A little owl flitted by and disappeared in +one of the shadows.</p> +<p>"This is like being adrift in an open boat," I said to Ollie. "We +must hurry on and catch the +Rattletrap."</p> +<p>"I'm in the open boat," answered Ollie. "You're just simply swimming +about without even a life-preserver +on."</p> +<p>We turned and started for the trail. We found it, but we had spent +more time in the hills than we realized, +and before we had gone far it began to grow dark. We waded on, and at +last saw Jack's welcome camp-fire. When we +came up we smelled grouse cooking, and he said:</p> +<p>"While you fellows were chasing about and getting lost I gathered in +a brace of fat grouse. What you want +to do next time is to take along your hat full of oats, and perhaps you +can coax the antelope to come up and eat."</p> +<p>The camp was near another railroad station called Eli. We had been +gradually working north, and were now not +over three or four miles from the Dakota line; but Dakota here +consisted of nothing but the immense Sioux Indian +Reservation, two or three hundred miles long.</p> +<p>The next morning Jack complained of not feeling well.</p> +<p>"What's the matter, Jack?" I asked.</p> +<p>"Gout," answered Jack, promptly. "I'm too good a cook for myself. +I'm going to let you cook for +a few days, and give my system a rest."<a name="I-23"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-23.jpg" alt="Dark Doings of the Cook" align="left" + border="0" height="669" hspace="5" width="481"></p> +<p>This seemed very funny to Ollie and me, who had been eating Jack's +cooking for two or three weeks. The fact +was that the gouty Jack was the poorest cook that ever looked into a +kettle, and he knew it well enough. He could +make one thing--pancakes--nothing else. They were usually fairly good, +though he would sometimes get his recipes +mixed up, and use his sour-milk one when the milk was sweet, or his +sweet-milk one when it was sour; but we got +accustomed to this. Then it was hard to spoil young and tender fried +grouse, and the stewed plums had been good, +though he had got some hay mixed with them; but the flavor of hay is +not bad. We bought frequently of "canned +goods" at the stores, and this he could not injure a great deal.</p> +<p>We did not pay much attention to Jack's threat about stopping +cooking. He got breakfast after a fashion, mixing +sour and sweet milk as an experiment, and though he didn't eat much +himself, we did not think he was going to be +sick. But after walking a short distance he declared he could go no +farther, and climbed into the cabin and rolled +upon the bed.</p> +<p>Ollie and I ploughed along with the sand still streaming, like long +flaxen hair, off the wagon-wheels as they +turned. In a little valley about ten o'clock Ollie shot his first +grouse. We saw more antelope, and met a man with +his wife and six children and five dogs and two cows and twelve +chickens going east. He said he was tired of Nebraska, +and was on his way to Illinois. At noon we stopped at Merriman, another +railroad station. Jack got up and made +a pretence of getting dinner, but he ate nothing himself, and really +began to look ill.</p> +<p>We made but a short stop, as we were anxious to get out of the worst +of the sand that afternoon. We asked about +feed and water for the horses, and were told that we could get both at +Irwin, another station fifteen miles ahead. +We pressed on, with Jack still in the wagon, but it was almost dark +before we reached the stationWe found a man +on the railroad track.</p> +<p>"Can we get some feed and water here?" I asked of him.</p> +<p>"Reckon not," answered the man.</p> +<p>"Where can we find the station agent?"</p> +<p>"He's gone up to Gordon, and won't be back till midnight."</p> +<p>"Hasn't any one got any horse-feed for sale?".<a name="I-24"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-24.jpg" alt="No Horse-Feed" align="right" border="0" + height="474" hspace="5" width="363"></p> +<p>"There isn't a smell of horse-feed here," said the man. "I've got +the only well, except the railroad's, +but it's 'most dry. I'll give you what water I can, though. As for +feed, you'd better go on three miles to Keith's +ranch. It's on Lost Creek Flat, and there's lots of haystacks there, +and you can help yourself. At the ranch-house +they will give you other things."</p> +<p>We drove over to the man's house, and got half a pail of water +apiece for the horses. They wanted more, but +there was no more in the well. The man said we could get everything we +wanted at the ranch, and we started on. +The horses were tired, but even Old Blacky was quite amiable, and +trudged along in the sand without complaint.</p> +<p>Jack was still in the wagon, and we heard nothing of him. It was +cloudy and very dark. But the horses kept in +the trail, and after, as it seemed to us, we had gone five miles, we +felt ourselves on firmer ground. Soon we thought +we could make out something, perhaps hay-stacks, through the darkness. +I sent Ollie on the pony to see what it +was. He rode away, and in a moment I heard a great snorting and a +stamping of feet, and Ollie's voice calling for +me to come. I ran over with the lantern, and found that he had ridden +full into a barbed-wire fence around a hay-stack. +The pony stood trembling, with the blood flowing from her breast and +legs, but the scratches did not seem to be +deep.</p> +<p>"We must find that ranch-house," I said to Ollie. "It ought to be +near."</p> +<p>For half an hour we wandered among the wilderness of hay-stacks, +every one protected by barbed wire. At last +we heard a dog barking, followed the sound, and came to the house. The +dog was the only live thing at home, and +the house was locked.</p> +<p>"Well, what we want is water," I said, "and here's the well."</p> +<p>We let down the bucket and brought up two quarts of mud.</p> +<p>"The man was right," said Ollie. "This is worse than the Sarah +Desert."</p> +<p>"Fountains squirt and bands play 'The Old Oaken Bucket' in the Sarah +Desert 'longside o' this," I +answered.</p> +<p>It was eleven o'clock before we found the wagon. We could hear Jack +snoring inside, and were surprised to find +Snoozer on guard outside, wide awake. He seemed to feel his +responsibility, and at first was not inclined to let +us approach.</p> +<p>We unharnessed the horses, and Ollie crawled under the fence around +one of the stacks of hay and pulled out +a big armful for them.</p> +<p>"The poor things shall have all the hay they want, anyhow," he said.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid they'll think it's pretty dry," I returned, "but I don't +see what we can do."</p> +<p>Then I called to Jack, and said: "Come, get up and get us some +supper!"</p> +<p>After a good deal of growling he called back: "I'm not hungry."</p> +<p>"But we are, and you're well enough to make some cakes."</p> +<p>"Won't do it," answered Jack. "You folks can make 'em as well as I +can."</p> +<p>"I can't. Can you?" I said to Ollie. He shook his head.</p> +<p>"You're not very sick or you wouldn't be so cross," I called to Jack: +"Roll out and get supper, +or I'll pull you out!"</p> +<p>"First follow comes in this wagon gets the head knocked off 'm!" +cried Jack. "Besides, there's +no milk! No eggs! No nothing! Go 'way! I'm sick! That's all there is," +and something which looked like a cannon-ball +shot out of the front end of the wagon, followed by a paper bag which +might have been the wadding used in the Cannon. +"That's all! Lemme 'lone!" And we heard Jack tie down the front of the +cover and roll over on the bed +again.</p> +<p>"See what it is," I said to Ollie.</p> +<p>He took the lantern and started. "Guess it's a can of Boston baked +beans," he said. "Oh, then +we're all right," I replied.</p> +<p>He picked it up and studied it carefully by the light of the lantern.</p> +<p>"No," he said, slowly, "it isn't that. G--g, double +o--gooseberries--that's what it is--a can +of gooseberries we got at Valentine."</p> +<p>"And this is a paper bag of sugar," I said, picking it up. "No gout +to-night!"</p> +<p>I cut open the can and poured in the sugar. We stirred it up with a +stick, and Ollie drank a third of it and +I the rest. Then we crawled under the wagon, covered ourselves with the +pony's saddle-blanket, and went to sleep. +But before we did so I said:</p> +<p>"Ollie, at the next town I am going to get you a cook-book, and +we'll be independent of that wretch in +the wagon."</p> +<p>"All right," answered Ollie.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="VIII"></a> +</p> +<h3>VIII: ON THE ANTELOPE FLATS</h3> +<p><br> +The next morning the condition of the tempers of the crew of the +Rattletrap was reversed. Jack was feeling better +and was quite amiable, and inclined to regret his bloodthirsty language +of the night before. But Ollie and I, on +our diet of gooseberries, had not prospered, and woke up as cross as +Old Blacky. The first thing I did was to seize +the empty gooseberry can and hit the side of the wagon a half-dozen +resounding blows.</p> +<p>"Get up there," I cried, "and 'tend to breakfast! No pretending +you're sick this morning."</p> +<p>"All right!" came Jack's voice, cheerfully. "Certainly. No need of +your getting excited, though. +You see, I really wasn't hungry last night, or I'd have got supper."</p> +<p>"But we were hungry!" answered Ollie. "I don't think I was ever much +hungrier in my life; and +then to get nothing but a pint of gooseberries! I could eat my hat this +morning!"</p> +<p>"I'm sorry," said Jack, coming out; "but I can't cook unless I'm +hungry myself. The hunger of +others does not inspire me. I gave you all there was. Your hunger ought +to have inspired you to do something with +those gooseberries."</p> +<p>"I'd like to know what sort of a meal you'd have got up with a can +of gooseberries?"</p> +<p>"Why, my dear young nephew," exclaimed Jack, "if I'd been awakened +to action I'd have fricasseed +those gooseberries, built them up into a gastronomical poem; and made a +meal of them fit for a king. A great cook +like I am is an artist as much as a great poet. He--"</p> +<p>"Oh, bother!" I interrupted; "the gooseberries are gone. There's the +grouse Ollie shot yesterday. +Do something with that for breakfast."</p> +<p>Jack disappeared in the wagon, and began to throw grouse feathers +out the front end with a great flourish. The +poor horses were much dejected, and stood with their heads down. They +had eaten but little of the hay. Water was +what they wanted.</p> +<p>"We must hitch up and go on without waiting for breakfast," I said +to Ollie. "It can't be far +to water now, and they must have some. Jack can be cooking the grouse +in the wagon."</p> +<p>So we were soon under way, keeping a sharp lookout, for any signs of +a house or stream of water. We had gone +five or six miles, and were descending into a little valley, when there +came a loud whinny from Old Blacky. Sure +enough, at the foot of the hill was a stream of water. The pony ran +toward it on a gallop, and as soon as we could +unhitch the others they joined her. They all waded in, and drank till +we feared they would never be able to wade +out again. Then they stood taking little sips, and letting their lips +rest just on the surface and blinking dreamily. +We knew that they stood almost as much in need of food as of water, as +they had had nothing but the hay since the +noon before. There was a field of corn half a mile away, on a +side-hill, but no house in sight.</p> +<p>"I'm going after some of that corn," I said to the others. "If I +can't find the owner to buy +it, then I'll help myself."</p> +<p>I mounted the pony and rode away. There was still no house in sight +at the field, and I filled a sack and returned. +The horses went at their breakfast eagerly. But twice during the meal +they stopped and plunged in the brook and +took other long drinks; and at the end Old Blacky lay down in a shallow +place and rolled, and came out looking +like a drowned rat.</p> +<p>In the meantime Jack had got the grouse ready, and we ate it about +as ravenously as the horses did their corn. +We had just finished, and were talking about going, when a tall man on +a small horse almost covered with saddle +rode up, and began to talk cheerfully on various topics. After a while +he said:<a name="I-25"></a><img src="images/tvotr-25.jpg" + alt="The Careful Corn Owner" align="left" border="0" height="645" + hspace="5" width="472"></p> +<p>"Well, boys, was that good corn?"</p> +<p>We all suspected the truth instantly.</p> +<p>"He did it!" exclaimed Jack, pointing at me. "He did it all alone. +We're going to give him up +to the authorities at the next town."</p> +<p>The man laughed, and said: "Don't do it. He may reform."</p> +<p>There seemed to be but one thing to do, so I said: "It was your +corn, I suppose. Our only excuse is that +we were out of corn. Tell us how much it is, and we'll pay you for it."</p> +<p>"Not a cent," answered the man, firmly. "It's all right. I've +travelled through them Sand Hills +myself, and I know how it is. You're welcome to all you took, and you +can have another sackful if you want to go +after it."</p> +<p>I thanked him, but told him that we expected to get some feed at +Gordon, the next town. After wishing us good-luck, +he rode away.</p> +<p>We started on, and made but a short stop for noon, near Gordon. We +found ourselves in a fairly well-settled +country, though the oldest settlers had been there but two or three +years. The region was called the Antelope Flats, +and was quite level, with occasional ravines. The trail usually ran +near the railroad, and that night we camped +within three or four rods of it. Long trains loaded with cattle +thundered by all night. We were somewhat nervous +lest Old Blacky should put his shoulder against the wagon while we +slept, and push it on the track in revenge for +the poor treatment we gave him in the Sand Hills, but the plan didn't +happen to occur to him. It was at this camp +that we encountered a remarkable echoing well. It was an ordinary open +well, forty or fifty feet deep, near a neighboring +house, but a word spoken above it came back repeated a score of times. +We failed to account for it.</p> +<p>The next forenoon we jogged along much the same as usual and stopped +for noon at Rushville. This was not far +from the Pine Ridge Indian Agency and the place called Wounded Knee, +where the battle with the Sioux was fought +three or four years later. We saw a number of Indians here, and though +they came up to Ollie's idea of what an +Indian should be a little better than the one that rode with us, they +still did not seem to be just the thing.<a name="I-26"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-26.jpg" alt="A Study in Red Men" align="right" + border="0" height="552" hspace="5" width="401"></p> +<p>"I don't think," he said, "that they ought to smoke cigarettes."</p> +<p>"It does look like rather small business for an Indian, doesn't it?" +answered Jack. "But then +smoking cigarettes is small business for anybody. What's your idea of +what an Indian ought to smoke?"</p> +<p>"Well, I'm not sure he ought to smoke anything, except of coarse the +peace-pipe occasionally. And he oughtn't +to smoke that very much, because an Indian shouldn't make peace very +often."</p> +<p>"Right on the war-path all the time, flourishing a scalping-knife +above his head, and whooping his teeth +loose--that's your notion of an Indian."</p> +<p>"Well, I don't know as that is exactly it," returned Ollie, +doubtfully. "But it seems to me these +are hardly right. Their clothes seem to be just like white people's."</p> +<p>"I don't know about that," said Jack. "I saw one when I went around +to the post-office wearing +bright Indian moccasins, a pair of soldier's trousers, a fashionable +black coat, and a cowboy hat. I never saw +a white man dressed just like that."</p> +<p>"Well, I think they ought to wear some feathers, anyhow," insisted +Ollie. "An Indian without +feathers is just like a--a turkey without 'em."</p> +<p>The Indians were idling all over town, big, lazy, villanous-looking +fellows, and very frequently they were smoking +cigarettes, and often they were dressed much as Jack had described, +though their clothes varied a good deal. There +were two points which they all had in common, however--they were all +dirty, and all carried bright, clean repeating-rifles, +We wondered why they needed the rifles, since there was no game in the +neighborhood.</p> +<p>The chief business of Rushville seemed to be shipping bones. We went +over to the railroad to watch the process. +There were great piles of them about the station, and men were loading +them into freight-cars.</p> +<p>"What's done with them?" we asked of a man.</p> +<p>"Shipped East, and ground up for fertilizer," he answered.</p> +<p>"Where do they all come from?"</p> +<p>"Picked up about the country everywhere. Men make a business of +gathering them and bringing them in at +so much a load. Supply won't last many months longer, but it's good +business now."</p> +<p>They were chiefly buffalo bones, though there were also those of the +deer, elk, and antelope. We saw some beautiful +elk antlers, and many broad white skulls of the buffalo, some of them +still with the thick black horns on them. +As we were watching the loading of the bones Ollie suddenly exclaimed:</p> +<p>"Oh, see the pretty little deer!"</p> +<p>We looked around, and saw, in the front yard of a house, a young +antelope, standing by the fence, and also watching +the bone-men as they worked.</p> +<p>"It is a beautiful creature, isn't it?" said Jack. "And how happy +and contented it looks!"</p> +<p>"I guess it's happy because it isn't in the bone-pile," said Ollie.</p> +<p>We went over to it, and found it so tame that it allowed Ollie to +pet it as much as he pleased. The man who +owned it told us that he had found it among the Sand Hills, with one +foot caught in a little bridge on the railroad, +where it had apparently tried to cross. He rescued it just before a +train came along.</p> +<p>We left Rushville after a rather longer stop for noon than we +usually made. Nothing worthy of mention occurred +during the afternoon, and that night we camped on the edge of another +small town, called Hay Springs.</p> +<p>"I don't know," said Jack, "whether or not they really have springs +here that flow with water +and hay, or how it got its funny name. If there are that kind of +springs, I think it's a pity there can't be some +of them in the Sand Hills."</p> +<p>Jack went over town after supper for some postage-stamps, and came +back quite excited.</p> +<p>"Found it at last, Ollie!" he exclaimed. "Grandpa Oldberry was +right."</p> +<p>"What--a varmint?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"A genuine varmint," answered Jack. "A regular painter. It's in a +cage, to be sure, but it may +get out during the night."</p> +<p>We all went over to see it. It was in a big box back of a hotel, and +the man in charge called it a mountain-lion, +and said it was caught up in the Black Hills. "Right where we're +going," whispered Ollie. The animal +was, I presume, really a jaguar, and was a big cat three or four feet +long.</p> +<p>We were off again the next morning, looking forward eagerly to the +camp for the night, which we expected would +be at Chadron, and where our course would change to the north into +Dakota again, this time on the extreme western +edge, and carry us up to the mountains. Most of the day we travelled +through a rougher country, and saw many buttes--steep-sided, +flat-topped mounds; and in the neighborhood of Bordeaux the road wound +among scattering pine-trees. <a name="I-27"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-27.jpg" alt="A Good Salesman" align="left" border="0" + height="520" hspace="5" width="335">We +camped at noon near the house of a settler who seemed to have a dog +farm, as the place was overrun with the animals. +We needed some corn for the horses, and asked him if he had any to +sell. He was a queer looking man, with hair +the color of molasses candy, and skim-milk eyes.</p> +<p>"Waal, now, stranger, I jess reckon I have got some co'n to sell," +he said. "The only trouble +with that there co'n o' mine is that it ain't shucked. If you wouldn't +mind to go out into the field and shuck +it out, we can jess make a deal right here."</p> +<p>We finally gave him fifty cents for all our three sacks would hold, +and he pointed out the field a quarter of +a mile away and went back to the house. We noticed that he very soon +mounted a pony and rode away towards Hay Springs, +but thought nothing of it. When we were ready to start we drove over to +the cornfield to get what we had paid for. +Jack put his head out of the wagon, took a long look, and said:</p> +<p>"That's the sickest-looking cornfield I ever saw!"</p> +<p>We got out, and found a sorry prospect. The corn was poor and +scattering and choked with weeds.</p> +<p>"And the worst of it," called Jack, as he waded out into the weeds, +"is that it has been harvested +about twelve times already. The scoundrel has been selling it to every +man that came along for a month, and I don't +believe there were three sackfuls in the whole field to start with."</p> +<p>We went to work at it, and found that he was not far from right.</p> +<p>"No wonder the old skeesicks went off to town soon as he got his +money," I said. "He won't show +himself back here till he is sure we have gone."</p> +<p>We worked for an hour, and managed to fill one bag with "nubbins," +and gave up, promising ourselves +that we wouldn't be imposed upon in that way again.</p> +<p>We reached Chadron in due time, and went into camp a little way +beyond, on the banks of the White River, a stream +which flows through Dakota and finally joins the Missouri. Our camp was +on a little flat where the river bends +around in the shape of a horseshoe. It seemed to be a popular +stopping-place, and there were half a dozen other +covered wagons in camp there. The number of empty tin cans scattered +about on that piece of ground must have run +up into the thousands. But there had not been a mile of the road since +we left Valentine which had not had from +a dozen to several hundred cans scattered along it, left by former +"movers." We had contributed our share, +including the gooseberry can. From the labels we noticed on the can +windrow along the road it seemed that peaches +and Boston baked beans were the favorite things consumed by the +overland travellers, though there were a great +many green-corn, tomato, and salmon cans.</p> +<p>"You can get every article of food in tin cans now," observed Jack +one day, "except my pancakes. +I'm going to start a pancake cannery. I'll label my cans 'Jack's +Celebrated Rattletrap Pancakes--Warranted Free +from Injurious Substances. Open this end. Soak two weeks before using.'"</p> +<p>It was a pretty camping-place on the little can-covered fiat, and we +sat up late, visiting with our neighbors +and talking about the Black Hills.</p> +<p>"I think," said Jack, as we stumbled over the cans on our way to the +Rattletrap, "that I'll go +into the mining business up there myself. I'll just back the +Blacksmith's Pet up to the side of a mountain, tickle +his heels with a straw, and he'll have a gold-mine kicked out inside of +five minutes."</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="IX"></a> +</p> +<h3>IX: OFF FOR THE BLACK HILLS</h3> +<p><br> +The next day was Sunday, so we did not leave the White River camp till +Monday morning. We found Chadron (pronounced +Shadron) an extremely lively town, in which all of the citizens wore big +hats and immense jingling Mexican spurs. +We had the big hats, but to be in fashion and not to attract attention +we also got jingling spurs.</p> +<p>"I shall wear 'em all night," said Jack, as he strapped his on. +"Only dudes take off their spurs +when they go to bed, and I'm no dude."</p> +<p>Our next objective point was Rapid City. It was a beautiful morning +when we turned to the north. The sand had +disappeared, and the soil was more like asphalt pavement.</p> +<p>"The farmers fire their seed into the ground with six-shooters," +said a man we fell in with on the +road. "Very expensive for powder."</p> +<p>"The soil's what you call gumbo, isn't it?" I said to him.</p> +<p>"Yes. Works better when it's wet. One man can stick a spade into it +then. Takes two to pull it out, though."</p> +<p>It was not long before we passed the Dakota line, marked by a post +and a pile of tin cans. Shortly before noon +Ollie made a discovery.</p> +<p>"What are those little animals?" he cried. "Oh, I +know--prairie-dogs!"</p> +<p>There was a whole town of them right beside the road, with every dog +sitting on top of the mound that marked +his home, and uttering his shrill little bark, and marking each bark by +a peculiar little jerk of his tail.</p> +<p>"How do you know they are prairie-dogs?" asked Jack.</p> +<p>"They had some of them in the park at home," said Ollie. "But last +fall they all went down in +their burrows for the winter, and in the spring they didn't come up. +Folks said they must have frozen to death."</p> +<p>"Nonsense," said Jack. "They got turned around somehow, and in the +spring dug down instead of +digging up. They may come out in China yet if they have good-luck."</p> +<p>"I can hardly swallow that," replied Ollie. "But, anyhow, these seem +to be all right."</p> +<p>There must have been three or four hundred of them, and not for a +moment did one of them stop barking till Snoozer +jumped out of the wagon and charged them, when, with one last bark, +each one of them shot down his hole so quick +that it was almost impossible to see him move.</p> +<p>"Now that's just about the sort of game that Snoozer likes!" +exclaimed Jack. "If they were badgers, +or even woodchucks, you couldn't drive him at them."</p> +<p>"I don't think there is much danger of his getting any of them," +said Ollie.</p> +<p>We called Snoozer back, and soon one of the little animals +cautiously put up his head, saw that the coast was +clear, gave one bark, and all the rest came up, and the concert began +as if nothing had happened.</p> +<p>"I suppose that was the mayor of the town that peeped up first?" +said Ollie. "Yes, or the chief +of police," answered Jack. We camped that night by the bed of a dry +creek, and watered the horses at a settler's +house half a mile away.</p> +<p>"That's the most beautiful place for a stream I ever saw," observed +Jack. "If a man had a creek +and no bed for it to run in, he'd be awfully glad to get that."</p> +<p>The next day was distinctly a prairie-dog day. We passed dozens of +their towns, and were seldom out of hearing +of their peculiar chirp.</p> +<p>"I wonder," said Ollie, "if the bark makes the tail go, or does the +tail set off the bark."</p> +<p>"Oh, neither," returned Jack. "They simply check off the barks with +their tails. There's a National +Prairie-Dog Barking Contest going on, and they are seeing who can yelp +the most in a week. They keep count with +their tails."</p> +<p>At the little town of Oelrichs we saw a number of Indians, since we +were again near the reservation. One little +girl nine or ten years old must have been the daughter of an important +personage, since she was dressed in most +gorgeous clothes, all covered with beads and colored +porcupine-quill-work. <a name="I-28"></a><img src="images/tvotr-28.jpg" + alt="Big Bear Looks Into the Educational Situation" align="left" + border="0" height="469" hspace="5" width="377">And +at last Ollie saw an Indian wearing feathers. Three eagle feathers +stuck straight up in his hair. He was standing +outside of a log house looking in the window. By-and-by a young lady +came to the door of the house, and as we were +nearer than anybody else, she motioned us to come over.</p> +<p>"I wish," she said, "that you'd please go around and ask Big Bear to +go away. He keeps looking +in the window and bothering the scholars."</p> +<p>We stepped around the corner, and Jack said: "See here, neighbor Big +Bear, you're impeding the cause of +education."</p> +<p>The Indian looked at him stolidly, but did not move.</p> +<p>"Teacher says vamoose--heap bother pappooses," said Jack.</p> +<p>The Indian grunted and walked away. "Nothing like understanding the +language," boasted Jack, as we +went back to the wagon.</p> +<p>At noon we camped beside a stream, but thirty feet above it. There +was a clay bank almost as hard as stone rising +perpendicularly from the water's edge. With a pail and rope we drew up +all the water we needed. In the afternoon +we got our first sight of the Black Hills, like clouds low on the +northern horizon. About the same time we struck +into the old Sidney trail, which, before the railroad had reached +nearer points, was used in carrying freight to +the Hills in wagons. In some places it was half a mile wide and +consisted of a score or more of tracks worn into +deep ruts. There was a herd of several thousand Texas cattle crossing +the trail in charge of a dozen men, and we +waited and watched them go by. Ollie had never seen such a display of +horns before.</p> +<p>Shortly after this we came upon the first sage-bush which we had +seen. It was queer gray stuff, shaped like +miniature trees, and had the appearance of being able to get along with +very little rain.</p> +<p>Toward night we found ourselves winding down among the hills to the +Cheyenne River. They were strange-looking +hills, most of them utterly barren on their sides, which were nearly +perpendicular, the hard soil standing almost +as firm as rock. They were ribbed and seamed by the rain--in fact, they +were not hills at all, properly speaking, +but small bluffs left by the washing out of the ravines by the rain and +melting snows. Just as the sun was sinking +among the distant hills we came to the river. It was shallow, only four +or five yards wide, and we easily forded +it and camped on the other side. The full moon was just rising over the +eastern hills. There was not a sound to +be heard except the gentle murmur of the stream and the faint rustle of +the leaves on a few cottonwood-trees. There +was plenty of driftwood all around, and after supper we built up the +largest camp-fire we had ever had. The flame +leaped up above the wagon-top, and drifted away in a column of sparks +and smoke, while the three horses stood in +the background with their heads close together munching their hay, and +the four of us (counting Snoozer) lay on +the ground and blinked at the fire.</p> +<p>"This is what I call the proper thing," remarked Jack, after some +time, as he roiled over on his blanket +and looked at the great round moon.</p> +<p>"Yes," I said, "this will do well enough. But it would be pretty +cool here if it wasn't for that +fire."</p> +<p>"Yes, the nights are getting colder, that's certain. I was just +wondering if that cover will withstand +snow as well as it does rain?"</p> +<p>"Why," said Ollie, "do you think it's going to snow?"</p> +<p>"Not to-night," returned Jack. "But it may before we get out of the +mountains. The snow comes +pretty early up there sometimes. I think I'll get inside and share the +bed with the rancher after this, and you +and Snoozer can curl up in the front end of the wagon-box. It would be +a joke if we got snowed in somewhere, and +had to live in the Rattletrap till spring."</p> +<p>"I wouldn't care if we could keep warm," said Ollie. "I like living +in it better than in any +house I ever saw."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid it would get a little monotonous along in March," +laughed Jack. "Though I think myself +it's a pretty good place to live. Stationary houses begin to seem tame. +I hope the trip won't spoil us all, and +make vagabonds of us for the rest of our lives."</p> +<p>We were reluctant to leave this camp the next morning, but knew that +we must be moving on. It was but a few +miles to the town of Buffalo Gap, and we passed through it before noon.</p> +<p>"There are more varmints," cried Ollie, as we were driving through +the town. They were in a cage in +front of a store, and we stopped to see them.</p> +<p>"What are they?" one of us asked the man who seemed to own them.</p> +<p>"Bob-cats," he answered, promptly.</p> +<p>"Must be a Buffalo Gap name for wild-cats," said Jack, as we drove +on, "because that's what they +are."</p> +<p>Ollie had gone into a store to buy some cans of fruit, and when he +came out he looked much bewildered<a name="I-29"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-29.jpg" alt="A Lesson in Finance" align="left" + border="0" height="584" hspace="5" width="480">.</p> +<p>"I think," he said, "that that man must be crazy, or something. +There were thirty cents coming +to me in change. He tossed out a quarter and said, 'Two bits,' and then +a dime and said, 'Short bit--thank you,' +and closed up the drawer and started off. I didn't want more than was +coming to me, so I handed out a nickle and +said, 'There, that makes it right.' The man looked at it, laughed, and +pushed it back, and said, 'Keep it, sonny; +I haven't got any chickens.' Now, I'd like to know what it all meant."</p> +<p>We both laughed, and when Jack recovered his composure he said:</p> +<p>"It means simply that we're getting out into the mining country, +where no coin less than a dime circulates. +He didn't happen to have three dimes, so the best he could do was to +give you either twenty-five or thirty-five +cents, and he was letting you have the benefit of the situation by +making it thirty-five. A bit is twelve and a +half cents, and a short bit is ten cents. A two-bit piece is a quarter."</p> +<p>"Yes; but what about his not keeping chickens?"</p> +<p>"Oh, that was simply his humorous way of saying that all coins under +a dime are fit only for chicken-feed."</p> +<p>We camped that night beside the trail near a little log store. "What +you want to do," said the man +in charge, "is to take your horses down there behind them trees to park +'em for the night. Good feed down +there."</p> +<p>"'To park,'" said Jack, in a low voice. "New and interesting verb. +He mean's turn 'em out to +grass. We mustn't appear green." Then he said to the man:</p> +<p>"Yes, we reckoned we'd park 'em down there to-night."</p> +<p>The next day was the coldest we had experienced, and we were glad to +walk to keep warm. We were getting among +the smaller of the hills, with their tops covered with the peculiarly +dark pine-trees which give the whole range +its name. We camped at night under a high bank which afforded some +protection from the chilly east wind. Now that +we were all sleeping in the wagon there was no room in it to store the +sacks of horse-feed which we had, and we +knew that if we put them outside Old Blacky would eat them up before +morning.</p> +<p>"There's nothing to do," said Jack, "but to carry them around up on +that bank and hang them down +with ropes. Leave 'em about twelve feet from the bottom and ten feet +from the top, and I don't think the Pet can +get them."</p> +<p>We accordingly did so, and went to bed with the old scoundrel +standing and looking up at the bags wistfully, +though he had just had all that any horse needed for supper. But in the +morning we found that he had clambered +up high enough to get hold of the bottom of one of the sacks and pull +it down and devour fully half of it. He was, +as Jack said, "the worst horse that ever looked through a collar."<a + name="I-30"></a><img src="images/tvotr-30.jpg" + alt="The Rattletrap in the Storm" align="left" border="0" height="548" + hspace="5" width="463"></p> +<p>But the weather in the morning gave us more concern than did the +foraging of the ancient Blacky. It was even +colder than the night before, and the raw east wind was rawer, and with +it all there was a drizzling rain. It was +not a hard rain, but one of the kind that comes down in small clinging +drops and blows in your face in a fine spray. +Jack got breakfast in the wagon, and we ate the hot cakes and +warmed-over grouse with a good relish. Then we loaded +in what was left of the horsefeed, and started.</p> +<p>It was impossible to keep warm even by walking, but we plodded on +and made the best of it. The road was hilly +and stony; but by noon we had got beyond the rain, and for the rest of +the way it was dry even if cold. The hills +among which we were winding grew constantly higher, and the quantity of +pine timber upon their summits greater. +Just as dusk was beginning to creep down we came around one which might +fairly have been called a small mountain, +and saw Rapid City spread out before us, the largest town we had seen +since leaving Yankton. We skirted around +it, and came to camp under another hill and near a big stone quarry a +half-mile west of town. There was a mill-race +just below us, and plenty of water. We fed the horses and had supper. +There was a road not much over a hundred +yards in front of our camp, along which, through the darkness, we could +hear teams and wagons passing.</p> +<p>"I wonder where it goes to?" said Ollie.</p> +<p>"I think it's the great Deadwood trail over which all the supplies +are drawn to the mines by mule or horse +or ox teams," said Jack. "There's no railroad, you know, and everything +has to go by wagon--goods and +supplies in, and a great deal of ore out. Let's go over and see."</p> +<p>The moon was not yet risen and the sky was covered with clouds, so +it was extremely dark. We took along our +lantern, but it did not make much impression on the darkness. When we +reached the road we found that everywhere +we stepped we went over our shoe-tops in the soft dust. We beard a +deep, strange creaking noise, mixed with what +sounded like reports of a pistol, around the bend in the trail. Soon we +could make out what seemed to be a long +herd of cattle winding towards us, with what might have been a circus +tent swaying about behind them.</p> +<p>"What's coming?" we asked of a boy who was going by.</p> +<p>"Old Henderson," he replied.</p> +<p>"What's he got?"</p> +<p>"Just his outfit."</p> +<p>"But what are all the cattle?"</p> +<p>"His team."</p> +<p>"Not one team?"</p> +<p>"Yes; eleven yoke."</p> +<p>"Twenty-two oxen in one team?"</p> +<p>"Yes; and four wagons."</p> +<p>The head yoke of oxen was now opposite to us, swaying about from +side to side and swirling their tails in the +air, but still pressing forward at the rate of perhaps a mile and a +half or two miles an hour. Far back along the +procession we could dimly see a man walking in the dust beside the last +yoke, swinging a long whip which cracked +in the air like a rifle. Behind rolled and swayed the four great +canvas-topped wagons, tied behind one another. +We watched the strange procession go by. There was only one man, +without doubt Henderson, grizzled and seemingly +sixty years old. The wagon wheels were almost as tall as he was, and +the tires were four inches wide. The last +wagon disappeared up the trail in the dust and darkness.</p> +<p>"Well," said Jack, "I think when I start out driving at this time of +night with twenty-two guileless +oxen and four ten-ton wagons that I'll want to get somewhere pretty +badly." Then we went back to the Rattletrap.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="X"></a> +</p> +<h3>X: AMONG THE MOUNTAINS</h3> +<p><br> +After we got back to the Rattletrap we promised ourselves plenty of +Sport the next day watching the freighters +with their long teams and wagon trains. Jack could not recover from his +first glimpse of Henderson.</p> +<p>"Rather a neat little turnout to take a young lady out driving +with," he said, after we had gone to +bed. "Twenty-two oxen and four wagons. Plenty of room. Take along her +father and mother. And the rest of the +family. And her school-mates. And the whole town. Good team to go after +the doctor with if somebody was sick--mile +and a half an hour. That trotting-cow man at Yankton ought to come up +here and show Henderson a little speed. Still, +I dare say Henderson could beat Old Browny on a good day for sleeping, +and when he didn't have Blacky to pall him +along."</p> +<p>But we got small sight of the trail the next day, as the rain we had +left behind came upon us again in greater +force than ever. It began toward morning, and when we looked out, just +as it was becoming light, we found it coming +down in sheets--"cold, wet sheets," as Ollie said, too. The horses +stood huddled together, wet and chilled. +We got on our storm-coats and led them up to a house a sort distance +away, which proved to be Smith's ranch. There +we found large, dry sheds, under which we put them and where they were +very glad to go. Once back in the cabin +of the Rattletrap, we scarcely ventured out again.</p> +<p>It certainly wasn't a very cheerful day. We would not have minded +the rain much, because we were dry enough; +but the cold was disagreeable, and we were obliged to wear our +overcoats all day. We could watch the road from +the front of the wagon, and saw a number of freighters go by, usually +with empty wagons, as it soon became too +muddy for those with loads. We saw one fourteen-ox team with four +wagons, and another man with twelve oxen and +three wagons. There were also a number of mule teams, and we noticed +one of twelve mules and five wagons, and several +of ten mules and three or four wagons. With these the driver always +rode the nigh wheel animal--that is, the left-hand +rear one.</p> +<p>"I'm going to put a saddle on Old Blacky and ride him after this," +said Jack. "Bound to be in +the fashion. Wonder how Henderson is getting along in the mud? A mile +in two hours, I suppose. Must be impossible +for him to see the head oxen through this rain."</p> +<p>The downpour never stopped all day. We tried letter-writing, but it +was too cold to hold the pen; and Jack's +efforts at playing the banjo proved equally unsuccessful. We fell back +on reading, but even this did not seem to +be very satisfactory. So we finally settled down to watching the rain +and listening to the wind.</p> +<p>When evening came we shut down the front of the cover and tried to +warm up the cabin a little by leaving the +oil-stove burning, but it didn't seem to make much difference. So we +soon went to bed, rather damp, somewhat cold, +and a little dispirited. I think we all stayed awake for a long time +listening to the beating of the rain on the +cover, and wondering about the weather of the morrow.</p> +<p>When we awoke in the morning it did not take long to find out about +the weather. The rain had ceased and the +sky was clear, but it was colder. Outside we found ice on the little +pools of water in the footprints of the horses. +We were stiff and cold. Some of us may have thought of the comforts of +home, but none of us said anything about +them.</p> +<p>"This is what I like," said Jack. "Don't feel I'm living unless I +find my shoes frozen in the +morning. Like to break the ice when I go to wash my face and hands, and +to have my hair freeze before I can comb +it."</p> +<p>But we observed that he kept as close to the camp-fire which we +started as any of us. We went up to Smith's +to look after the horses. While Jack and I were at the sheds Ollie +stayed in the road watching the freight teams. +<a name="I-31"></a><img src="images/tvotr-31.jpg" + alt="Effect of a Dog on a Mexican" align="left" border="0" height="501" + hspace="5" width="481">A big swarthy man, over six feet in height, +came along, and after looking over the fence +at Smith's house some time, said to Ollie:</p> +<p>"Do you s'pose Smith's at home?"</p> +<p>"Oh, I guess so," answered Ollie.</p> +<p>"I'd like to see him," went on the man, with an uneasy air.</p> +<p>"Probably you'll find him eating breakfast," said Ollie.</p> +<p>"I don't like to go in," said the man.</p> +<p>"Why not?"</p> +<p>"I'm--I'm afraid of the dog."</p> +<p>"Oh!" replied Ollie. "Well, I'm not. Come on," and he stalked ahead +very bravely, while +the man followed cautiously behind.</p> +<p>"He's a Mexican," said Smith in explanation afterwards. "All +Mexicans are afraid of dogs."</p> +<p>"That's a pretty broad statement," said Jack, after Smith had gone. +"I believe, if there was +a good reward offered, that I could find a Mexican who isn't afraid of +dogs. Though perhaps it's the hair they're +afraid of; Mexican dogs don't have any, you know."</p> +<p>"Don't any of them have hair?" asked Ollie.</p> +<p>"Not a hair," answered his truthful uncle. "I don't suppose a +Mexican dog would know a hair if +he saw it."</p> +<p>"I think that's a bigger story than Smith's," said Ollie.</p> +<p>It was Sunday, and we spent most of the day in the wagon, though we +took a long walk up the valley in the afternoon. +The first thing Ollie said the next morning was, "When are we going to +see the buffaloes?"</p> +<p>Smith had been telling us about them the evening before. They were +down-town, and belonged to a Dr. McGillicuddie. +They had been brought in recently from the Rosebud Indian Agency, and +had been captured some time before in the +Bad Lands.</p> +<p>We followed the trail, now as deep with mud as it had been with +dust, meeting many freighters on the way, and +found the buffaloes near the Deadwood stage barn.</p> +<p>"See!" exclaimed Ollie; "there they are, in the yard."</p> +<p>"Don't say 'yard,'" returned Jack; "say 'corral,' with a good, +strong accent on the last syllable. +A yard is a corral, and a farm a ranch, and a revolver a +six-shooter--and a lot more. Don't be green, Oliver."</p> +<p>"Oh, bother!" replied Ollie. "There's ten of 'em. See the big +fellow!"</p> +<p>"They're nice ones, that's so," answered Jack. "I'd like to see the +Yankton man we heard about +try to milk that cow over in the corner."</p> +<p>After we had seen the buffaloes we wandered about town and jingled +our spurs, which were quite in the fashion. +<a name="I-32"></a><img src="images/tvotr-32.jpg" + alt="Post-Mortem on a Grizzly" align="left" border="0" height="534" + hspace="5" width="485">We encountered a big crowd in front of one of +the markets, and found that a hunter had just +come in from the mountains to the west with the carcass of the biggest +bear ever brought into Rapid City. Some +said it was a grizzly, and others a silvertip, and one man tried to +settle the difficulty by saying that there +wasn't any difference between them. But it was certainly a big bear, +and filled the whole wagon-box. Ollie sidled +through the crowd and asked so many questions of the man, who was named +Reynolds, that he good-naturedly gave Ollie +one of the largest of the claws. It was five inches long.</p> +<p>At noon we went down to the camp of the freighters on the outskirts +of town, near Rapid Creek. There must have +been fifty "outfits"--Jack said that was the right word--and several +hundred mules, as many oxen, and +a few horses. The animals were, most of them, wandering about wherever +they pleased, the mules and horses taking +their dinner out of nosebags, and the mules keeping up a gentle +exercise by kicking at one another. It seemed a +hopeless confusion, but the men were sitting about on the ground, +calmly cooking their dinners over little camp-fires. +One man, whom we had got acquainted with in the morning at Smith's, +asked us to have dinner with him, and made +the invitation so pressing that we accepted. He had several gallon's of +coffee and plenty of bacon and canned fruit, +and a peculiar kind of bread which he had baked himself.<a name="I-33"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-33.jpg" alt="'Gene Starts a Cook-Book" align="right" + border="0" height="421" hspace="5" width="323"></p> +<p>"I'm a-thinking," he said, "there ain't enough sal'ratus in that +there bread; but I'm a poor +cook, anyhow."</p> +<p>The bread seemed to us to be already composed chiefly of saleratus, +so his apology struck us as unnecessary. +He very kindly wrote out the receipt on a shingle for Jack, but I stole +it away from him after we got home and +burned it in the camp-fire; so we escaped that.</p> +<p>"Your pancakes are bad enough," I said to him. "We don't care to try +your saleratus bread."</p> +<p>Jack was a good deal worked up about the loss of his receipt, and +experimented a long time to produce something +like the freighter's bread without it; but as Snoozer wouldn't try the +stuff he made, and he was afraid to do so +himself, nothing came of it.</p> +<p>We enjoyed our dinner with the man, however, and Jack added further +to his vocabulary in finding that the drivers +of the ox teams were called "bullwhackers," and those of the mules and +horses "muleskinners."</p> +<p>In the afternoon we climbed the hill above our camp. It gave us a +long view off to the east across the level +country, while away to the west were the mountain-peaks rising higher +and higher. It was still cold, and the raw +northeast wind moaned through the pines in a way that made us think of +winter.</p> +<p>We went to bed early that night, so as to get a good start for +Deadwood the next day. We brought the horses +down from the ranch in the evening, blanketed them, and stood them out +of the wind among some trees.</p> +<p>"Four o'clock must see us rolling out of our comfortable beds and +getting ready to start," said Jack, +as we turned in. "We must play we are freighters."</p> +<p>Jack planned better than he knew; we really "rolled out" in an +exceedingly lively manner at three +o'clock. We were sleeping soundly at that hour, when we were awakened +by the motion of the wagon. Jack and I sat +up. It was swaying from side to side, and we could hear the wheels +bumping on the stones. The back end was considerably +lower than the front.</p> +<p>"It's running down the bank!" I cried, and we both plunged through +the darkness for the brake-handle. +We fell over Ollie and Snoozer, and were instantly hopelessly tangled. +It seemed an age, with the wagon swaying +more and more, before we found the handle. Jack pushed it up hard, we +heard the brake grind on the wheels outside; +then there was a great bump and splash, and the wagon tilted half over +and stopped. We found Ourselves lying on +the side of the cover, with cold water rising about us. We were not +long in getting out, and discovered that the +Rattletrap was capsized in the mill-race.</p> +<p>"Old Blacky did it!" cried Jack, as he danced around and shook his +wet clothes. "I know he did. +The old sinner!"</p> +<p>We got out the lantern and lit it. Only the hind end of the wagon +was really in the race; one front wheel still +clung to the bank, and the other was up in the air. Ollie got in and +began to pass things out to Jack, while I +went up the hill after the horses. Jack was right. Old Blacky was +evidently the author of our misfortune. He had +broken loose in some manner, and probably begun his favorite operation +of making his toilet on the corner of the +wagon by rubbing against it. The brake had carelessly been left off, he +had pushed the wagon back a few feet, and +it had gone over the bank. I soon had the harness on the horses, and +got them down the hill. We hitched them to +the hind wheel with a long rope, Jack wading in the water to his waist, +and pulled the wagon upright. Then we attached +them to the end of the tongue, and after hard work drew it out of the +race. By this time we were chilled through +and through. Our beds and nearly everything we had were soaking with +water.</p> +<p>"How do you like it, Uncle Jack?" inquired Ollie. "Do you feel that +you are living now?"</p> +<p>Jack's teeth were chattering. "Y--yes," he said; "but I won't be if +we don't get a fire started +pretty quick."</p> +<p>There were some timbers from an old bridge near by, and we soon had +a good fire, around which we tramped in +a procession till our clothes were fairly dry. The wind was chilly, and +it was a dark, cloudy morning. The unfortunate +Snoozer had gone down with the rest of us, and was the picture of +despair, till Ollie rubbed him with a dry corner +of a blanket, and gave him a good place beside the fire.</p> +<p>By the time two or three hours had elapsed we began to feel +partially dry, and decided to start on, relying +on exercise to keep ourselves warm. We had had breakfast in the +meantime, and, on the whole, were feeling rather +cheerful again. We opened the cover and spread out the bedding, inside +and outside, and hung some of it on a long +pole which we stuck into the wagon from the rear. Altogether we +presented a rather funny appearance as we started +out along the trail, but no one paid much attention to us. The +freighters were already astir, and we were constantly +passing or meeting their long trains. Among others we passed Eugene +Brooks, the man with whom we had taken dinner. +We told him of our mishap, and he laughed and said:</p> +<p>"That's nothing in this country. Something's always happening here +which would kill folks anywhere else. +You stay here awhile and you'll be as tough as your old black horse."</p> +<p>Brooks had an outfit of five spans of mules and two wagons. We +stayed with him a half-hour, and then went on. +As we could not reach Deadwood that day, he advised us to camp that +night where the trail crossed Thunder Butte +Creek, a branch of La Belle Fourche.</p> +<p>The trail led for the most part through valleys or along the sides +of hills, and was generally not far from +level, though there was, of course, a constant though hardly +perceptible rise as we got farther into the mountains. +We camped at noon at Elk Creek, and made further progress at drying our +household effects. We pressed on during +the afternoon, and passed through the town of Sturgis, where we laid in +some stores of provisions to take the place +of those spoiled by the water, and also a quantity of horse-feed. Later +we congratulated ourselves on our good-luck +in doing this.</p> +<p>As the afternoon wore away we found ourselves getting up above the +timber-line. The mountains began to shut +in our view in all directions, and the valleys were narrowing. As night +drew nearer, Jack said:</p> +<p>"Seems to me it's about time we got to this Thunder Butte Creek. +'Gene said that if we passed Sturgis we'd +have to go on to that if we wanted water."</p> +<p>We soon met a man, and inquired of him the distance to the desired +stream. "Two miles," he replied, +promptly. We went on as much as a mile and met another man, to whom we +put the same question. "Three miles," +he answered, with great decision.</p> +<p>"That creek seems to be retreating," said Jack, after the man had +gone on. "We've got to hurry +and catch it, or it will run clean into Deadwood and crawl down a gold +mine."</p> +<p>It was growing dark. We forged ahead for another mile, and by this +time it was quite as dark as it was going +to be, with a cloudy sky, and mountains and pines shutting out half of +that. I was walking ahead With the lantern, +and came to a place where the trail divided.</p> +<p>"The road forks here," I called. "Which do you suppose is right?"</p> +<p>"Which seems to be the most travelled?" asked Jack.</p> +<p>"Can't see any difference," I replied. "We'll have to leave it to +the instinct of the horses."</p> +<p>"Yes, I'd like to put myself in the grasp of Old Blacky's instinct. +The old scoundrel would go wrong if +he knew which was right."</p> +<p>"Well," I returned, "come on and see which way he turns, and then go +the other way." (Jack +always declared that the old fellow understood what I said.)</p> +<p>He drove up to the forks, and Blacky turned to the right. Jack drew +over to the left, and we went up that road. +We continued to go up it for fully three miles, though we soon became +convinced that it was wrong. It constantly +grew narrower and apparently less travelled. We were soon winding along +a mountain-side among the pines, and around +and above and below great rocks.</p> +<p>"We'll go till we find a decent place to camp, and then stop for the +night," said Jack. We finally +came to a little level bench covered with giant pines, and we could +hear water beyond. I went on with the lantern, +and found a small stream leaping down a gulch.</p> +<p>"This is the place to stop," I said, and we soon had our camp +established, and a good fire roaring +up into the tree-tops. Ollie found plenty of dry pine wood, and we +blanketed the horses and stood them under a +protecting ledge. It was cold, and the wind roared down the gulch and +moaned in the pines, but we scarcely felt +it below. We finished drying our bedding and had a good supper. Jack +got out his banjo and tried to compete with +the brook and the pines. We went to bed feeling that we were glad we +had missed the road, since it had brought +so delightful a camping-place.</p> +<p>Ollie was the first to wake in the morning. It was quite light.</p> +<p>"What makes the cover sag down so?" he asked. Jack opened his eyes, +reached up with the whipstock +and raised it. Something slid off the outside with a rush.</p> +<p>"Open the front and you'll see," answered Jack.</p> +<p>Ollie did so, and we all looked out. The ground was deep with snow, +and it was still falling in great feathery +flakes. Old Blacky was loose, and looked in at us with a wicked gleam +in his eyes.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="XI"></a> +</p> +<h3>XI: DEADWOOD</h3> +<p><br> +"You're a miserable, sneaking, treacherous old equine scoundrel!" cried +Jack, shaking his fist violently +at Old Blacky. "You knew you were making us come the wrong road."</p> +<p>Old Blacky answered never a word, but turned, hit the wagon-tongue a +kick, and joined the other horses.</p> +<p>"Well, close down the front and let's talk this thing over," said +Jack. "In the first place, +we are snowed in."</p> +<p>"In the second place," said I, "we may stay snowed in a week."</p> +<p>"I don't think we're prepared for that," said Ollie, very solemnly.</p> +<p>"Let's see," went on Jack. "There are two sacks of ground feed under +Ollie's bed. By putting +the horses on rather short rations that ought to last pretty nearly or +quite a week. But for hay we're not so well +provided. There's one big bundle under the wagon, if Blacky hasn't +eaten it up. The pony won't need any, because +she knows how to paw down to the dry grass. The others don't know how +to do this, and the hay will last them, after +a fashion, for about three days."</p> +<p>"Perhaps by that time the pony will have taught them how to paw," I +said.</p> +<p>"Wouldn't be surprised," returned Jack. "Perhaps by that time we'll +all be glad to learn from +her. We've got flour enough to last a fortnight, so we needn't be +afraid of running out of water-pancakes at least. +You don't grow fat on 'em, but, on the other hand, there is no gout +lurking in a water-pancake as I make it."</p> +<p>"No, Jack, that's so," I said, feelingly. "We've got enough bacon for +several meals, a can of +chicken, and two earls of beans. Also a loaf of bread and a pound of +crackers. Then there's three cans of fruit, +a dozen potatoes, six eggs, a quart of milk, and half a pound of +pressed figs. After that we'll paw with the pony."</p> +<p>"I wonder if we couldn't get some game?" inquired Ollie.</p> +<p>"Snow-birds, maybe," said Jack. "Or perhaps an owl. I've heard +b'iled owl spoken of."</p> +<p>After all, the prospect was not so bad. Besides, it was so early in +the season that it did not seem at all likely +that we should be snowbound a week. Still, we knew little about the +mountain climate.</p> +<p>We got on our overcoats and went out and gave the horses their +breakfast. Old Blacky was still cross, but Jack +contented himself by calling him a few names. We also got up what wood +we could and piled it against the wagon, +for use in case our kerosene became exhausted, though we decided to +cook in the wagon for the present. The snow +was seven or eight inches deep, and still falling rapidly. After +breakfast we took the pony down to a little open +fiat and turned her loose. The old instinct of her wild days came back +to her, and she began to paw away the snow +and gnaw at the scanty grass beneath.</p> +<p>After giving the other horses a little hay we returned to the wagon, +where we stayed most of the day. I'm afraid +we were a little frightened by the prospect. Of course, we knew that if +it came to the worst we could leave the +wagon and make our way back along the trail on foot, but we did not +want to do that. But as for getting the wagon +back along the narrow road, now blotted out by the snow, we knew it +would be foolish to attempt it. It was not +very cold in the wagon, and Jack played the banjo, and we were fairly +cheerful. The snow kept coming down all day, +and by night it was a foot deep. The pony came in from the flat as it +began to grow dark, and we gave the horses +their supper and left them in the shelter of the rocks. Then we brushed +the snow off the top of the cover, as we +had done several times before, and went in to spend the evening by the +light of the lantern. When bedtime came, +Jack looked up and said:</p> +<p>"The cover doesn't seem to sag down. It must have stopped snowing."</p> +<p>We looked out, and found that it was so. We could even see the +stars; and, better yet, it did not seem to be +growing colder. We went to bed feeling encouraged.</p> +<p>The next morning the sun peeped in at us through the long trunks of +the pines, and Ollie soon discovered that +the wind was from the south.</p> +<p>"Unless it turns cold again, this will fix the snow," said Jack.</p> +<p>He was right, and it soon began to thaw. By noon the little stream +in the gulch was a torrent, and before night +patches of bare ground began to appear. We decided not to attempt to +leave camp that day, but the next morning +saw us headed back along the tortuous road. In two hours we were again +on the main trail. Just as we turned in, +Eugene Brooks came along, having also been delayed by the snow, though +the fall where he was had not been nearly +so great. 'Gene laughed at us, and told us that we had been following a +trail to some lead mines which had been +abandoned several months before.</p> +<p>Half a mile farther on we came to the Thunder Butte Creek which we +had sought. The water was almost blood-red, +which 'Gene told us came from the gold stamp-mills on its upper course. +If the water had been gray it would have +indicated silver-mining. <a name="I-34"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-34.jpg" alt="Lack of Confidence in Mankind" + align="left" border="0" height="574" hspace="5" width="464">Just +beyond we met the Deadwood Treasure Coach. It was +an ordinary four-horse stage, without passengers, but carrying two +guards, each with a very short double-barrelled +shot-gun resting across his lap. The stage was operated by the express +company, and was bringing out the gold bricks +from the mines near Deadwood.</p> +<p>"I suppose," said Ollie, musingly, "if anybody tried to rob the +coach, those fellows would shoot +with their guns?"</p> +<p>"Oh no," replied Jack. "Oh no; they carry those guns to fan +themselves with on hot days." +But Ollie did not seem to be misled by this astonishing information.</p> +<p>As we went on the road grew constantly more mountainous. Sometimes +the trail ran along ledges, and sometimes +near roaring streams and waterfalls, and the great pine-trees were +everywhere. We passed two grizzly old placer-miners +working just off the trail, and stopped and watched them "pan out" a +few shovelfuls of dirt. They were +rewarded by two or three specks of gold, and seemed satisfied. 'Gene +told us afterward that one of them was an +old California '49er, who had used the same pan in every State and +Territory of the West.</p> +<p>It was a little after noon when we drove into Deadwood--the last +point outward bound at which the Rattletrap +expected to touch. It was a larger town than Rapid City, and was wedged +in a little gulch between two mountains, +with the White Wood Creek rushing along and threatening to wash away +the main street. We noticed that the only +way of reaching many of the houses on the mountain-side was by climbing +long flights of stairs. We drove on, and +camped near a mill on the upper edge of town.</p> +<p>In the afternoon we wandered about town, and, among other places, +visited the many Chinese stores. We also clambered +up the mountain-sides to the two cemeteries, which we could see far +above the town. It seemed to us that on rather +too many of the head-stones, (which were in nearly every case boards, +by-the-way) it was stated that the person +whose grave it marked was "assassinated by" so-and so, giving the name +of the assassin; but these were +of the old days, when no doubt there were a good many folks in Deadwood +who left the town just as well off after +they had been assassinated. "Killed by Indians" was also the record on +some of the boards. Ollie was +greatly interested in the Chinese graves, with dishes of rice and +chicken on them, and colored papers covered with +curious characters--prayers, I suppose. We climbed on up to the White +Rocks, almost at the top of the highest peak +overlooking Deadwood, and had a good view of the town and gulch below, +and of the great Bear Butte standing out +alone and bold miles to the east. We were tired, and glad to go to bed +as soon as we got back to the wagon.</p> +<p>The next day we decided to visit Lead City (pronounced not like the +metal, but like the verb to lead). Here +were most of the big gold mines, including the great Homestake Mine. It +was only two or three miles, and we drove +over early. It was a strange town, perched on the side of a mountain, +and consisted of small openings in the ground, +which were the mines, and immense shed-like buildings, which contained +the ore-reducing works. The noise of the +stamp-mills filled the whole town, and seemed to drown out and cover up +everything else. We soon found that there +was no hope of our getting into the mines.</p> +<p>"They'd think you were spies for the other mines, or something of +that sort," said a man to us. "Nobody +can get down. Nobody knows where they are digging, and they don't mean +that anybody shall. They may be digging +under their own property exclusively, and they may not. For all I know, +they may be taking gold that belongs to +me a thousand feet, more or less, under my back yard."</p> +<p>"If I had a back yard here," said Jack, after we had passed on, "I'd +put my ear to the ground +once in a while and listen, and if I heard anybody burrowing under it +I'd--well--I'd yell scat at 'em."</p> +<p>We found no difficulty in getting in the stamp-mills, and a man +kindly told us much about them.</p> +<p>"The Homestake Mills make up the largest gold-reducing plant in the +world," said the man. "Where +do you suppose the largest single stamp-mill in the world is?" We +guessed California.</p> +<p>"No," he said; "it's in Alaska--the Treadwell Mill."</p> +<p>We decided that the stamp-mills were the noisiest place we were ever +in. There were hundreds of great steel +bars, three or four inches in diameter and a dozen feet long, pounding +up and down at the same time on the ore +and reducing it to powder. It was mixed with water, and ran away as +thin red mud, the gold being caught by quicksilver. +The openings of the shafts and tunnels were in or near the mills, and +there were the smallest cars and locomotives +which we had ever seen going about everywhere on narrow tracks, +carrying the ore. Ollie walked up to one of the +locomotives and looked down at it, and said:</p> +<p>"Why, it seems just like a Shetland-pony colt. I believe I could +almost lift it."</p> +<p>The engineer sat on a little seat on the back end, and seemed bigger +than his engine. As we looked at them we +constantly expected to see them tip up in front from the weight of the +engineer. There was also a larger railroad, +though still a narrow gauge, winding away for twenty miles along the +tops of the hills, which was used principally +for bringing wood for the engines and timbers for propping up the mines.<a + name="I-35"></a><img src="images/tvotr-35.jpg" alt="Flying Cord-Wood" + align="left" border="0" height="536" hspace="5" width="465"></p> +<p>We were walking along a connecting shed, and happened to look out a +window, when we saw a four-foot stick of +cord-wood shoot up fifty feet from some place behind us, and after +sailing over a wide curve, like a "fly-ball," +alight on a great pile of similar sticks on the lower ground, which was +much higher than an ordinary house, and +must have contained thousands of cords.</p> +<p>"Good gracious!" exclaimed Jack. "Wish I could throw a stick of wood +like that fellow."</p> +<p>Another and another shot after the first one in quick succession. +Sometimes there were two almost together, +and we noticed the bigger and heavier the stick the higher and farther +it was shot. We saw some almost a foot in +diameter soaring like straws before the wind.</p> +<p>"What a baseball pitcher that man would make!" went on Jack, +enthusiastically. "Think of his +arm! Look at that big one go--it must weigh two hundred pounds!"</p> +<p>"Let's get out of this shed and investigate the mystery," I said.</p> +<p>Outside it was all clear. The narrow-gauge wood railroad ended on +the edge of the steep hill overlooking the +mills. Down this was a long wooden chute, or flume, like a big trough, +which for the last thirty or forty feet +at its lower end curved upward. Men were unloading wood from a train at +the upper end. Each stick shot down the +flume like lightning, up the short incline at the end, and soared away +like a bird to the pile beyond and below +the shed. A little stream of water trickled constantly down the chute +to keep the friction of the logs from setting +it on fire.</p> +<p>"That's the most interesting thing here," said Jack. "I'd like to +send the Blacksmith's Pet down +the thing and see what he would do. I'll wager he'd kick the wood-pile +all over the town after he alighted."</p> +<p>We spent nearly the whole day in wandering about the stamp-mills. +The great steam engines which operated them +were some of the largest we had ever seen.</p> +<p>"And think," observed Jack, "of the fact that all of this heavy +machinery, including the big +engines and the locomotives and cars, and, in fact, everything, was +brought overland on wagons, probably most of +it nearly three hundred miles. No wonder people got to driving such +teams as Henderson's."</p> +<p>Toward night we returned to Deadwood by the way of Central City. +Here were more great mines and mills, but they +did not Seem to be so prosperous, and part of the town was deserted, +and consisted of nothing but empty houses. +Just as the sun set we drove in through the Golden Gate, and east +anchor at our old camp near the mill.</p> +<p>The next morning was wintry again, with snowflakes floating in the +air. The ground was frozen, and the wind +seemed to come through the wagon-cover with rather more freedom than we +enjoyed.</p> +<p>"It's time we began the return voyage," said Jack. "We're a long way +from home, and we won't +get there any too soon if we go as fast as we can and take the shortest +out." So we started that afternoon.</p> +<p>The shortest cut was to return to Rapid City, and then, instead of +going south into Nebraska, to go straight +east, through the Sioux Indian Reservation, crossing the Missouri at +Pierre, and then on across the settled country +of eastern Dakota to Prairie Flower, over against the Minnesota line.</p> +<p>We followed the same road between Deadwood and Rapid City, with the +exception that we turned out in one place, +and went around by Fort Meade. Here we found a beautiful camping-place +the first night near a little stream and +great overhanging rocks, and not far from Bear Butte. We reached Rapid +late the next night, which was Saturday, +and stopped at the old camp near the mill-race. Here we stayed over +Sunday, but Monday noon saw us under sail again. +As we went through the town we stopped at the freighter's camp, and +told 'Gene Brooks good-bye, and then drove +away across the wide rolling plain to the east.</p> +<p>'Gene had warned us that we had a lonesome road before us to Pierre, +one hundred and seventy miles, nearly all +of it across the reservation.</p> +<p>"You'll follow the old freight trail all the way," he said, "but you +may not see three teams +the whole distance, because since the railroad got nearer it isn't +used. You'll find an old stage station about +every fifteen or seventeen miles, with probably one man in charge. You +may see a horse-thief or two, or something +of that sort. S'ciety ain't what it ought to be 'round a reservation +gen'rally."<a name="I-36"></a><img src="images/tvotr-36.jpg" + alt="The Deserted Ranch" align="left" border="0" height="428" + hspace="5" width="480"></p> +<p>Just before the sun sank behind the mountains, which lay like low +black clouds to the west, we came to a little +ranch standing alone on the prairie. The door was open, and it seemed +to be deserted, though there was a rude bed +inside. There was a good well of water, and we decided to camp near it +for the night, especially as the grass was +good. There was no other house in sight. Bedtime arrived, and no one +came to the ranch.</p> +<p>"I think I'll just sleep in that house tonight," said Jack, "and see +how it seems. I'll leave +the door open, so as not to have too much luxury at first."</p> +<p>So he went to bed in the shanty, taking Snoozer along, and leaving +the wagon to Ollie and me.</p> +<p>We must have been asleep three or four hours when I was awakened by +the loud barking of a dog. I started up +and began unfastening the front end of the cover. Just then I heard the +pony snort in terror; and then followed +a shot from a gun and the sound of horses galloping away. As I put my +head out, Jack called, excitedly:</p> +<p>"Some men were trying to get the pony. They'd have done it, too, if +Snoozer hadn't barked and scared them +away."</p> +<p>I was out of the wagon by this time, and found the pony trembling at +the end of her picket-line as near the +wagon as she could get. Snoozer kept barking as if he couldn't stop.</p> +<p>"Did they shoot at you, Jack?" I asked.</p> +<p>"No, I guess not. I think they just blazed away for fun. They went +off toward the Reservation. Some of +Gene's poor s'ciety, I suppose."</p> +<p>It took half an hour to get the frightened pony and indignant dog +quieted; and perhaps it was longer than that +before we again got to sleep.</p> +<p><a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table +of contents</i></p> +<p><br> +<a name="XII"></a> +</p> +<h3>XII: HOMEWARD BOUND</h3> +<p><br> +"Snoozer shall have a pancake medal."</p> +<p>This was the first thing Ollie and I heard in the morning, and it +was Jack's voice addressing the hero of the +night before. We speedily rolled out, and agreed with Jack that Snoozer +must be suitably rewarded, he seemed fully +to understand the importance of his action in barking at the right +moment, and for the first morning on the whole +trip he was up and about, waving his bushy tail with great industry, +and occasionally uttering a detached bark, +just to remind us of how he had done it. He walked around the pony +several times, and looked at her with a haughty +air, as much as to say, "Where would you be now if it hadn't been for +me?"</p> +<p>"He shall have a pancake," continued Jack--"the biggest and best +pancake which the skilful hand +of this cook can concoct."</p> +<p>Jack proceeded to carry out his promise, and when breakfast was +ready presented a griddlecake, all flowing with +melted butter, to the dog, which was as big as could be made in the +frying-pan.</p> +<p>"I always knew," said Jack, "that Snoozer would do something some +day. He's lazy, but he's got +brains. He would never bark at the moon, because he knows the moon +isn't doing anything wrong, but when it comes +to horse-thieves it's different."</p> +<p>Snoozer munched his pancake, occasionally stopping to give a grand +swing to his tail and let off a little yelp +of pure joy.</p> +<p>As we were getting ready for a start, and speculating on the +prospect for water, a man came along, riding a +mule, and we asked him about it<.<a name="I-37"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-37.jpg" alt="Old "Blenty Vaters"" align="left" + border="0" height="576" width="487"></p> +<p>"Yah, blenty vaters," said the man. "Doan need to dake no vaters +along.'</p> +<p>"Any houses on the road?" asked Jack.</p> +<p>"Blenty houses," answered the stranger "houses, vaters, efferydings."</p> +<p>We thanked him and started. Notwithstanding this assurance, I had +intended to fill a jug with water, but forgot +it, and we went off without a drop. We were going down what was called +the Ridge Road, along the divide between +Elk and Elder creeks, and hoped to reach the crossing of the Cheyenne +at Smithville Post-office that evening, and +get on the Reservation the next morning. In half an hour we passed some +trees which marked the site of the Washday +Springs, but there was no house there, nor had we seen one at eleven +o'clock. We met an Indian on foot, and Jack +said to him:</p> +<p>"Where can we get some water?"</p> +<p>The Indian shook his head. "Cheyenne River," he replied.</p> +<p>"Isn't there any this side?"</p> +<p>"No," with another jerk of the head. Then he stalked on.</p> +<p>"Yes, and the Indian's right, I'll warrant," exclaimed Jack. +"'Blenty raters,' indeed! Why, that +Dutchman doesn't know enough to ache when he's hurt."</p> +<p>"Well, we're in for it," said I. "We can't go back. Maybe it'll +rain," though there was +not a cloud in sight, and there was more danger of an earthquake than +of a shower.</p> +<p>So we went on, ,'rod a little after dark wound down among the black +baked bluffs to the crossing, without any +of us having had a drop to drink since before sunrise. After we had +"lowered the river six inches," as +Jack declared, we went into camp.</p> +<p>We were up early in the morning, and Jack went down the river with +his gun and got a brace of grouse. There +was one house near the crossing, which was the post-office. The man who +lived there told us it was a hundred and +twenty-five miles across the Reservation to Pierre, and twenty miles to +Peno Hill, the first station at which we +should find any one. The ford was deep, the water coming up to the +wagon-box, and there was ice along the edges +of the river. It was a fine clear day, however, and the cold did not +trouble us much. We wound up among the bluffs +on the other side of the river, and at the top had our last sight of +the Black Hills. We went on across the rolling +prairie, black as ink, as .the grass had all been burned off, and +reached Peno Hill at a little after noon. There +was a rough board building, one end of it a house and the other a barn. +All of the stage stations were built after +this plan. We camped here for dinner, and pressed on to reach Grizzly +Shaw's for the night. About the middle of +the afternoon we passed Bad River Station, kept by one Mexican Ed.</p> +<p>"I'm going to watch and see if he runs when he sees Snoozer," said +Ollie. Snoozer had insisted on +walking most of the time since his adventure with the horse-thieves; +but, greatly to Ollie's disappointment, Mexican +Ed showed no signs of fear even when Snoozer went so far as to growl at +him.</p> +<p>As it grew dark we passed among the Grindstone Buttes--several small +hills. A prairie fire was burning among +them, and lit up the road for us. We came to Shaw's at last, and went +into camp. We visited the house before we +went to bed, and found that Shaw was grizzly enough to justify his +name, and that he had a family consisting of +a wife and daughter and two grandchildren.</p> +<p>"Pierre is our post-office," said Shaw, "eighty-five miles away."</p> +<p>"The postman doesn't bring out your letters, then?" returned Jack.</p> +<p>"We ain't much troubled with postmen, nor policemen, nor hand-organ +men, nor no such things," answered +Shaw. "Still, once in a while a sheriff goes by looking for somebody."</p> +<p>We told him of our experience with thieves, and he said:</p> +<p>"It's a wonder they didn't get your pony. There's lots of 'em +hanging about the edge of the Reserve, because +it's a good place for 'em to hide."</p> +<p>"Must make a very pleasant little walk down to the post-office when +you want to mail a letter," said +Jack, after we got back to the wagon--"eighty-five miles. And think of +getting there, and finding that you +had left the letter on the hall table, and having to go back!"</p> +<p>We were off again the next morning, as usual. At noon we stopped at +Mitchell Creek, where we found another family, +including a little girl five or six years old, who carried her doll in +a shawl on her back, as she had seen the +Indian women carry their babies. We had intended to reach Plum Creek +for the night, but got on slower than we expected, +owing partly to a strong head-wind, so darkness overtook us at Frozen +Man's Creek.</p> +<p>"Not a very promising name for a November camping-place," said Jack, +"but I guess we'll have +to stop. I don't believe it's cold enough to freeze anybody to-night."</p> +<p>There was no house here, but there was water, and plenty of tall, +dry grass, so it made a good place for us +to stop. Frozen Man's Creek, as well as all the others, was a branch of +the Bad River, which flowed parallel with +the trail to the Missouri. We camped just east of the creek. The grass +was so high that we feared to build a camp-fire, +and cooked supper in the wagon.</p> +<p>"I'm glad we've got out of the burned region," said Jack. "It's +dismal, and I like to hear the +wind cutting through the dry grass with its sharp swish."</p> +<p>There was a heavy wind blowing from the southeast, but we turned the +rear of the wagon in that direction, saw +that the brake was firmly on, and went to bed feeling that we should +not blow away.</p> +<p>"I wonder who the poor man was that was frozen here?" was the last +thing Jack said before he went +to sleep. "Book agent going out to Shaw's, perhaps, to sell him a copy +of <i>Every Man his Own Barber; or, +How to Cut your Own Hair with a Lawn-Mower</i>."</p> +<p>We were doomed to one more violent awakening in the old Rattletrap. +At two o'clock in the morning I was roused +up by the loud neighing of the horses. Old Blacky's hoarse voice was +especially strong. As I opened my eyes there +was a reddish glare coming through the white cover. "Prairie fire!" +flashed into my mind instantly, and +I gave Jack a shake and got out of the front of the wagon as quickly as +I could. I had guessed aright; the flames +were sweeping up the shallow valley of the creek before the wind as +fast as a horse could travel. <a name="I-38"></a><img + src="images/tvotr-38.jpg" alt="In the Prairie Fire" align="left" + border="0" height="458" width="480">Jack came +tumbling out, and we knew instantly what to do. We both ran a few yards +ahead of the wagon and knelt in the grass, +and struck matches almost at the same moment. Jack's went out, but mine +caught, and a little flame leaped up, reached +over and to both sides, and then rolled away before the wind, spreading +wider and wider. I beat out the feeble +blaze which tried to work to windward, and ran back to the wagon, while +Jack went after the horses. The coming +flames were almost upon us by this time; but Ollie was out, and +together, aided by the wind, we rolled the wagon +ahead on our little new-made oasis of safety. Jack pulled up the pony's +picket-pin, and brought her on also, while +the other horses, being loose, sought the place themselves. The flames +came up to the edge of the burned place, +reached over for more grass, did not find it, and died out. But on both +sides of us they rushed on, and soon overtook +our little fire, and went on to the northwest. The wind, first hot from +the fire, now came cool and fresh, though +full of the odor of the burned grass.</p> +<p>"Closest call we've had," said Jack. "Yes," I replied; "been pretty +warm for us if we +hadn't waked up. Our animals are doing better; first Snoozer +distinguished himself, and now I think we've to thank +Old Blacky mainly for this alarm."</p> +<p>We were pretty well frightened, and though we went back to bed, I do +not believe that any of us slept again +that night. At the first touch of dawn we were up. As it grew lighter, +the great change in the landscape became +apparent. The gray of the prairie was turned to the blackest of black. +Only an occasional big staring buffalo skull +relieved the inkiness. Far away to the northwest we could see a low +hanging cloud of smoke where the fire was still +burning.</p> +<p>"Blacky ought to have a hay medal," said Jack at breakfast. "If I +had any hay I'd twist him up +one as big as a door-mat."</p> +<p>But Blacky, unlike Snoozer, seemed to have no pride in his +achievement, and he wandered all around the neighborhood +trying to find a mouthful of grass which had been missed by the fire; +but he was not successful.</p> +<p>"If the frozen man had been here last night he'd have been thawed +out," I said.</p> +<p>"Yes; and if Shaw had been here, what a good time it would have been +for him to let the fire run over his +hair and clear off the thickest of it!" returned Jack.</p> +<p>We started on, but the long wind had brought bad weather, and before +noon it began to snow. It kept up the rest +of the day, and by night it was three or four inches deep. We stopped +at noon at Lance Creek, and made our night +camp at Willow Creek; at each place there was a stage station in charge +of one man. It cleared off as night came +on, but the wind changed to the north, and it grew rapidly colder. +Shortly after midnight we all woke up with the +cold. We already had everything piled on the beds, but as we were too +cold to sleep, there was nothing to do but +to get up and start the camp-fire again. This we did, and stayed near +it the rest of the night, and in this way +kept warm at the expense of our sleep.</p> +<p>The morning was clear, but it was by far the coldest we had +experienced. The thermometer at the station marked +below zero at sunrise. We almost longed for another prairie fire. It +grew a little warmer after we started, and +at about eleven o'clock we reached Fort Pierre, on the Missouri, +opposite the town Of Pierre. The ferry-boat had +not yet been over for the day, but was expected in the afternoon.</p> +<p>"You're lucky to get it at all," said a man to us. "It is liable to +stop any day now, and then, +till the ice is thick enough for crossing, there will be no way of +getting over."</p> +<p>The boat came puffing across toward night, and we were safely landed +east of the Missouri once more. But we +were still two hundred miles from home; the country was well settled +most of the way, however, and we felt that +our voyage was almost ended. Little happened worthy of mention in the +week which it took us to traverse this distance. +The weather became warmer and was pleasant most of the way. On the last +night out it snowed again a little and +grew colder. We were still a long day's drive from Prairie Flower, but +we determined to make that port even if +it took half the night.<a name="I-39"></a><img src="images/tvotr-39.jpg" + alt="Well! Well! Well!" align="left" border="0" height="491" + width="411"></p> +<p>It was ten o'clock when we saw the lights of the town.</p> +<p>"Here we are," said Jack, "and I vote we've had a good time, and +that we forgive Old Blacky his +temper, and old Browny and Snoozer their sleepiness, and Ollie his +questions, and the rancher his general incompetence."</p> +<p>"And the cook his pancakes!" cried Ollie. We stopped a little way in +front of Squire Poinsett's grocery, +and Jack picked up the big revolver and fired the six shots into the +air. The pony had come alongside the wagon, +and Snoozer had his head over the dash-board. Half a dozen people came +running out, including Grandpa Oldberry, +wearing red yarn mittens and carrying a lantern. He held up the light +and looked at us.</p> +<p>"Well, I vum," he exclaimed, "if it ain't them three pesky +scallawags back safe and sound! I've +said all along that varmints would get ye sure, and we'd never see hide +nor hair of ye again! Well, well, well!"</p> +<p>It was clear that Grandpa was just a little disappointed to see that +his predictions hadn't been fulfilled.</p> +<p>So the voyage of the good schooner Rattletrap was ended. It had been +over a thousand miles in length, and had +lasted for more than two months.</p> +<p><br> +<a href="#TOC"><img src="images/point.jpg" alt="Link icon" + align="bottom" border="0" height="18" width="23"></a> <i>to table of +contents</i> +</p> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Voyage of the Rattletrap, by Hayden Carruth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP *** + +***** This file should be named 16586-h.htm or 16586-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/8/16586/ + +Produced by Cyril N. 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diff --git a/16586.txt b/16586.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c711868 --- /dev/null +++ b/16586.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4392 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Voyage of the Rattletrap, by Hayden Carruth + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Voyage of the Rattletrap + +Author: Hayden Carruth + +Illustrator: H. M. Wilder + +Release Date: August 24, 2005 [EBook #16586] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP *** + + + + +Produced by Cyril N. Alberga + + + + +Transriber's Note: + +The illustration captions at the places where they have been +inserted in the HTML version, not in the exact locations where +they occur in the book. + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP + +BY +HAYDEN CARRUTH + +AUTHOR OF "THE ADVENTURES OF JONES" ETC. + +ILLUSTRATED +BY H. M. WILDER + +NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1897 + + + +TO + +JOHN BRIAR + +A POOR COOK BUT A GOOD FELLOW + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAP + I. Getting Ready + II. Outward Bound + III. From Lookout Lake To The Missouri River + IV. Into Nebraska + V. Across The Niobrara + VI. By Canyons To Valentine + VII. Through The Sand Hills + VIII. On The Antelope Flats + IX. Off For The Black Hills + X. Among The Mountains + XI. Deadwood + XII. Homeward Bound + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +MAP +The Voyage First Suggested +Preparations +Grandpa Oldberry Presages Disaster +Snoozer +Mutiny Of The Pony +Effect Of A Strange Noise +Plan For Rousing A Sound Sleeper +First Lesson In Hay Twisting +Investigations +Hats +Milking The Heifer That Wore A Sleigh Robe +Wet But Hopeful +Anti-Horse Thieves +Jack Shoots A Grouse +Flight Of The Blacksmith +Studying Botany +"When The Winds Are Breathing Low" +Sad Result Of Dishonesty +First Night Camp In The Sand Hills +Dark Doings Of The Cook +No Horse-Feed +The Careful Corn Owner +A Study In Red Men +A Good Salesman +Big Bear Looks Into The Educational Situation +A Lesson In Finance +The Rattletrap In The Storm +Effect Of A Dog On A Mexican +Post-Mortem On A Grizzly +'gene Starts A Cook-Book +Lack Of Confidence In Mankind +Flying Cord-Wood +The Deserted Ranch +Old "Blenty Vaters" +In The Prairie Fire +Well! Well! Well! + + +[Frontispiece: Map of the voyage] + + +THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP + + + +I: GETTING READY + + +Perhaps we were pretty big boys--Jack and I. In fact, I'm +afraid we were so big that we haven't grown much since. But Ollie +was a boy, anyhow; he couldn't have been more than a dozen years +old, and we looked upon him as being a very small boy indeed; +though when folks saw us starting off, some of them seemed to +think that we were as boyish as he, because, they said, it was +such a foolish thing to do; and in some way, I'm sure I don't +know how, boys have got the reputation of always doing foolish +things. "They're three of a kind," said Grandpa Oldberry, as he +watched us weigh anchor; "their parents oughter be sent fer." + +Well, it's hard to decide where to begin this true history. +We didn't keep any log on this voyage of the Rattletrap. But I'll +certainly have to go back of the time when Grandpa Oldberry +expressed his opinion; and perhaps I ought to explain how we +happened to be in that particular port. As I said, we--Jack and +I--were pretty big boys, so big that we were off out West and in +business for ourselves, though, after all, that didn't imply that +we were very old, because it was a new country, and everybody was +young; after the election the first fall it was found that the +man who had been chosen for county judge wasn't quite twenty-one +years of age yet, and therefore, of course, couldn't hold office; +and we were obliged to wait three weeks till he had had his +birthday, and then to have a special election and choose him +again. Everybody was young except Grandpa Oldberry and Squire +Poinsett. + +But I was trying to account for our being in the port of +Prairie Flower. Jack had a cheese-factory there, and made small +round cheeses. I had a printing-office, and printed a small +square newspaper. In my paper I used to praise Jack's cheeses, +and keep repeating how good they were, so people bought then; and +Jack used, once in a while, to give me a cheese. So we both +managed to live, though I think we sometimes got a little tired +of being men, and wished we were back home, far from thick round +cheeses and thin square newspapers. + +One evening in the first week in September, when it was +raining as hard as it could rain, and when the wind was blowing +as hard as it could blow, and was driving empty boxes and +barrels, and old tin pails, and wash-boilers, and castaway hats +and runaway hats and lost hats, and other things across the +prairie before it, Jack came into my office, where I was setting +type (my printer having been blown away, along with the boxes and +the hats), and after he had allowed the rain to run off his +clothes and make little puddles like thin mud pies on the dusty +floor, he said: + +[Illustration: The Voyage First Suggested] + +"I'm tired of making poor cheeses." + +"Well," I answered, "I'm tired of printing a poor newspaper." + +"Let's sell out and go somewhere," continued Jack. + +"All right," I said. "Let's." + +So we did. + +Of course the Rattletrap wasn't a boat which sailed on the +water, though I don't know as I thought to mention this before. +In fact, a water boat wouldn't have been of any use to us in +getting out of Prairie Flower, because there wasn't any water +there, except a very small stream called the Big Sioux River, +which wandered along the prairie, sometimes running in one +direction and sometimes in the other, and at other times standing +still and wondering if it was worth while to run at all. The port +of Prairie Flower was in Dakota. This was when Dakota was still a +Territory, three or four years, perhaps, before it was cut into +halves and made into two States. So, there being no water, we of +course had to provide ourselves with a craft that could navigate +dry land; which is precisely what the Rattletrap was-namely, a +"prairie schooner." + +"I've got a team of horses and a wagon," went on Jack, that +rainy night when we were talking. "You've got a pony and a +saddle. We've both got guns. When we drive out of town some stray +dog will follow us. What more 'll we want?" + +"Nothing," I said, as I clapped my stick down in the +space-box. "We can put a canvas cover on the wagon and sleep in +it at night, and cook our meals over a camp-fire, and--and--have +a time." + +"Of course--a big time. It's a heavy spring-wagon, and there +is just about room in it behind the seat for a bed. We can put on +a cover that will keep out rain as well as a tent, and carry a +little kerosene-oil stove to use for cooking if we can't build a +fire out-doors for any reason. We can take along flour, +and-and--and salt, and other things to eat, and shoot game, +and--and--and have a time." + +We became so excited that we sat down and talked till +midnight about it. By this time the rain had stopped, and when we +went out the stars were shining, and the level ground was covered +with pools of water. + +"If it was always as wet as this around here we could go in a +genuine schooner," said Jack. + +"Yes, that's so. But what shall we call our craft?" + +"I think 'Rattletrap' would be a good name," said Jack. + +"I don't think it's a very pretty name," I replied. + +"You wait till you get acquainted with that wagon, and you +will say it's the best name in the world, whether it's pretty or +not. You don't know that wagon yet. The tongue is spliced, the +whiffletrees are loose, the reach is cracked, the box is tied +together with a rope, the springs creak, the wheels wabble, lean +different ways, and never follow one another." + +"Do they all turn in the same direction?" I asked. + +"I don't believe they do. It would be just like one to turn +backward while the other three were going forward." + +"We'll call our craft the Rattletrap, then. Good-night." + +"Good-night," said Jack; and we parted, each to dream of our +approaching cruise. + +[Illustration: Preparations] + +In a week we were busy getting ready to start. I found, when +I looked over the wagon as it stood back of the cheese-factory, +that it was much as Jack had described it, only I noticed that +the seat as well as the springs creaked, and that a corner was +broken off the dash-board. But we set to work upon it with a +will. We tightened up the nuts and screws all over it, and wound +the broken pole with wire. We nailed together the box so that the +rope could be taken off, and oiled the creaking springs. We had +no trouble in finding a top, as half the people in the country +had come in wagons provided with covers only a year or so before. +We got four bows and attached them to the box, one at each end, +and the other two at equal distances between. These bows were +made of hard-wood, and were a quarter of an inch thick and an +inch and a half wide. They ran up straight on either side for two +or three feet, and then rounded over, like a croquetwicket, being +high enough so that as we stood upright in the wagon-box our +heads would just nicely clear them. Over this skeleton we +stretched our white canvas cover, and tied it down tightly along +the sides. This made what we called the cabin. There was an ample +flap in front, which could be let down at night and fastened back +inside during the day. At the rear end the cloth folded around, +and was drawn together with a "puckering-string," precisely like +a button-bag. By drawing the string tightly this back end could +be entirely closed up; or the string could be let out, and the +opening made any size wanted. After the cover was adjusted we +stood off and admired our work. + +"Looks like an elephant on wheels," said Jack. + +"Or an old-fashioned sun-bonnet for a giantess," I added. + +"Anyhow, I'll wager a cheese it'll keep out the rain, unless +it comes down too hard," said Jack. "Now for the smaller parts of +our rigging, and the stores." + +On the back end we fastened a feed-box for the horses, as +long as the wagon-box was wide, and ten or twelve inches square, +with a partition in the middle. We put stout iron rings in the +corners of this, making a place to tie the horses. On the +dash-board outside we built another box, for tools. This was +wedge-shaped, about five inches wide at the top, but running down +to an inch or two at the bottom, and had a hinged cover. We put +aboard a satchel containing the little additional clothing which +we thought we should need. Things in this line which did not seem +to be absolutely necessary were ruled out--indeed, for the sake +of lightness we decided to take just as little of everything that +we could. We made another box, some two feet long, a foot deep, +and fourteen inches wide, with a hinged cover, which we called +the "pantry," for our supply of food. This we stood in the wagon +with the satchel. Usually in the daytime after we started each of +these rode comfortably on the bed back of the seat. This bed was +a rather simple affair, made up of some bed-clothing and pillows +arranged on a thick layer of hay in the bottom of the wagon-box. +Our small two-wick oil-stove we put in front next to the +dash-board, a lantern we hung up on one of the bows, and a big +tin pail for the horses we suspended under the wagon. + +"Since you're going to be cook," I said to Jack, "you tend to +getting the dishes together." + +"They'll be few enough," he answered. "I don't like to wash +'em. Tin mostly, I guess; because tin won't break." + +So he put a few knives and forks and spoons, tin plates and +cups, a frying-pan, a small copper kettle, and a few other +utensils in another box, which also found a home on the bed. +Other things which we did not forget were a small can of +kerosene; two half-gallon jugs, one for milk and one for water; a +basket for eggs; a nickel clock (we called it the chronometer); +and in the tool-box a hatchet, a monkey-wrench, screw-driver, +small saw, a piece of rope, one or two straps, and a few nails, +screws, rivets, and similar things which might come handy in case +of a wreck. + +"Now for the armament and the life-boat," said Jack. + +For armament Jack contributed a double-barrelled shot-gun and +a heavy forty-five-calibre repeating rifle, and I a light +forty-four-calibre repeating rifle, and a big revolver of the +same calibre (though using a slightly shorter cartridge), with a +belt and holster. This revolver we stored in the tool-box, +chiefly for use in case we were boarded by pirates, while the +guns we hung in leather loops in the top of the cover. In the +tool-box we put a good supply of ammunition and plenty of +matches. We also each carried a match-box, a pocket compass, and +a stout jack-knife. + +"Now, how's your life-boat?" asked Jack. + +I led her out. She was a medium-sized brown Colorado pony, +well decorated with brands, and with a white face and two white +feet. She wore a big Mexican saddle and a horse-hair bridle with +a silver bit. + +"She'll do," said Jack. "In case of wreck, we'll escape on +her, if possible. She'll also be very handy in making landings +where the harbor is poor, and in exploring unknown coasts." + +[Illustration: Grandpa Oldberry Presages Disaster] + +All of this work took several days, but when it was done the +Rattletrap was ready for the voyage, and we decided to start the +next morning. + +"She's as prairie-worthy a craft as ever scoured the plain," +was Jack's opinion; "and if we can keep the four wheels from +starting in opposite directions we'll be all right." + +But where was Ollie all this while? And who was Ollie, +anyhow? Ollie was Jack's little nephew, and he lived back East +somewhere--I don't remember where. The nearer we got ready to +start, the more firmly Jack became convinced that Ollie would +like to go along, so at last he sent for him to come, and he +arrived the night before our start. Ollie liked the idea of the +trip so much that he simply stood and looked at the wagon, the +guns, the pony, and the horses, and was speechless. At last he +managed to say: + +"Uncle Jack, it'll be just like a picnic, won't it?" + +The next morning we started as early as we could. But it was +not before people were up. + +"Where be they going?" asked Grandpa Oldberry. + +"Oh, Nebraska, and Wyoming, and the Black Hills, and any +crazy place they hear of," answered Squire Poinsett. + +"They'll all be scalped by Injuns," said Grandpa Oldberry. +"Ain't the Injuns bad this fall?" + +"So I was a-reading," returned the Squire. "And in the hills +I should be afeared of b'ar." + +"Right," assented Grandpa. "B'ar and sim'lar varmints. And +more 'specially hossthieves and sich-like cutthroats. I +disremember seeing three scalawags starting off on such a fool +trip since afore the war." + + + +II: OUTWARD BOUND + + +The port of Prairie Flower was in the eastern part of the +Territory of Dakota. It stood out on an open plain a half-dozen +miles wide, which seemed to be the prairie itself, though it was +really the valley of the Big Sioux River, that funny stream which +could run either way, and usually stood still in the night and +rested. To the east and west the edges of this valley were +faintly marked by a range of very low bluffs, so low that they +were mere wrinkles in the surface of the earth, and made the +valley but very little lower than the great plain which rolled +away for miles to the east and for leagues to the west. + +It was a beautiful morning a little after the middle of +September that the Rattletrap got away and left Prairie Flower +behind. The sun had been up only half an hour or so, and the +shadow of our craft stretched away across the dry gray plain like +a long black streak without end. The air was fresh and dewy. The +morning breeze was just beginning to stir, and down by the river +the acres of wild sunflowers were nodding the dew off their +heads, and beginning to roll in the first long waves which would +keep up all day like the rolling of the ocean. We shouted +"Good-bye" to Grandpa Oldberry and Squire Poinsett, but they only +shook their heads very seriously. The cows and horses picketed on +the prairie all about the little clump of houses which made up +the town looked at us with their eyes open extremely wide, and no +doubt said in their own languages, like Grandpa Oldberry, that +they had no recollection of seeing any such capers as this for +many years. + +"See here," I said, suddenly, to Jack, "where's that dog you +said was going to follow us?" + +"You just hold on," answered Jack. + +"Oh, are we going to have a dog, too?" asked Ollie. + +"You wait a minute," insisted Jack. + +Just then we passed the railroad station. Jack craned his +head out of the front end of the wagon. Ollie and I did the same. +Lying asleep on the corner of the station platform we saw a dog. +He was about the size of a rather small collie; or, to put it +another way, perhaps he was half as big as the largest-size dog. +If dogs were numbered like shoes, from one to thirteen, this +would have been about a No. 7 dog. He was yellow, with short +hair, except that his tail was very bushy. One ear stood up +straight, and the other lopped over, very much wilted. Jack +whistled sharply. The dog tossed up his head, straightened up his +lopped ear, let fall his other ear, and looked at us. Jack +whistled again, and the dog came. He ran around the wagon, barked +once or twice, sniffed at the pony's heels and got kicked at for +his familiarity, yelped sharply, and came and looked up at us, +and wagged his bushy tail with a great flourish. + +"He wants to get in. Give him a boost, Ollie," said Jack. + +Ollie clambered over the dash-board and jumped to the ground. +He pushed the dog forward, and he leaped up and scrambled into +the wagon, jumped over on the bed, where he folded his head and +tail on his left side, turned around rapidly three times, and lay +down and went to sleep, one ear up and one ear down. + +[Illustration: Snoozer] + +"He's just the dog for the Rattletrap," said Jack. "We'll +call him Snoozer." + +"That looks a good deal like stealing to me, Uncle Jack," +said Ollie. "Doesn't he belong to somebody?" + +"No," said Jack, "he doesn't belong to anybody but us. He +came here a week ago with a tramp. The tramp deserted him, and +rode away on the trucks of a freight train; but Snoozer didn't +like that way of travelling, because there wasn't any place to +sleep, so he stayed behind. Since then he has tried to follow +every man in town, but none of them would have him. He's a +regular tramp dog, not good for anything, and therefore just the +dog for us." + +Snoozer was the last thing we shipped, and after taking him +aboard we were soon out of the harbor of Prairie Flower, and +bearing away across the plain to the southwest. In twenty minutes +we ware among the billowing sunflowers, standing five or six feet +high on other side of the road, which seemed like a narrow crack +winding through them. Ollie reached out and gathered a handful of +the drooping yellow blossoms. The pony was tied behind carrying +her big saddle, and tossing her head about, and showing that she +was very suspicious of the whole proceedings, and especially +of a small flag which Ollie had fastened to the top of the +wagon-cover, which fluttered in the fresh morning breeze. Snoozer +slept on and never stirred. At last the road came to the river, +and then followed close along beside its bank, which was only a +foot or so high. Ollie was interested in watching the long grass +which grew in the bottom of the stream and was brushed all in one +direction by the sluggish current, like the silky fur of some +animal. After a while we came to a gravelly place which was a +ford, and crossed the stream, stopping to let the horses drink. +The water was only a foot deep. As we came up on the higher +ground beyond the river we met the south wind squarely, and it +came in at the front of the cover with a rush. We heard a sharp +flutter behind, and then the wagon gave a shiver and a lurch, and +the horses stopped; then there was another shock and lurch, and +it rolled back a few inches. + +"There," exclaimed Jack, "some of those wheels have begun to +turn backward! I told you!" + +I looked back. Our puckering-string had given way, and the +rear of the cover had blown out loosely. This had been more than +the pony could stand, and she had broken her rope and run back a +dozen rods, where she stood snorting and looking at the wagon. + +"First accident!" I cried. "She'll run home, and we'll have +to go back after her." + +"Perhaps we can get around her," said Jack. "We'll try." + +We left Ollie to hold the horses, and I went out around among +the sunflowers, while Jack stood behind the wagon with his hat +half full of oats. I got beyond her at last, and drove her slowly +toward the wagon. She snorted and stamped the ground angrily with +her forward feet; but at last she ventured to taste of the oats, +and finding more in the feed-box on the rear of the wagon, she +began eating them and forgot her fright. + +"I guess we'd better not tie her, but let her follow," said +Jack. "As soon as we have gone a little ways she'll come to think +the wagon is home, and stick to it." + +"Yes," I said. "I think she is really as great a tramp as +Snoozer, and just the pony for us." "Are we all tramps?" asked +Ollie. + +"Well," said Jack, "I'm afraid Grandpa Oldberry thinks we +don't lack much of it. He says varmints will catch us." + +"Do you think they will?" went on Ollie, just a little bit +anxiously. + +"Oh, I guess not," said Jack. "You see, we've got four guns. +Then there's Snoozer." + +"But will they try to catch us?" + +"Well, I don't know. Grandpa Oldberry says the varmints are +awfully thick this fall." + +"But what are varmints?" + +"Oh, wolves, and b'ars, and painters, and--" + +"What are painters?" + +"Grandpa means panthers, I guess. Then there's Injuns, and +hoss-thieves, and--" + +"There's a prairie-chicken!" I cried, as one rose up out of +the long grass. + +"Perhaps we can get one for dinner," said Jack. + +[Illustration: Mutiny of the Pony] + +He took his gun and went slowly toward where the other had +been. Another whirred away like a shot. Jack fired, but missed +it. We started on, leaving the pony tossing her head and stamping +her feet in a great passion on account of the report of the gun; +but when she saw that we paid no attention to her and were +rapidly going out of sight she turned, after taking a long look +back at distant Prairie Flower, and came trotting along the road, +with her stirrups dangling at her sides, and soon was following +close behind. + +Before we realized it the chronometer showed that it was +almost noon. By this time we had left the sea of sunflowers and +crept over the wrinkle at the western edge of the valley, and +were off across the rolling prairie itself. Still Snoozer never +stirred. + +"I wonder when he'll wake up?" said Ollie. + +"You'll see him awake enough at dinnertime," said Jack. + +"Well, you'll see me awake enough then, too," answered Ollie. +"I'm hungry." + +"We hardy pioneers plunging into the trackless waste of a new +and unexplored country never eat but one meal a day," said Jack. +"And that's always raw meat--b'ar-meat, generally." + +"Well," said Ollie, "I don't see any b'ar-meat, or even +prairie-chicken-meat. Why didn't you hit the prairie-chicken, +Uncle Jack?" + +"I'm not used to shooting at such small game," answered Jack, +solemnly. "My kind of game is b'ar--b'ar and other varmints." + +Just then we passed a house, and down a little way from it, +close to the road, was a well. + +"Here's a good place to have dinner," said Jack; so we drove +out by the side of the road and stopped. "If I'm to be cook," +said Jack to me, "then you've got to take care of the horses and +do all the outside work. I'll be cook; you'll be rancher. That's +what we'll call you--rancher." + +I unhitched the horses, tied them behind the wagon, and gave +them some oats and corn in the feed-box. The pony I fed in the +big tin pail near by. The grass beside the road was so dry, and +it was so windy, that we decided it was not safe to build a fire +outdoors, so Jack cooked pancakes over the oil-stove inside. +These with some cold meat he handed out to Ollie and me as we sat +on the wagon-tongue, while he sat on the dash-board. We were +half-way through dinner when we heard a peculiar whine, followed +by a low bark, in the wagon, and then Snoozer leaped out, +stretched himself, and began to wag his tail so fast that it +looked exactly like a whirling feather duster. We fed him on +pancakes, and he ate so many that if Jack had not fried some more +we'd have certainly gone hungry. + +"I told you he was a true tramp," said Jack. "Just see his +appetite!" + +After we had finished, and the horses had grazed about on the +dry grass some time, we started on. We hoped to reach a little +lake which we saw marked on the map, called Lake Lookout, for the +night camp; so we hurried along, it being a good distance ahead. +All the afternoon we were passing 'between either great fields +where the wheat had been cut, leaving the stubble, or beside long +stretches of prairie. There were a few houses, many of them built +of sod. Not much happened during the afternoon. Ollie followed +the example of Snoozer, and curled up on the bed and had a long +nap. We saw a few prairie-chickens, but did not try to shoot any +of them. The pony trotted contentedly behind. Just before night I +rode her ahead, looking for the lake. I found it to be a small +one, perhaps a half-mile wide, scarcely below the level of the +prairie, and generally with marshy shores, though on one side the +beach was sandy and stony, with a few stunted cottonwood-trees, +and here I decided we would camp. I went back and guided the +Rattletrap to the spot. Soon Jack had a roaring fire going from +the dry wood which Ollie had collected. I fed the horses and +turned them loose, and they began eagerly on the green grass +which grew on the damp soil near the lake. The pony I picketed +with a long rope and a strap around one of her forward ankles, +between her hoof and fetlock, as we scarcely felt like trusting +her all night. Snoozer got up for his supper, and after that +stretched himself by the fire and blinked at it sleepily. The +rest of us did much the same. After a while Ollie said. + +"I think that bed in the wagon looks pretty narrow for two. +How are three going to sleep in it?" + +"I don't think three are going to sleep in it," said Jack. + +"Where are you going to sleep, then, Uncle Jack?" + +Jack laughed. "I think," he said, "that the rancher and the +cook will sleep in the wagon, and let you sleep under the wagon. +Nothing makes a boy grow like sleeping rolled up in a blanket +under a wagon. You'll be six inches taller if you do it every +night till we get back." + +"Well, I don't think so," said Ollie, just a little alarmed +at the prospect. "I'd prefer to sleep in the wagon. Maybe what +Grandpa Oldberry said about wild animals is so. You say you like +to shoot 'em, so you stay outside and do it--I don't." + +At last it was arranged that Ollie and I should sleep inside +and Jack under the wagon. We were surprised to find how early we +were ready for bed. The long ride and the fresh air had given us +an appetite for sleep. So we soon turned in, the dog staying +outside with Jack. + +"Good-night, Uncle Jack!" called Ollie, as we put out the +lantern and covered up in the narrow bed. "Look out for +painters!" + +I was almost asleep when Ollie shook me, and whispered, +"What's that noise?" + +I listened, and heard a regular, hollow, booming sound, +something like the very distant discharge of cannon. + +"It's the horses walking on the ground-always sounds that way +in the night," I answered. + +Again I was almost asleep when Ollie took hold of my arm, and +said, "What's that?" + +[Illustration: Effect of a Strange Noise] + +I once more listened, and recognized a peculiar creaking +noise as that made by the horses cropping off the grass. I +explained to Ollie, and then dropped off sound asleep. I don't +know how long it was, but after some time I was again roused up +by a nervous shake. + +"Listen to that," whispered Ollie. "What can it be?" + +I sat up cautiously and listened. It was a strange, rattling, +unearthly sound, which I could not account for any better than +Ollie. + +"It's a bear," he whispered. "I heard them make that noise at +the park back home." + +I was puzzled, and concluded that it must be some wild +animal. I took down one of the guns, crept softly to the front +end of the wagon, raised the flap, and looked out. The wind was +still, and the night air met my face with a cool, damp feeling. +The moon had just risen and the lake was like silver. I could see +the horses lying asleep like dark mounds. But the mysterious +noise kept up, and even grew louder. I grasped the gun firmly, +and let myself cautiously out of the front end of the wagon. Then +I climbed back in less softly and hung up the gun. + +"Wh-what is it?" asked Ollie, in a faint whisper. + +"It's your eloquent Uncle Jack snoring," I said. "He's one of +Grandpa Oldberry's sim'lar varmints." + + + +III: FROM LOOKOUT LAKE TO THE MISSOURI RIVER + + +Our first night in the Rattletrap passed without further +incident--that is, the greater part of it passed, though Ollie +declared that it lacked a good deal of being all passed when we +got up. The chief reason for our early rise was Old Blacky, a +member of our household (or perhaps wagonhold) not yet introduced +in this history. Old Blacky was the mate of Old Browny, and +the two made up our team of horses. Old Browny was a very +well-behaved, respectable old nag, extremely fond of quiet and +oats. He invariably slept all night, and usually much of the day; +he was a fit companion for our dog. It was the firm belief of all +on board that Old Browny could sleep anywhere on a fairly level +stretch of road without stopping. + +But Old Blacky was another sort of beast. He didn't seem to +require any sleep at all. What Old Blacky wanted was food. He +loved to sit up all night and eat, and keep us awake. He seldom +even lay down at night, but would moon about the camp and blunder +against things, fall over the wagon-tongue, and otherwise +misbehave. Sometimes when we camped where the grass was not just +to his liking he would put his head into the wagon and help +himself to a mouthful of bedquilt or a bite of pillow. He was +little but an appetite mounted on four legs, and next to food he +loved a fight. Besides the name of Old Blacky, we also knew him +as the Blacksmith's Pet; but this will have to be explained later +on. + +On this first morning, just as it was becoming light in the +east, Old Blacky began to make his toilet by rubbing his shoulder +against one corner of the wagon. As he was large and heavy, and +rubbed as hard as he could, he soon had the wagon tossing about +like a boat; and as the easiest way out of it, we decided to get +up. It was cool and dewy, with the larger stars still shining +faintly. We found Jack under the wagon. Ollie stirred him up, and +said: + +[Illustration: Plan for Rousing a Sound Sleeper] + +"See any varmints in the night, Uncle Jack?" + +"Yes," answered Jack, as he unrolled himself from his +blanket. "Or at least I felt one. That disgraceful Old Blacky +nibbled at my ear twice. The first time I thought it was nothing +less than a bear." + +"Did he disturb Snoozer?" + +"I guess nothing ever disturbs Snoozer. He never moved all +night. How's the firewood department, Ollie?" + +"All right," replied Ollie. "Got up enough last night." + +"Then build the fire while I get breakfast." + +This pleased Ollie, and he soon had a good fire going. I +caught Old Blacky, who had started off to walk around the lake, +woke up Old Browny, who was sleeping peacefully with his +nose resting on the ground, quieted the pony, who was still +suspicious, with a few pats on the neck, and gave them all their +oats. Soon the rest of us also had our breakfast, including +Snoozer, who seemed to wake up by instinct, and after waiting a +little for somebody to come and stretch him, stretched himself, +and began waving his tail to attract our attention to his urgent +need of food. + +"Before we get back home that dog will want us to feed him +with a spoon," said Jack. + +It was only a little while after sunrise when we were off for +another day's voyage. We were headed almost due south, and all +that day and the three or four following (including Sunday, when +we stayed in camp), we did not change our general direction. We +were aiming to reach the town of Yankton, where we intended to +cross the Missouri River and turn to the west in Nebraska. The +country through which we travelled was much of it prairie, but +more was under cultivation, and the houses of settlers were +numerous. The land on which wheat or other small grains had been +grown was bare, but as we got farther south we passed great +fields of corn, some of it standing almost as high as the top of +our wagon-cover. + +For much of the way we were far from railroads and towns, and +got most of our supplies of food from the settlers whose houses +we passed or, indeed, sighted, since the pony proved as +convenient for making landings as Jack had predicted she would. +Ollie usually went on these excursions after milk and eggs and +such like foods. The different languages which he encountered +among the settlers somewhat bewildered him, and he often had hard +work in making the people he found at the houses understand what +he wanted. There Were many Norwegians, and the third day we +passed through a large colony of Russians, saw a few Finns, and +heard of some Icelanders who lived around on the other side of a +lake. + +"It wouldn't surprise me," said Ollie one day, "to find the +man in the moon living here in a sod house." + +Perhaps a majority--certainly a great many--of all these +people lived in houses of this kind. Ollie had never seen +anything of the sort before, and he became greatly interested in +them. The second day we camped near one for dinner. + +"You see," said Jack, "a man gets a farm, takes half his +front yard and builds a house with it. He gains space, though, +because the place he peels in the yard will do for flowerbeds, +and the roof and sides of his house are excellent places to grow +radishes, beets, and similar vegetables." + +"Why not other things besides radishes and beets?" asked +Ollie. + +"Oh, other things would grow all right, but radishes and +beets seem to be the natural things for sod-house growing. You +can take hold of the lower end and pull 'em from the inside, you +know, Ollie." + +"I don't believe it, Uncle Jack," said Ollie, stoutly. "Ask +the rancher," answered Jack. "If you're ever at dinner in a sod +house, and want another radish, just reach up and pull one down +through the roof, tops and all. Then you're sure they're fresh. +I'd like to keep a summer hotel in a sod house. I'd advertise +'fresh vegetables pulled at the table.'" + +"I'm going to ask the man about sod houses," returned Ollie. +He went up to where the owner of the house was sitting outside, +and said: + +"Will you please tell me how you make a sod house?" + +"Yes," said the man, smiling. "Thinking of making one?" + +"Well, not just now," replied Ollie. "But. I'd like to know +about them. I might want to build one--sometime," he added, +doubtfully. + +"Well," said the man, "it's this way: First we plough up a +lot of the tough prairie sod with a large plough called a +breaking-plough, intended especially for ploughing the prairie +the first time. This turns it over in a long, even, unbroken +strip, some fourteen or sixteen inches wide and three or four +inches thick. We cut this up into pieces two or three feet long, +take them to the place where we are building the house, on a +stone-boat or a sled, and use them in laying up the walls in just +about the same way that bricks are used in making a brick house. +Openings are left for the doors and windows, and either a shingle +or sod roof put on. If it's sod, rough boards are first laid on +poles, and then sods put on them like shingles. I've got a sod +roof on mine, you see." + +Ollie was looking at the grass and weeds growing on the top +and sides of the house. They must have made a pretty sight when +they were green and thrifty earlier in the season, but they were +dry and withered now. + +"Do you ever have prairie-fires on your roofs?" asked Ollie, +with a smile. + +"Oh, they do burn off sometimes," answered the man. "Catch +from the chimney, you know. Did you ever see a hay fire?" + +"No." + +"Come inside and I'll show you one." + +In the house, which consisted of one large room divided +across one end by a curtain, Ollie noticed a few chairs and a +table, and opposite the door a stove which looked very much like +an ordinary cook-stove, except that the place for the fire was +rather larger. Back of it stood a box full of what seemed to be +big hay rope. The man's wife was cooking dinner on the stove. + +"Here's a young tenderfoot," said the man, "who's never seen +a hay fire." + +"Wish I never had," answered the woman. The man laughed. +"They're hardly as good as a wood fire or a coal fire," he said +to Ollie; "but when you're five hundred miles, more or less, from +either wood or coal they do very well." The man took off one of +the griddles and put in another "stick" of hay. Then he handed +one to Ollie, who was surprised to find it almost as heavy as a +stick of wood. "It makes a fairly good fire," said the man. "Come +outside and I'll show you how to twist it." + +[Illustration: First Lesson in Hay Twisting] + +They went out to a haystack near by, and the man twisted a +rope three or four inches in diameter, and about four feet long. +He kept hold of both ends till it was wound up tight; then he +brought the ends together, and it twisted itself into a hard +two-strand rope in the same way that a bit of string will do when +similarly treated. There was quite a pile of such twisted sticks +on the ground. "You see," said the man, "in this country, instead +of splitting up a pile of fuel we just twist up one." Ollie bade +the man good-bye, took another look at the queer house, and came +down to the wagon. + +"So you saw a hay-stove, did you?" said Jack. "I could have +told you all about 'em. I once stayed all night with a man who +depended on a hay-stove for warmth. It was in the winter. Talk +about appetites! I never saw such an appetite as that stove had +for hay. Why, that stove had a worse appetite than Old Blacky. It +devoured hay all the time, just as Old Blacky would if he could; +and even then its stomach always seemed empty. The man twisted +all of the time, and I fed it constantly, and still it was never +satisfied." + +"How did you sleep?" asked Ollie. + +"Worked right along in our sleep--like Old Browny," answered +Jack. + +The last day before reaching Yankton was hot and sultry. The +best place we could find to camp that night was beside a deserted +sod house on the prairie. There was a well and a tumble-down sod +stable. There were dark bands of clouds low down on the +southeastern horizon, and faint flashes 'of lightning. + +"It's going to rain before morning," I said. "Wonder if it +wouldn't be better in the sod house?" + +We examined it, but found it in poor condition, so decided +not to give up the wagon. "The man that lived there pulled too +many radishes and parsnips and carrots and such things into it, +and then neglected to hoe his roof and fill up the holes," said +Jack. "Besides, Old Blacky will have it rubbed down before +morning. 'When I sleep in anything that Old Blacky can get at, I +want it to be on wheels so it can roll out of the way." + +We went to bed as usual, but at about one o'clock we were +awakened by a long rolling peal of thunder. Already big drops of +rain were beginning to fall. Ollie and I looked out, and found +Jack creeping from under the wagon. + +"That's a dry-weather bedroom of mine," he observed, "and I +think I'll come up-stairs." + +The flashes of lightning followed each other rapidly, and by +them we could see the horses. Old Browny was sleeping and Old +Blacky eating, but the pony stood with head erect, very much +interested in the storm. Jack helped Snoozer into the wagon, and +came in himself. We drew both ends of the cover as close as +possible, lit the lantern, and made ourselves comfortable, while +Jack took down his banjo and tried to play. Jack always tried to +play, but never quite succeeded. But he made a considerable +noise, and that was better than nothing. + +The wind soon began to blow pretty fresh, and shake the cover +rather more than was pleasant. But. nothing gave way, and after, +as it seemed, fifty of the loudest claps of thunder we had ever +heard, the rain began to fall in torrents. + +"That is what I've been waiting for," said Jack. "Now we'll +see if there's a good cover on this wagon, or if we've got to put +a sod roof on it, like that man's house." + +The rain kept coming down harder and harder, but though there +seemed to be a sort of a light spray in the air of the wagon, the +water did not beat through. In some places along the bows it ran +down on the inside of the cover in little clinging streams, but +as a household we remained dry. Jack was still experimenting on +the banjo, and the dog had gone to sleep. Suddenly a flash of +lightning dazzled our eyes as if there were no cover at all over +and around us, with a crash of thunder which struck our ears like +a blow from a fist. Jack dropped the banjo, and the dog shook his +head as if his ears tingled. We all felt dizzy, and the wagon +seemed to be swaying around. + +[Illustration: Investigations] + +"That struck pretty close," I said. "I hope it didn't hit one +of the horses." "If it hit Old Blacky, I'll bet a cooky it got +the worst of it," answered Jack, taking up his banjo again. "Look +out, Ollie, and maybe you'll see the lightning going off +limping." + +It was still raining, though not so hard. Soon we began to +hear a peculiar noise, which seemed to come from behind the +wagon. It was a breaking, splintering sort of noise, as if a +board was being smashed and split up very gradually. + +"Sounds as if a slow and lazy kind of lightning was striking +our wagon," said Jack. + +Ollie's face was still white from the scare at the stroke of +lightning, and his eyes now opened very wide as he listened to +the mysterious noise. Jack pulled open the back cover an inch and +peeped out. Then he said: + +"I guess Old Blacky's tussle with the lightning left him +hungry; he's eating up one side of the feed-box." + +Then we laughed at the strange noise, and in a few minutes, +the rain having almost ceased, we put on our rubber boots and +went out to look after the other horses. Old Browny we found in +the lee of the sod house, not exactly asleep, but evidently about +to take a nap. The pony had pulled up her picket-pin and +retreated to a little hollow a hundred yards away. We caught her +and brought her back. By the light of the lantern we found that +the great stroke of lightning had struck the curb of the well, +shattering it, and making a hole in the ground beside it. The +storm had gone muttering off to the north, and the stars were +again shining overhead. + +"What a stroke of lightening that must have been to do that!" +said Ollie, as he looked at the curb with some awe. + +"It wasn't the lightning that did that," returned his +truthful Uncle Jack. "That's where Old Blacky kicked at the +lightning and missed it." + +Then we returned to the wagon and went to bed. The next +morning at ten o'clock we drove into Yankton. We found the +ferry-boat disabled, and that we should have to go forty miles up +the river to Running Water before we could cross. We drove a mile +out of town, and went into camp on a high bank overlooking the +milky, eddying current of the Missouri. + + + +IV: INTO NEBRASKA + + +We were a good deal disappointed in not getting over into +Nebraska, because we had seen enough of Dakota, but there was no +help for it. A log had got caught in the paddlewheel of the +ferry-boat and wrecked it, and there was no other way of +crossing. + +"Old Blacky could swim across," said Jack, "but Browny would +go to sleep and drown." + +[Illustrations: Hats] + +It is rather doubtful, however, about even Blacky's ability +to have swum the river, since it was a half-mile wide, and with a +rather swift current. In the afternoon we walked back to Yankton +and bought the biggest felt hats we could find, with wide and +heavy leather bands. We knew that we should now soon be out in +the stock-growing country, and that, as Jack said, "the cowboys +wouldn't have any respect for us unless we were top-heavy with +hat." + +We were camped on the high bank of the river, opposite a +farm-house. It was getting dusk when we got back to the wagon, +with our heads aching from our new hats, which seemed to weigh +several pounds apiece. Jack, as cook, announced that there was no +milk on hand, and sent Ollie over to the neighboring house to see +if he could get some. Ollie returned, and reported that the man +was away from home, but that the woman said we could have some if +we were willing to go out to the barn-yard and milk one of the +cows. The others decided that it was my duty to milk, but I asked +so many foolish questions about the operation that Jack became +convinced that I didn't know how, and said he would do it +himself. We all went over to the house, borrowed a tin pail from +the woman, and went out to the yard. + +We found about a dozen cows inside, of various sizes, but all +long-legged and long-horned. + +"Must be this man belongs to the National Trotting-Cow +Association," said Jack, as he crawled under the barbed-wire +fence into the yard. "That red beast over there in the corner +ought to be able to trot a mile in less than three minutes." + +He cautiously went up to a spotted cow which seemed to be +rather tamer than the rest, holding out one hand, and saying, +"So, bossy," in oily tones, as if he thought she was the finest +cow he had ever seen. When he was almost to her she looked at him +quickly, kicked her nearest hind-foot at him savagely, and walked +off, switching her tail, and shaking her head so that Ollie was +afraid it would come off and be lost. + +"Can't fool that cow, can I?" said Jack, as he turned to +another. But he had no better luck this time, and after trying +three or four more he paused and said: + +"These must be the same kind of cows Horace Greeley found +down in Texas before the war. When he came back he said the way +they milked down there was to throw a cow on her back, have a +nigger hold each leg, and extract the milk with a clothes-pin." + +But at last he found a brindled animal in the corner which +allowed him to sit down and begin. He was getting on well when, +without the least warning, the cow kicked, and sent the pail +spinning across the yard, while Jack went over backwards, and his +new hat fell off. There was one calf in the yard which had been +complaining ever since we came, because it had not yet had its +supper. The pail stopped rolling right side up, and this calf ran +over and put his head in it, thinking that his food had come at +last. Jack picked himself up and ran to rescue the pail. The calf +raised his head suddenly, the pail caught on one of his little +horns, and he started off around the yard, unable to see, and +jumping wildly over imaginary objects. Jack followed. A cow, +which was perhaps the mother of the calf, started after Jack. The +family dog, hearing the commotion, came running down from the +house and began to pursue the cow. This wild procession went +around the yard several times, till at last the pail came off the +calf's head, and Jack secured it. Then he picked up his hat, the +brim of which another calf had been chewing, rinsed out the pail +at the pump, and tried another cow. + +This time he selected the worst-looking one of the lot, but +to the surprise of all of us she stood perfectly still, only +switching him a few times with her tail. As soon as he got a +couple of quarts of milk he stopped and came out of the yard. +Ollie and I had, of course, been laughing at him a good deal, but +Jack paid no attention to it. As we walked towards the house he +said: + +"Well, there's one consolation: after all of that work and +trouble, the woman can't put on the face to charge us for the +milk." A moment later he said to her: "I've got about two quarts; +how much is it?" + +"Ten cents," answered the woman. "Didn't them cows seem to +take kindly to you?" + +"Well, they didn't exactly crowd around me and moo with +delight," replied Jack, as he handed over a dime with rather bad +grace. + +That evening a neighbor called on us as we sat about our +camp-fire, and we told him the experience with the cows. + +[Illustration: Milking the Heifer that Wore a Sleigh-Robe] + +"Puts me in mind of the time a fellow had over at the Santee +Agency a year or so ago," said our visitor. "There's a man there +named Hawkins that's got a tame buffalo cow. Of course you might +as well try to milk an earthquake as a buffalo. Well, one day a +man came along looking for work, and Hawkins hired him. +Milking-time came, and Hawkins sent the man out to milk, but +forgot to tell hint about the buffalo. The man was a little +green, and it was sort of dark in the barn, and the first thing +he tried to milk was the buffalo cow. She kicked the pail through +the window, smashed the stall, and half broke the man's leg the +first three kicks. He hobbled to the house, and says to Hawkins: +'Old man, that there high-shouldered heifer of yourn out there +has busted the barn and half killed me, and I reckon I'll quit +and go back East, where the cows don't wear sleigh-robes and kick +with four feet at once.'" + +Bright and early the next morning we got off again. Nothing +of importance happened that day. We were travelling through a +comparatively old-settled part of the country, and the houses +were numerous. A young Indian rode with us a few miles, but he +was a very civilized sort of red man. He had been at work on a +farm down near Yankton, and was on his way to the Ponca +Reservation to visit his mother. As an Indian he rather disgusted +Ollie. + +"If I were a big six-foot Indian," he said, after our +passenger had gone, "I think I'd carry a tomahawk, and wear a +feather or two at least. I don't see what's the advantage of +being an Indian if you're going to act just like a white man." + +We camped that night in a beautiful nook in a bluff near a +little stream. The next day we reached Running Water. The +ferry-boat was a little thing, with a small paddle-wheel on each +side operated by two horses on tread-mills. A man stood at the +stern with a long oar to steer it. The river was not so wide here +as at Yankton, but the current was swifter, which no doubt gave +the place its name. It looked very doubtful if we should ever get +across in the queer craft, but after a long time we succeeded in +doing so. It gave us a good opportunity to study the water of the +river, which looked more like milk than water, owing to the fine +clay dissolved in it. The ferry-man thought very highly of the +water, and told us proudly that a glass of it would never settle +and become clear. + +"It's the finest drinking-water in the world," he said. "I +never drink anything else. Take a bucket of it up home every +evening to drink overnight. You don't get any of this clear +well-water down me." + +We tasted of it, but couldn't see that it was much different +from other water. + +"Boil it down a little, and give it a lower crust, and I +should think it would make a very good custard-pie," said Jack. + +We found Niobrara to be a little place of a few hundred +houses. We went into camp on the edge of the town, where we +stayed the next day, as it was Sunday. Early Monday morning we +were out on the road which led along the banks of the Niobrara +River. We were somewhat surprised at the smallness of this +stream. It was of considerable width but very shallow, and in +many places bubbled along over the rocks like a wide brook. We +spoke of its size to a man whom we met. Said he: + +"Yes, it ain't no great shakes down here around its mouth, +but you just wait till you get up in the neighborhood of its +head-waters. It's a right smart bit of a river up there." + +"But I thought a river was usually bigger at its mouth than +at its source," I said. + +"Depends on the country it runs through," answered the man. +"Some rivers in these parts peter out entirely, and don't have no +mouth a' tall--just go into the ground and leave a wet spot. This +here Niobrara comes through a dry country, and what the sun don't +dry up and the wind blow away the sand swallers mostly, though +some water does sneak through, after all; and in the spring it's +about ten times as big as it is now. The Niobrara goes through +the Sand Hills. Anything that goes through the Sand Hills comes +out small. You fellers are going through the Sand Hills--you'll +come out smaller than you be now." + +This was the first time we had heard of the Sand Hills, but +after this everybody was talking about them and warning us +against them. + +"Why," said one man, "you know that there Sarah Desert over +in Africa somewhere? Well, sir, that there Sarah is a reg'lar +flower-garden, with fountains a-squirting and the band playing +'Hail Columbia,' 'longside o' the Newbraska Sand Hills. You'll go +through 'em for a hundred miles, and you'll wish you'd never been +born!" + +This was not encouraging, but as they were still several +days' travel ahead, we resolved not to worry about them. + +But the country rapidly began to grow drier and more sandy, +especially after the road ceased to follow the river. Before we +left the river valley, however, Ollie made an important discovery +in a thicket on the edge of the bank. This was a number of wild +plum-trees full of fruit. We gathered at least a half-bushel of +plums, and several quarts of wild grapes. + +About the middle of the afternoon we came up on a great level +prairie stretching away to the west as far as we could see. There +seemed to be but few houses, and the scattering fields of corn +were stunted and dried up. It had apparently been an extremely +dry season, though the prospects for rain that night were good, +and grew better. It was hot, and a strong south wind was +blowing. Night soon began to come on, but we could find no good +camping-place. We had not passed a house for four or five miles, +nor a place where we could get water for the horses. As it grew +dark, however, it began to rain. It kept up, and increased to +such an extent that in half an hour there were pools of water +standing along the road in many places, and we decided to stop. +It was wet work taking care of the horses, but the most +discouraging thing was the report from the cook that there was no +milk with which to make griddle-cakes for supper, and as he did +not know how to make anything else, the prospect was rather +gloomy. But through the rain we finally discovered a light a +quarter of a mile away, and Ollie and I started out to find it. +Jack refused to go, on the plea that he was still lame from his +Yankton trip after milk. + +[Illustration: Wet but Hopeful] + +We blundered away through the rain and darkness, and after +stumbling in a dozen holes, running into a fence, and getting +tangled up in an abandoned picket-rope, at last came up to the +house. It was a little one-room board house such as the settlers +call a "shack." The door was open, and inside we could see a man +and woman and half a dozen children and a full dozen dogs. We +walked up, and when the man saw us he called "Come in!" tossed +two children on the bed in the corner, picked up their chairs, +which were home-made, and brought them to us. + +"Wet, ain't it?" he exclaimed. "Rainy as the day Noah yanked +the gang-plank into the Ark. I was a-telling Martha there was a +right smart chance of a shower this afternoon. What might +you-uns' names be, and where might you be from, and where might +you be going?" + +We told him all about ourselves, and he went on: + +"Rainy night. Too late to help the co'n, though. Co'n's poor +this year; reckon we'll have to live on taters and hope. Tater +crop ain't no great shakes, though. Nothing much left but hope, +and dry for that. Reckon I'll go back to old Missouri in the +spring, and work in a saw-mill. No saw-mills here, 'cause there +ain't nothing to saw. Hay don't need sawing. Martha," he added, +turning to his wife, "was it you said our roof didn't need +mending?" + +"I said it did need it a powerful sight," answered the woman, +as she put another stick of hay in the stove, and a stream of +rain-water sputtered in the fire. + +"Mebby you're right," said the man. "There's enough dry spots +for the dogs and children, but when we have vis'tors somebody has +got to get wet. Reckon I oughter put on two shingles for vis'tors +to set under. You fellers will stay to supper, of course. We +'ain't got much but bacon and taters, but you're powerful +welcome." + +"No," I said, "we really mustn't stop. What we wanted was to +see if we couldn't get a little milk from you." + +"Well, I'll be snaked!" exclaimed the man. "That makes me +think I ain't milked the old cow yet." + +"I milked her more'n two hours ago, while you was cleaning +your rifle," said his wife. + +"That so?" replied the man. "Where's the milk?" + +The woman looked around a little. "Reckon the dogs or the +young Uns must 'a' swallered it. 'Tain't in sight, nohow." + +"Oh, we can milk 'er again!" exclaimed the man. "Old Spot +sometimes comes down heavier on the second or third milking than +she does on the first." + +He took a gourd from a shelf, and told us to "come on;" and +started out. He wore a big felt hat, but no coat, and he was +barefooted. Just outside the door stood a bedstead and two or +three chairs. "We move 'em out in the daytime to make more +room," explained the man. The rain was still pouring down. The +man took our lantern and began looking for the cow. He soon found +her, and while I held the lantern, and Ollie our jug, he went +down on his knees beside the cow and began to milk with one hand, +holding the gourd in the other. The cow stood perfectly still, as +if it was no new thing to be milked the second time. We had on +rubber coats, but the man was without protection, and as he sat +very near the cow a considerable stream ran off of her hip-bone +and down the back of his neck. When the gourd was full he poured +it in our jug, and at my offering to pay for it he was almost +insulted. "Not a cent, not a cent!" he exclaimed. "Al'ays glad to +'commodate a neighbor. Good-night; coming down in the morning to +swap hosses with you." + +He went back to the house, and we started for the wagon. + +"He wouldn't have got quite so wet if he hadn't kept so close +to the cow," said Ollie, as we walked along. + +"What he needs," said I, "are eave-troughs on his cow." + + + +V: ACROSS THE NIOBRARA + + +The next morning dawned fair. We were awakened by Old Blacky +kicking the side of the wagon-box with both hind-feet. + +"If that man with the ever-blooming cow comes down," said +Jack, "I'll swap him Old Blacky." + +Just then we heard a loud "Hello!" and, looking out, we found +the man leading a small yellow pony. + +"I just 'lowed I'd come down and let you fellers make +something out of me on a hoss-trade," said the man. + +"Well," answered Jack, "we're willing to swap that black +horse over there. He's a splendid animal." + +"Isn't he rather much on the kick?" the man asked. "He does +kick a little," admitted Jack, "but only for exercise. He +wouldn't hurt a fly. But he is so high-lifed that he has to kick +to ease his nerves once in a while." + +"Thought I seen him whaling away at your wagon," returned the +man. "Couldn't have him round my place, 'cause my house ain't +very steady, and I reckon he'd have it kicked all to flinders +inside of a week." + +He talked for some time, but finally went off when he found +that Jack was not willing to part with any horse except Old +Blacky. + +The road was so sandy that the rain had not made much +difference with it, and we were soon again moving on at a good +rate. We were travelling in a direction a little north of west, +and from one to half a dozen miles south of the Niobrara River. +It would have been nearer to have kept north of the river, but we +were prevented by the Sioux and Ponca Indian reservations, +through which no one was allowed to go. Our intention was to +cross to the north of the river at Grand Rapids and get into the +Keya Paha country, about which we heard a great deal, keep +Straight west, and, after crossing the river twice more, reach +Fort Niobrara and the town of Valentine, beyond which were the +Sand Hills. This route would keep us all the time from twenty to +thirty miles north of the railroad. + +[Illustration: Anti-Hourse-Thieves] + +We had not gone far this morning when we met two men on +horseback riding side by side. They looked like farmers, only we +noticed that each carried a big revolver in a belt and one of +them a gun. They simply said "Good-morning," and passed on. In +about half an hour we met another pair similarly mounted and +armed, and in another half-hour still two more. + +"Must be a wedding somewhere, or a Sunday--school picnic," +said Jack. + +"But why do they all have the guns?" asked Ollie, innocently. + +"Oh, I don't know," answered Jack. "Varmints about, I +suppose." + +In a few minutes we came to a man working beside the road, +and asked him what it all meant. He looked around in a very +mysterious manner, and then half whispered the one word +"Vigilantees!" with a strong accent on each syllable. + +"Oh!" said Jack, "vigilance committee." + +"Correct," returned the man. + +"After horse-thieves, I suppose?" went on Jack. + +"Exactly," replied the man. "Stole two horses at Black Bird +last night at ten o'clock. Holt County Anti-Horse-thief +Association after 'em this morning at four. That's the way we do +business in this country!" + +We drove on, and Jack said: + +"What the Association wants to do is to buy Old Blacky and +put him in a pasture for bait. In the morning the members can go +out and gather up a wagon-load of disabled horse-thieves that +have tried to steal him in the night and got kicked over the +fence." + +We either met or saw a dozen other men on horseback, always +in pairs; but whether or not they caught the thief we never +heard. + +[Illustration: Jack Shoots a Grouse] + +So far we had had very poor luck in finding game; but in the +afternoon of this day Jack shot a grouse, and we camped rather +earlier than usual, so that he might have ample time to cook it. +There were also the plums and grapes to stew. We made our camp +not far from a house, and, after a vast amount of extremely +serious labor on the part of the cook, had a very good supper. + +The next day passed with but one incident worth recalling. In +the afternoon we crossed the Niobrara at Grand Rapids on a +tumbledown wooden bridge, and turned due west through the Keya +Paha country. This is so called from the Keya Paha River +(pronounced Key-a-paw), a branch of the Niobrara which comes down +out of Dakota and joins it a few miles below Grand Rapids. The +country seemed to be much the same as that through which we had +travelled, perhaps a little flatter and sandier. Just across the +river we saw the first large herd of stock, some five or six +hundred head being driven east by half a dozen cowboys. + +A short distance beyond the river we came to a little +blacksmith shop beside the road. As soon as Jack saw it he said: + +"We ought to stop and get the horses shod. I was looking at +the holes the calks of Old Blacky's shoes made in the wagon-box +last night, and they are shallow and irregular. He needs new +shoes to do himself justice. If this blacksmith seems like a man +of force of character, we'll see what he can do." + +Jack looked at the blacksmith quizzically when we drove up, +and whispered to us, "He'll do," and we unhitched. The pony had +never been shod, and did not seem to need any artificial aids, so +we left her to graze about while the others were being attended +to. + +"Just shoe the brown one first, if it doesn't make any +difference," said Jack. + +"All right," answered the blacksmith, and he went to work on +this decent old nag, who slept peacefully throughout the whole +operation. + +He then began On Old Blacky. He soon had shoes nailed on the +old reprobate's forward feet, and approached his rear ones. Old +Blacky had made no resistance so far, and had contented himself +with gnawing at the side of the shop and switching his tail. He +even allowed the blacksmith to take one of his hind-feet between +his knees and start to pull off the old shoe. Then he began to +struggle to free his leg. The blacksmith held on. Old Blacky saw +that the time for action had arrived, so he drew his leg, with +the foolish blacksmith still clinging to it, well up forward, and +then threw it back with all his strength. The leg did not fly +off, but the blacksmith did, and half-way across the shop. He +picked himself up, and, after looking at the horse, said: + +[Illustration: Flight of the Blacksmith] + +"'Pears's if that ain't a colt any more." + +"No," answered Jack; "he's fifteen or sixteen." + +"Old enough to know better," observed the blacksmith. "I'll +try him again." + +He once more got the leg up, and again Old Blacky tried to +throw him off. But this time the man hung on. After the third +effort Blacky looked around at him with a good deal of surprise. +Then he put down the leg to which the man was still clinging, and +with the other gave him a blow which was half a kick and half a +push, which sent the man sprawling over by his anvil. + +"The critter don't seem to take to it nohow, does he?" said +the blacksmith, cheerfully, as he again got up. + +"He's a very peculiar horse," answered Jack. "Has violent +likes and dislikes. His likes are for food, and his dislikes for +everything else." + +"I'll tackle him again, though," said the man. + +But Blacky saw that he could no longer afford to temporize +with the fellow, and now began kicking fiercely with both feet in +all directions, swinging about like a warship to get the proper +range on everything in sight, and finally ending up by putting +one foot through the bellows. + +"Reckon I've got to call in assistance," said the man, as he +started off. He came back with another man, who laid hold of one +of Blacky's forward legs and held it up off the floor. The +blacksmith then seized one of his hind ones and got it up. This +left the old sinner so that if he would kick he would have to +stand on one foot while he did it, and this was hardly enough for +even so bad a horse as he was. He did not wholly give up, +however, but after a great amount of struggling they at last got +him shod. + +"We'll call him the Blacksmith's Pet," said Jack. + +Good camping-places did not seem to be numerous, and just +after the sun had gone down we turned out beside the road near a +half-completed sod house. There was no other house in sight, and +this had apparently been abandoned early in the season, as weeds +and grass were growing on top of the walls, which were three or +four feet high. There was also a peculiar sort of well, a few of +which we had seen during the day. It consisted of four one-inch +boards nailed together and sunk into the ground. The boards were +a foot wide, thus making the inside of the shaft ten inches +square. This one was forty or fifty feet deep, but there was a +long rope and slender tin bucket beside it. The water was not +good, but there was no other to be had. Near the house Ollie +found the first cactus we had seen, which showed, if nothing else +did, that we were getting into a dry country. He took it up +carefully and stowed it away in the cabin to take back home as +evidence of his extensive travels. + +For several days we had not been able to have a camp-fire, +owing to the wind and dryness of the prairie, for had we started +a prairie fire it might have done great damage. + +"We don't want the Holt County Anti-Prairie Fire Society +after us," Jack had said; so we bad been using our oil-stove. + +But this evening was very still, and there seemed to be no +danger in building a camp-fire within the walls of the house, and +we soon had one going with wood which we had gathered along the +river, since to have found wood enough for a camp-fire in that +neighborhood would have been as impossible as to have found a +stone or a spring of water. + +We were sitting about on the sods after supper when a man +rode up on horseback, who said he was looking for some lost +stock. We asked him to have something to eat, and he accepted the +invitation, and afterwards talked a long time, and gave us much +information which we wished about the country. Somebody mentioned +the little well, and the man turned to Ollie and said: + +"How would you like to slip down such a well?" + +"I'm afraid I'm too big," answered Ollie. "Well, perhaps you +are; but there was a child last summer over near where I live who +wasn't too big. He was a little fellow not much over two years +old. The well was a new one, and the curb was almost even with +the top of the ground. He slipped down feet first. It was a +hundred and twenty feet deep, with fifteen feet of water at the +bottom; but he fitted pretty snug, and only went down about fifty +feet at first. His mother missed him, saw that the cover was gone +from the well, and listened. She heard his voice, faint and +smothered. There was no one else at home. She called to him not +to stir, and went to the barn, where there was a two-year-old +colt. He had never been ridden before, but he was ridden that +afternoon, and I guess he hasn't forgotten the lesson. She came +to my place first, told me, and rode away to another neighbor's. +In half an hour there were twenty men there, and soon fifty, and +before morning two hundred. + +"There was no way to fish the child out-the only thing was to +dig down beside the small shaft. We could hear him faintly, and +we began to dig. We started a shaft about four feet square. The +sandy soil caved badly, but men with horses running all the way +brought out lumber from Grand Rapids for curbing. + +"The child's father came too. He listened a second at the +small shaft, and then went down the other. Two men could work at +the bottom of it. One of the men was relieved every few minutes +by a fresh worker, but the father worked on, and did more than +the others, not-withstanding the changes. All of the time the +mother sat on the ground beside the small shaft with her arms +about its top. At four o'clock in the morning we were down +opposite the prisoner. He was still crying faintly. We saw that +to avoid the danger of causing him to slip farther down we must +dig below him, bore a hole in the board, and push through a bar. +But a few shovelfuls more were needed. The work jarred the shaft, +and the child slipped twenty---five feet deeper. At seven o'clock +we were down to where he was again, though we could no longer +bear him. We dug a little below, bored a bole, and the father +slipped through a pickaxe handle, and fainted away as he felt the +little one slide down again but rest on the handle. We tore off +the boards, took the baby out, and drew him and his father to the +surface. There were two doctors waiting for them, and the next +day neither was much the worse for it." + +The man got on his horse and rode away. We agreed that he had +told us a good story, but the next day others assured us that it +had all happened a year before. + + + +VI: BY CAYNONS TO VALENTINE + + +Besides the cactus, another form of vegetation which began +to attract more and more of Ollie's attention was the red +tumbleweed. Indeed, Jack and I found ourselves interested in it +also. The ordinary tumbleweed, green when growing and gray when +tumbling, had long been familiar to us, but the red variety was +new. The old kind which we knew seldom grew more than two feet in +diameter; it was usually almost exactly round, and with its +finely branched limbs was almost as solid as a big sponge, and +when its short stem broke off at the top of the ground in the +fall it would go bounding away across the prairie for miles. The +red sort seemed to be much the same, except for its color and +size. We saw many six or seven feet, perhaps more, in diameter, +though they were rather flat, and not probably over three or four +feet high. + +The first one we saw was on edge, and going at a great rate +across the prairie, bounding high into the air, and acting as if +it had quite gone crazy, as there was a strong wind blowing. + +"Look at that overgrown red tumbleweed!" exclaimed Jack. "I +never saw anything like that before. Jump on the pony, Ollie, and +catch the varmint and bring it back here!" + +Ollie was willing enough to do this, and the pony was willing +enough to go, so off they went. I think if the weed had had a +fair field that Ollie would never have overtaken it, but it got +caught in the long grass occasionally, and he soon came up to it. +But the pony was not used to tumbleweed-coursing, and shied off +with a startled snort. Ollie brought her about and made another +attempt. But again the frightened pony ran around it. Half a +dozen times this was repeated. At last she happened to dash +around it on the wrong side just as it bounded into the air +before the wind. It struck both horse and rider like a big +dry-land wave, and Ollie seized it. If the poor pony had been +frightened before, she was now terror-stricken, and gave a jump +like a tiger, and shot away faster than we had ever seen her run +before. Ollie had lost control of her, and could only cling to +the saddle with one hand and hold to the big blundering weed with +the other. Fortunately the pony ran toward the wagon. As they +came up we could see little but tumbleweed and pony legs, and it +looked like nothing so much as a hay-stack running away on its +own legs. When the pony came up to the wagon she stopped so +suddenly that Ollie went over her head. But he still clung to the +weed, and struck the ground inside of it. He jumped up, still in +the weed, so that it now looked like a hay-stack on two legs. We +pulled him out of it, and found him none the worse for his +adventure. But he was a little frightened, and said: + +[Illustration: Studying Botany] + +"I don't think I'll chase those things again, Uncle Jack--not +with that pony." + +"Oh, that's all right, Ollie," said Jack. "I'm going to +organize the Nebraska Cross-Country Tumbleweed Club, and you'll +want to come to the meets. We'll give the weed one minute start, +and the first man that catches it will get a prize of--of a +watermelon, for instance." + +"Well, I think I'll take another horse before I try it," +returned Ollie. + +"Might try Old Browny," I said. "If he ever came up to a +tumbleweed he would lie right down on it and go to sleep." + +"Yes, and Blacky would hold it with one foot and eat it up," +said Jack. "Unless he took a notion to turn around and kick it +out of existence." + +We looked the queer plant over carefully, and found it so +closely branched that it was impossible to see into it more than +a few inches. The branched were tough and elastic, and when it +struck the ground after being tossed up it would rebound several +inches. But it was almost as light asa thistle-ball, and when we +turned it loose it rolled away across the prairie again as if +nothing had happened. + +"They're bad things sometimes when there is a prairie tire," +said Jack. "No matter how wide the fire-break may be, a blazing +tumbleweed will often roll across it and set tire to the grass +beyond. They've been known to leap over streams of considerable +width, too, or fall in the water and float across, still +blazing. Two years ago the town of Frontenac was burned up by a +tumbleweed, though the citizens had made ah approved fire-break +by ploughing two circles of furrows around their village and +burning off the grass between them. These big red ones must be +worse than the others. I believe," he went on, "that tumbleweeds +might be used to carry messages, like carrier-pigeons. The +next one we come across we'll try it." + +That afternoon we caught a fine specimen, and Jack securely +fastened this message to it and turned it adrift: + + "Schooner Rattletrap, September --, 188-: Latitude. + 42.50; Longitude, 99.35. To Whom it may Concern: From Prairie + Flower, bound for Deadwood. All well except Old Blacky, who has + an appetite." + +The night after our stop by the unfinished house we again +camped on the open prairie, a quarter of a mile from a settler's +house, where we got water for the horses. This house was really a +"dugout," being more of a cellar than a house. It was built in +the side of a little bank, the back of the sod roof level with +the ground, and the front but two or three feet above it. + +"I'd be afraid, if I were living in it, that a heavy rain in +the night might fill it up, and float the bedstead, and bump my +nose on the ceiling," said Jack. + +Ir had been a warm afternoon, but when we went to bed it was +cooler, though there was no wind stirring. The smoke of our +camp-fire went straight up. There was no moon, but the sky was +clear, and we remarked that we had not seen the stars look so +bright any night before. The front of our wagon stood toward the +northwest. We went to bed, but at two o'clock we were awakened by +a most violent shaking of the cover. The wind was blowing a gale, +and the whole top seemed about to be going by the board. We +scrambled up, and I heard Jack's voice calling for me to come +out. The cover-bows were bent far over, and the canvas pressed in +on the side to the southwest till it seemed as if it must burst. +The front end of the top had gone out and was cracking in the +wind. I crept forward, and us I did so I felt the wagon rise up +on the windward side and bump back on the ground. I concluded we +were doomed to u wreck, and called to Ollie to get out as fast us +he could. I supposed a hard storm had struck us, but as I went +over the dash-board I was astonished to see the stars shining us +brightly as ever in the deep, dark sky. Jack was clinging to the +rear wagon wheel on the windward side, which was all that had +saved it from capsizing. He called to me to take hold of the +tongue and steer the craft around with the stern to the gale. I +did so, while he turned on the wheel. + + [Illustration: When the Winds are Breathing Low] + +As it came around the loose sides of the cover began to flutter and +crack, while the puckering-string gave way, and the wind swept +through the wagon, carrying everything that was loose before it, +including Ollie, who was just getting over the dash-board. He was +not hurt, but just then we heard a most pitiful yelping, as Jack's +blankets and pillow went rolling away from where the wagon had +stood. It was Snoozer going with them. The yelping disappeared in +the darkness, and we heard frying-pans, tin plates, and other camp +articles clattering away with the rest. The Rattletrap itself had +tried to run before the gale, but I had put on the brake and +stopped it. The three of us then crouched in front of it, and +waited for the wind to blow itself out. We could see or hear +nothing of the horses. There was nota cloud in sight, and the +stars still shone down calmly and unruffled, while the wind cut and +hissed through the long prairie grass all about us. It kept up for +about ten minutes, when it began to stop as suddenly as it had +begun. In twenty minutes there was nothing but a cool, gentle +breeze coming out of the southwest. We lit the lantern and tried +to gather up our things, but soon realized that we could not do +much that night. We found the unfortunate Snoozer crouched in a +little depression which was perhaps an old buffalo wallow, but +could see nothing of the horses. We concluded to go to bed and +wait for morning. + +When it came we found our things scattered for over a quarter of a +mile. We recovered everything, though the wagon-seat was broken. +The horses had come back, so we could not tell how far they had +gone before the wind. + +"I've read about those night winds on the plains," said Jack, "and +we'll look out for 'em in the future. We'll put an anchor on +Snoozer at least." + +This intelligent animal had not forgotten his night's experience, +and stuck closely in the wagon, where he even insisted on taking +his breakfast. + +The road we were following was gradually drawing closer to the +Niobrara, and we began to see scattering pine-trees, stunted and +broken, along the heads of the canyons or ravines leading down to +the river. There was less sand, and we made better progress. The +country was but little settled, and game was more plentiful. We got +two or three grouse. We went into camp at night by the head of +what appeared to be a large canyon, under a tempest-tossed old +pine-tree, through which the wind constantly sighed. There was no +water, but we counted on getting it down the canyon. A man went by +on horseback, driving some cattle, who told us that we could find a +spring down about half a mile. + +"Can we get any hay down there?" I asked him. "We're out of feed +for the horses, and the grass seems pretty poor here." + +"Down a mile beyond the spring I have a dozen stacks," answered the +man, "and you're welcome to all you can bring up on your pony. +Just go down and help yourselves." + +We thanked him and he went on. As soon as we could we started +down. It was beginning to get dark, and grew darker rapidly as we +went down the ravine, as its sides were high and the trees soon +became numerous. There was no road, nothing but a mere +cattle-path, steep and stony in many places. We found the spring +and watered all the horses, left Blacky and Browny, and went on +after the hay with the pony, Jack leading her, and Ollie and I +walking ahead with the lantern. It seemed a long way as we +stumbled along in the darkness, all the time downhill. "I guess +that man wasn't so liberal as he seemed," said Jack. "The pony +will be able to carry just about enough hay up here to make Snoozer +a bed." + +We plunged on, till at last the path became a little nearer +level. It crossed a small open tract and then wound among bushes +and low trees. Suddenly we saw something gleam in the light of +the lantern, and stopped right on the river's bank. The water +looked deep and dark, though not very wide. The current was swift +and eddying. + +"We've passed the hay," I said. "Ir must be on that open flat +we crossed." + +We went back, and, turning to the right, soon found it. I set +the lantern down and began to pull hay from one of the stacks, +when the pony made a sudden movement, struck the lantern with her +foot, and smashed the globe to bits. + +"There," exclaimed Jack, "we'll have a fine time going up +that badger-hole of a canyon in the dark!" + +But there was nothing else to do, and we made up two big +bundles of hay and tied them to the pony's back. + +"She'll think it's tumbleweeds," said Ollie. + +"If she's headed in the right direction I hope she will," +answered Jack. + +We started up, but it was a long and toilsome climb. In many +places Jack and I had to get down on our hands and knees and feel +out the path. The worst place was a scramble up a bank twenty +feet high, and covered with loose stones. I was ahead. The heroic +little pony with her unwieldy load sniffed at the prospect a +little, and then started bravely up, "hanging on by her +toe-nails," as Ollie said. When she was almost to the top she +stepped on a loose stone, lost her footing, went over, and rolled +away into the darkness and underbrush. Jack stumbled over a +little of the hay which had come off in the path, hastily rolled +up a torch, and lit it with a match. By this light we found the +pony on her back, like a tumble-bug, with her load for a cushion +and her feet in the air, and kicking wildly in every direction. +While Ollie held the torch, Jack and I went to her rescue, and, +after a vast deal of pulling and lifting, got her to her feet +just as the hay torch died out. Again she scrambled up the bank, +and this time with success. We went on, found the other horses, +and were soon at the wagon. We voted the pony all the hay she +wanted, and went to bed tired. + +The next day, the ninth out from Yankton, though it was a +long run, brought us to Valentine, the first town on the railroad +which we had seen since leaving the former place. Before we +reached it we went several miles along the upper ends of the +canyons, down a long hill so steep that we had to chain both hind +wheels, forded the Niobrara twice, followed the river several +miles, went out across the military reservation, which was like a +desert, saw six or eight hundred negro soldiers at Fort Niobrara, +and finally drove through Valentine, and went into camp a mile +west of town. On the way we saw thousands of the biggest and +reddest tumbleweeds, and two or three new sorts of cactus. The +colored troops surprised Ollie, as he had never seen any before. + +"It's the western winds and the hot sun that's tanned those +soldiers," said Jack. "We'll look just that way, too, before we +get back." + +Ollie was half inclined to believe this astonishing statement +at first, but concluded that his uncle was joking. + +[Illustration: Sad Result of Dishonesty] + +We went into camp on the banks of the Minichaduza River, a +little brook which flows into the Niobrara from the northwest. +All night it gurgled and bubbled almost under our wheels. A man +stopped to chat with us as we sat around our camp-fire after +supper. We told him of our experience in getting the hay the +night before. He laughed and said: "Ever steal any of your horse +feed?" + +"We haven't yet," answered Jack. "We try to be reasonably +honest." + +"Some don't, though," replied the man. "Most of 'em that are +going West in a covered wagon seem to think corn in the field is +public property. A fellow camped right here one afternoon last +fall. He was out of feed, and took a grain sack on one arm and a +big Winchester rifle on the other, and went over to old Brown's +cornfield. He took the gun along not to shoot anybody, but to +sort of intimidate Brown if he should catch him. Suddenly he saw +an old fellow coming towards him carrying a gun about a foot +longer than his own. The young fellow wilted right down on the +ground and never moved. He happened to go down on a big prickly +cactus, but he never stirred, cactus or no cactus. He thought +Brown had caught him, and that he was done for. The old man kept +coming nearer and nearer. He was almost to him. The young fellow +concluded to make a brave fight. So he jumped up and yelled. The +old man dropped his gun and ran like a scared wolf. Then the +young fellow noticed that the other also had a sack in which he +had been gathering corn. He called him back, they saw that they +were both thieves, shook hands, and went ahead and robbed old +Brown together." + +The man got up to go. "Well, good-night, boys," he said. +"Rest as hard as you can tomorrow. You'll strike into the Sand +Hills at about nine o'clock Monday morning. Take three days' +feed, and every drop of water you can carry; and it you waste any +of it washing your hands you're bigger fools than I think you +are." + + + +VII: THROUGH THE SAND HILLS + + +"Come, stir out of that and get the camels ready for the +desert!" + +This was Jack's cheery way of warning Ollie and me that it +was time to get up on the morning of our start into the Sand +Hills. + +"Any simooms in sight?" asked Ollie, by way of reply to +Jack's remark. + +"Well, I think Old Browny scents one; he has got his nose +buried in the sand like a camel," answered Jack. + +It was only just coming daylight, but we were agreed that an +early start was best. It was another Monday morning, and we knew +that it would take three good days' driving to carry us through +the sand country. We had learned that, notwithstanding what our +visitor of the first night had said, there were several places on +the road where we could get water and feed for the horses. We +should have to carry some water along, however, and had got two +large kegs from Valentine, and filled them and all of our jugs +and pails the night before. We also had a good stock of oats and +corn, and a big bundle of hay, which we put in the cabin on the +bed. + +"Just as soon as Old Blacky finds that there is no water +along the road he will insist on having about a barrel a day," +said Jack. "And if he can't get it he will balk, and kick the +dash-board into kindling-wood." + +A little before sunrise we started. It was agreed, owing to +the increase in the load and the deep sand, that no one, not even +Snoozer, should be allowed to ride in the wagon. If Ollie got +tired he was to ride the pony. So we started off, walking beside +the wagon, with the pony lust behind, as usual, dangling her +stirrups, and the abused Snoozer, looking very much hurt at the +insult put upon him, following behind her. + +For three or four miles the road was much like that to which +we had been accustomed. Then it gradually began to grow sandier. +We were following an old trail which ran near the railroad, +sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other; and this was +the case all the way through the hills. The railroad was new, +having been built only a year or two before. There was a station +on it every fifteen or twenty miles, with a side-track, and a +water-tank for the engines, but not much else. + +There was no well-marked boundary to the Sand Hills, but +gradually, and almost before we realized it, we found ourselves +surrounded by them. We came to a crossing of the railroad, and in +a little cut a few rods away we saw the sand drifted over the +rails three or four inches deep, precisely like snow. + +"Well," said Jack, "I guess we're in the Sand Hills at last +if we've got where it drifts." + +"I wonder if they have to have sand-ploughs on their +engines?" said Ollie. + +"I've heard that they frequently have to stop and shovel it +off," answered Jack. + +As we got farther among the sand dunes we found them all +sizes and shapes, though usually circular, and from fifteen to +forty feet high. Of course the surface of the county was very +irregular, and there would be places here and there where the +grass had obtained a little footing and the sand had not drifted +up. There were also some hills which seemed to be independent of +the sand piles. + +We stopped for noon on a little flat where there was some +struggling grass, This flat ran off to the north, and narrowed +into a small valley through which in the spring probably a little +water flowed. We had finished dinner when we noticed a flock of +big birds circling about the little valley, and, on looking +closer, saw that some of them were on the ground. + +"They are sand-hill cranes," said Jack. "I've seen them in +Dakota, but this must be their home." + +They were immense birds, white and gray, and with very long +legs. Jack took his rifle and tried to creep up on them, but they +were too shy, and soared away to the south. + +We soon passed the first station on the railroad, called +Crookston. The telegraph-operator came out and looked at us, +admitted that it was a sandy neighborhood, and went back in. We +toiled on without any incident of note during the whole +afternoon. Toward night we passed another station, called +Georgia, and the man in charge allowed us to fill our kegs from +the water-tank. + + [Illustration: First Night Camp in the Sand Hills] + +We went on three or four miles and stopped beside the trail, and a +hundred yards from the railroad, for the night. The great drifts of +sand were all around us, and no desert could have been lonelier. +We had a little wood and built a camp-fire. The evening was still +and there was not a sound. Even the Blacksmith's Pet, wandering +about seeking what he could devour, and finding nothing, made +scarcely a sound in the soft sand. The moon was shining, and it +was warm as any summer evening. Jack sat on the ground beside the +wagon and played the banjo for half an hour. After a while we +walked over to the railroad. We could hear a faint rumble, and +concluded that a train was approaching. + +"Let's wait for it," proposed Jack. "It will be along in a +moment." + +We waited and listened. Then we distinctly heard the whistle +of a locomotive, and the faint roar gradually ceased. + +"It's stopped somewhere," I said. + +"Don't see what it should stop around here for," said Jack, +"unless to take on a sand-hill crane." + +Then we heard it start up, run a short distance, and again +stop; this it repeated half a dozen times, and then after a pause +it settled down to a long steady roar again. + +"It isn't possible, is it, that that train has been stopped +at the next station west of here?" I said. + +"The next station is Cody, and it's a dozen miles from here," +answered Jack. "It doesn't seem as if we could hear it so far, +but we'll time it and see." + +He looked at his watch and we waited. For a long time the +roar kept up, occasionally dying away as the train probably went +through a deep cut or behind a hill. It gradually increased in +volume, till at last it seemed as if the train must certainly be +within a hundred yards. Still it did not appear, and the sound +grew louder and louder. But at the end of thirty-five minutes it +came around the curve in sight and thundered by, a long freight +train, and making more noise, it seemed, that any train ever made +before. + +"That's where it was!" exclaimed Jack--"at Cody, twelve +miles from here; and we first heard it I don't know how far +beyond. If I ever go into the telephone business I'll keep away +from the Sand Hills. A man here ought to be able to hold a +pleasant chat with a neighbor two miles off, and by speaking up +loud ask the postmaster ten miles away if there is any mail for +him." + +We were off ploughing through the sand again early the next +morning. We could not give the horses quite all the water they +wanted, but we did the best we could. We were in the heart of the +hills all day. There were simply thousands of the great sand +drifts in every direction. Buffalo bones half buried were +becoming numerous. We saw several coyotes, or prairie wolves, +skulking about, but we shot at them without success. We got water +at Cody, and pressed on. In the afternoon we sighted some +antelope looking cautiously over the crest of a sand billow. +Ollie mounted the pony and I took my rifle, and we went after +them, while Jack kept on with the wagon. They retreated, and we +followed them a mile or more back from the trail, winding among +the drifts and attempting to get near enough for a shot. But they +were too wary for us. At last we mounted a hill rather higher +than the rest, and saw them scampering away a mile or more to the +northwest. We were surprised more by something which we saw still +on beyond them, and that was a little pond of water deep down +between two great ridges of sand. + +"I didn't expect to see a lake in this country," said Ollie. + +I studied the lay of the land a moment, and said: "I think +it's simply a place where the wind has scooped out the sand down +below the water-line and it has filled up. The wind has dug a +well, that's all. You know the telegraph-operator at Georgia told +us the wells here were shallow--that there's plenty of water down +a short distance." + +We could see that there was considerable grass and quite an +oasis around the pond. But in every other direction there was +nothing but sand billows, all scooped out on their northwest +sides where the fierce winds of winter had gnawed at them. The +afternoon sun was sinking, and every dune cast a dark shadow on +the light yellow of the sand, making a great landscape of glaring +light covered with black spots. A coyote sat on a buffalo skull +on top of the next hill and looked at us. A little owl flitted by +and disappeared in one of the shadows. + +"This is like being adrift in an open boat," I said to Ollie. +"We must hurry on and catch the Rattletrap." + +"I'm in the open boat," answered Ollie. "You're just simply +swimming about without even a life-preserver on." + +We turned and started for the trail. We found it, but we had +spent more time in the hills than we realized, and before we had +gone far it began to grow dark. We waded on, and at last saw +Jack's welcome camp-fire. When we came up we smelled grouse +cooking, and he said: + +"While you fellows were chasing about and getting lost I +gathered in a brace of fat grouse. What you want to do next time +is to take along your hat full of oats, and perhaps you can coax +the antelope to come up and eat." + +The camp was near another railroad station called Eli. We had +been gradually working north, and were now not over three or four +miles from the Dakota line; but Dakota here consisted of nothing +but the immense Sioux Indian Reservation, two or three hundred +miles long. + +The next morning Jack complained of not feeling well. + +"What's the matter, Jack?" I asked. + +"Gout," answered Jack, promptly. "I'm too good a cook for +myself. I'm going to let you cook for a few days, and give my +system a rest." + +[Illustration: Dark Doings of the Cook] + +This seemed very funny to Ollie and me, who had been eating +Jack's cooking for two or three weeks. The fact was that the +gouty Jack was the poorest cook that ever looked into a +kettle, and he knew it well enough. He could make one +thing--pancakes--nothing else. They were usually fairly good, +though he would sometimes get his recipes mixed up, and use his +sour-milk one when the milk was sweet, or his sweet-milk one when +it was sour; but we got accustomed to this. Then it was hard to +spoil young and tender fried grouse, and the stewed plums had +been good, though he had got some hay mixed with them; but the +flavor of hay is not bad. We bought frequently of "canned goods" +at the stores, and this he could not injure a great deal. + +We did not pay much attention to Jack's threat about stopping +cooking. He got breakfast after a fashion, mixing sour and sweet +milk as an experiment, and though he didn't eat much himself, we +did not think he was going to be sick. But after walking a short +distance he declared he could go no farther, and climbed into the +cabin and rolled upon the bed. + +Ollie and I ploughed along with the sand still streaming, +like long flaxen hair, off the wagon-wheels as they turned. In a +little valley about ten o'clock Ollie shot his first grouse. We +saw more antelope, and met a man with his wife and six children +and five dogs and two cows and twelve chickens going east. He +said he was tired of Nebraska, and was on his way to Illinois. At +noon we stopped at Merriman, another railroad station. Jack got +up and made a pretence of getting dinner, but he ate nothing +himself, and really began to look ill. + +We made but a short stop, as we were anxious to get out of +the worst of the sand that afternoon. We asked about feed and +water for the horses, and were told that we could get both at +Irwin, another station fifteen miles ahead. We pressed on, with +Jack still in the wagon, but it was almost dark before we reached +the station. We found a man on the railroad track. + +"Can we get some feed and water here?" I asked of him. + +"Reckon not," answered the man. + +"Where can we find the station agent?" + +"He's gone up to Gordon, and won't be back till midnight." + +"Hasn't any one got any horse-feed for sale?" + +[Illustration: No Horse-Feed] + +"There isn't a smell of horse-feed here," said the man. "I've +got the only well, except the railroad's, but it's 'most dry. +I'll give you what water I can, though. As for feed, you'd better +go on three miles to Keith's ranch. It's on Lost Creek Flat, and +there's lots of haystacks there, and you can help yourself. At +the ranch-house they will give you other things." + +We drove over to the man's house, and got half a pail of +water apiece for the horses. They wanted more, but there was no +more in the well. The man said we could get everything we wanted +at the ranch, and we started on. The horses were tired, but even +Old Blacky was quite amiable, and trudged along in the sand +without complaint. + +Jack was still in the wagon, and we heard nothing of him. It +was cloudy and very dark. But the horses kept in the trail, and +after, as it seemed to us, we had gone five miles, we felt +ourselves on firmer ground. Soon we thought we could make out +something, perhaps hay-stacks, through the darkness. I sent Ollie +on the pony to see what it was. He rode away, and in a moment I +heard a great snorting and a stamping of feet, and Ollie's voice +calling for me to come. I ran over with the lantern, and found +that he had ridden full into a barbed-wire fence around a +hay-stack. The pony stood trembling, with the blood flowing from +her breast and legs, but the scratches did not seem to be deep. + +"We must find that ranch-house," I said to Ollie. "It ought +to be near." + +For half an hour we wandered among the wilderness of +hay-stacks, every one protected by barbed wire. At last we heard +a dog barking, followed the sound, and came to the house. The dog +was the only live thing at home, and the house was locked. + +"Well, what we want is water," I said, "and here's the well." + +We let down the bucket and brought up two quarts of mud. + +"The man was right," said Ollie. "This is worse than the +Sarah Desert." + +"Fountains squirt and bands play 'The Old Oaken Bucket' in +the Sarah Desert 'longside o' this," I answered. + +It was eleven o'clock before we found the wagon. We could +hear Jack snoring inside, and were surprised to find Snoozer on +guard outside, wide awake. He seemed to feel his responsibility, +and at first was not inclined to let us approach. + +We unharnessed the horses, and Ollie crawled under the fence +around one of the stacks of hay and pulled out a big armful for +them. + +"The poor things shall have all the hay they want, anyhow," +he said. + +"I'm afraid they'll think it's pretty dry," I returned, "but +I don't see what we can do." + +Then I called to Jack, and said: "Come, get up and get us +some supper!" + +After a good deal of growling he called back: "I'm not +hungry." + +"But we are, and you're well enough to make some cakes." + +"Won't do it," answered Jack. "You folks can make 'em as +well as I can." + +"I can't. Can you?" I said to Ollie. He shook his head. + +"You're not very sick or you wouldn't be so cross," I called +to Jack: "Roll out and get supper, or I'll pull you out!" + +"First follow comes in this wagon gets the head knocked off +'m!" cried Jack. "Besides, there's no milk! No eggs! No +nothing! Go 'way! I'm sick! That's all there is," and something +which looked like a cannon-ball shot out of the front end of the +wagon, followed by a paper bag which might have been the wadding +used in the Cannon. "That's all! Lemme 'lone!" And we heard Jack +tie down the front of the cover and roll over on the bed again. + +"See what it is," I said to Ollie. + +He took the lantern and started. "Guess it's a can of Boston +baked beans," he said. "Oh, then we're all right," I replied. + +He picked it up and studied it carefully by the light of the +lantern. + +"No," he said, slowly, "it isn't that. G--g, double +o--gooseberries--that's what it is--a can of gooseberries we got +at Valentine." + +"And this is a paper bag of sugar," I said, picking it up. +"No gout to-night!" + +I cut open the can and poured in the sugar. We stirred it up +with a stick, and Ollie drank a third of it and I the rest. Then +we crawled under the wagon, covered ourselves with the pony's +saddle-blanket, and went to sleep. But before we did so I said: + +"Ollie, at the next town I am going to get you a cook-book, +and we'll be independent of that wretch in the wagon." + +"All right," answered Ollie. + + + +VIII: ON THE ANTELOPE FLATS + + +The next morning the condition of the tempers of the crew of the +Rattletrap was reversed. Jack was feeling better and was quite +amiable, and inclined to regret his bloodthirsty language of the +night before. But Ollie and I, on our diet of gooseberries, had not +prospered, and woke up as cross as Old Blacky. The first thing I +did was to seize the empty gooseberry can and hit the side of the +wagon a half-dozen resounding blows. + +"Get up there," I cried, "and 'tend to breakfast! No +pretending you're sick this morning." + +"All right!" came Jack's voice, cheerfully. "Certainly. No +need of your getting excited, though. You see, I really wasn't +hungry last night, or I'd have got supper." + +"But we were hungry!" answered Ollie. "I don't think I was +ever much hungrier in my life; and then to get nothing but a pint +of gooseberries! I could eat my hat this morning!" + +"I'm sorry," said Jack, coming out; "but I can't cook unless +I'm hungry myself. The hunger of others does not inspire me. I +gave you all there was. Your hunger ought to have inspired you to +do something with those gooseberries." + +"I'd like to know what sort of a meal you'd have got up with +a can of gooseberries?" + +"Why, my dear young nephew," exclaimed Jack, "if I'd been +awakened to action I'd have fricasseed those gooseberries, built +them up into a gastronomical poem; and made a meal of them fit +for a king. A great cook like I am is an artist as much as a +great poet. He--" + +"Oh, bother!" I interrupted; "the gooseberries are gone. +There's the grouse Ollie shot yesterday. Do something with that +for breakfast." + +Jack disappeared in the wagon, and began to throw grouse +feathers out the front end with a great flourish. The poor horses +were much dejected, and stood with their heads down. They had +eaten but little of the hay. Water was what they wanted. + +"We must hitch up and go on without waiting for breakfast," I +said to Ollie. "It can't be far to water now, and they must have +some. Jack can be cooking the grouse in the wagon." + +So we were soon under way, keeping a sharp lookout, for any +signs of a house or stream of water. We had gone five or six +miles, and were descending into a little valley, when there came +a loud whinny from Old Blacky. Sure enough, at the foot of the +hill was a stream of water. The pony ran toward it on a gallop, +and as soon as we could unhitch the others they joined her. They +all waded in, and drank till we feared they would never be able +to wade out again. Then they stood taking little sips, and +letting their lips rest just on the surface and blinking +dreamily. We knew that they stood almost as much in need of food +as of water, as they had had nothing but the hay since the noon +before. There was a field of corn half a mile away, on a +side-hill, but no house in sight. + +"I'm going after some of that corn," I said to the others. +"If I can't find the owner to buy it, then I'll help myself." + +I mounted the pony and rode away. There was still no house in +sight at the field, and I filled a sack and returned. The horses +went at their breakfast eagerly. But twice during the meal they +stopped and plunged in the brook and took other long drinks; and +at the end Old Blacky lay down in a shallow place and rolled, and +came out looking like a drowned rat. + +In the meantime Jack had got the grouse ready, and we ate it +about as ravenously as the horses did their corn. We had just +finished, and were talking about going, when a tall man on a +small horse almost covered with saddle rode up, and began to talk +cheerfully on various topics. After a while he said: + +[Illustration: The Careful Corn Owner] + +"Well, boys, was that good corn?" + +We all suspected the truth instantly. + +"He did it!" exclaimed Jack, pointing at me. "He did it all +alone. We're going to give him up to the authorities at the next +town." + +The man laughed, and said: "Don't do it. He may reform." + +There seemed to be but one thing to do, so I said: "It was +your corn, I suppose. Our only excuse is that we were out of +corn. Tell us how much it is, and we'll pay you for it." + +"Not a cent," answered the man, firmly. "It's all right. I've +travelled through them Sand Hills myself, and I know how it is. +You're welcome to all you took, and you can have another sackful +if you want to go after it." + +I thanked him, but told him that we expected to get some feed +at Gordon, the next town. After wishing us good-luck, he rode +away. + +We started on, and made but a short stop for noon, near +Gordon. We found ourselves in a fairly well-settled country, +though the oldest settlers had been there but two or three years. +The region was called the Antelope Flats, and was quite level, +with occasional ravines. The trail usually ran near the railroad, +and that night we camped within three or four rods of it. Long +trains loaded with cattle thundered by all night. We were +somewhat nervous lest Old Blacky should put his shoulder against +the wagon while we slept, and push it on the track in revenge for +the poor treatment we gave him in the Sand Hills, but the plan +didn't happen to occur to him. It was at this camp that we +encountered a remarkable echoing well. It was an ordinary open +well, forty or fifty feet deep, near a neighboring house, but a +word spoken above it came back repeated a score of times. We +failed to account for it. + +The next forenoon we jogged along much the same as usual and +stopped for noon at Rushville. This was not far from the Pine +Ridge Indian Agency and the place called Wounded Knee, where the +battle with the Sioux was fought three or four years later. We +saw a number of Indians here, and though they came up to Ollie's +idea of what an Indian should be a little better than the one +that rode with us, they still did not seem to be just the thing. + +[Illustration: A Study in Red Men] + +"I don't think," he said, "that they ought to smoke +cigarettes." + +"It does look like rather small business for an Indian, +doesn't it?" answered Jack. "But then smoking cigarettes is small +business for anybody. What's your idea of what an Indian ought to +smoke?" + +"Well, I'm not sure he ought to smoke anything, except of +coarse the peace-pipe occasionally. And he oughtn't to smoke that +very much, because an Indian shouldn't make peace very often." + +"Right on the war-path all the time, flourishing a +scalping-knife above his head, and whooping his teeth +loose--that's your notion of an Indian." + +"Well, I don't know as that is exactly it," returned Ollie, +doubtfully. "But it seems to me these are hardly right. Their +clothes seem to be just like white people's." + +"I don't know about that," said Jack. "I saw one when I went +around to the post-office wearing bright Indian moccasins, a pair +of soldier's trousers, a fashionable black coat, and a cowboy +hat. I never saw a white man dressed just like that." + +"Well, I think they ought to wear some feathers, anyhow," +insisted Ollie. "An Indian without feathers is just like a--a +turkey without 'em." + +The Indians were idling all over town, big, lazy, +villanous-looking fellows, and very frequently they were smoking +cigarettes, and often they were dressed much as Jack had +described, though their clothes varied a good deal. There were +two points which they all had in common, however--they were all +dirty, and all carried bright, clean repeating-rifles, We +wondered why they needed the rifles, since there was no game in +the neighborhood. + +The chief business of Rushville seemed to be shipping bones. +We went over to the railroad to watch the process. There were +great piles of them about the station, and men were loading them +into freight-cars. + +"What's done with them?" we asked of a man. + +"Shipped East, and ground up for fertilizer," he answered. + +"Where do they all come from?" + +"Picked up about the country everywhere. Men make a business +of gathering them and bringing them in at so much a load. Supply +won't last many months longer, but it's good business now." + +They were chiefly buffalo bones, though there were also those +of the deer, elk, and antelope. We saw some beautiful elk +antlers, and many broad white skulls of the buffalo, some of them +still with the thick black horns on them. As we were watching the +loading of the bones Ollie suddenly exclaimed: + +"Oh, see the pretty little deer!" + +We looked around, and saw, in the front yard of a house, a +young antelope, standing by the fence, and also watching the +bone-men as they worked. + +"It is a beautiful creature, isn't it?" said Jack. "And how +happy and contented it looks!" + +"I guess it's happy because it isn't in the bone-pile," said +Ollie. + +We went over to it, and found it so tame that it allowed +Ollie to pet it as much as he pleased. The man who owned it told +us that he had found it among the Sand Hills, with one foot +caught in a little bridge on the railroad, where it had +apparently tried to cross. He rescued it just before a train came +along. + +We left Rushville after a rather longer stop for noon than we +usually made. Nothing worthy of mention occurred during the +afternoon, and that night we camped on the edge of another small +town, called Hay Springs. + +"I don't know," said Jack, "whether or not they really have +springs here that flow with water and hay, or how it got its +funny name. If there are that kind of springs, I think it's a +pity there can't be some of them in the Sand Hills." + +Jack went over town after supper for some postage-stamps, and +came back quite excited. + +"Found it at last, Ollie!" he exclaimed. "Grandpa Oldberry +was right." + +"What--a varmint?" asked Ollie. + +"A genuine varmint," answered Jack. "A regular painter. It's +in a cage, to be sure, but it may get out during the night." + +We all went over to see it. It was in a big box back of a +hotel, and the man in charge called it a mountain-lion, and said +it was caught up in the Black Hills. "Right where we're going," +whispered Ollie. The animal was, I presume, really a jaguar, and +was a big cat three or four feet long. + +We were off again the next morning, looking forward eagerly +to the camp for the night, which we expected would be at Chadron, +and where our course would change to the north into Dakota again, +this time on the extreme western edge, and carry us up to the +mountains. Most of the day we travelled through a rougher +country, and saw many buttes--steep-sided, flat-topped mounds; +and in the neighborhood of Bordeaux the road wound among +scattering pine-trees. We camped at noon near the house of a +settler who seemed to have a dog farm, as the place was overrun +with the animals. We needed some corn for the horses, and +asked him if he had any to sell. He was a queer looking man, with +hair the color of molasses candy, and skim-milk eyes. + +[Illustration: A Good Salesman] + +"Waal, now, stranger, I jess reckon I have got some co'n to +sell," he said. "The only trouble with that there co'n o' mine is +that it ain't shucked. If you wouldn't mind to go out into the +field and shuck it out, we can jess make a deal right here." + +We finally gave him fifty cents for all our three sacks would +hold, and he pointed out the field a quarter of a mile away and +went back to the house. We noticed that he very soon mounted a +pony and rode away towards Hay Springs, but thought nothing of +it. When we were ready to start we drove over to the cornfield to +get what we had paid for. Jack put his head out of the wagon, +took a long look, and said: + +"That's the sickest-looking cornfield I ever saw!" + +We got out, and found a sorry prospect. The corn was poor and +scattering and choked with weeds. + +"And the worst of it," called Jack, as he waded out into the +weeds, "is that it has been harvested about twelve times already. +The scoundrel has been selling it to every man that came along +for a month, and I don't believe there were three sackfuls in the +whole field to start with." + +We went to work at it, and found that he was not far from +right. + +"No wonder the old skeesicks went off to town soon as he got +his money," I said. "He won't show himself back here till he is +sure we have gone." + +We worked for an hour, and managed to fill one bag with +"nubbins," and gave up, promising ourselves that we wouldn't be +imposed upon in that way again. + +We reached Chadron in due time, and went into camp a little +way beyond, on the banks of the White River, a stream which flows +through Dakota and finally joins the Missouri. Our camp was on a +little flat where the river bends around in the shape of a +horseshoe. It seemed to be a popular stopping-place, and there +were half a dozen other covered wagons in camp there. The number +of empty tin cans scattered about on that piece of ground must +have run up into the thousands. But there had not been a mile of +the road since we left Valentine which had not had from a dozen +to several hundred cans scattered along it, left by former +"movers." We had contributed our share, including the gooseberry +can. From the labels we noticed on the can windrow along the road +it seemed that peaches and Boston baked beans were the favorite +things consumed by the overland travellers, though there were a +great many green-corn, tomato, and salmon cans. + +"You can get every article of food in tin cans now," observed +Jack one day, "except my pancakes. I'm going to start a pancake +cannery. I'll label my cans 'Jack's Celebrated Rattletrap +Pancakes--Warranted Free from Injurious Substances. Open this +end. Soak two weeks before using.'" + +It was a pretty camping-place on the little can-covered fiat, +and we sat up late, visiting with our neighbors and talking about +the Black Hills. + +"I think," said Jack, as we stumbled over the cans on our way +to the Rattletrap, "that I'll go into the mining business up +there myself. I'll just back the Blacksmith's Pet up to the side +of a mountain, tickle his heels with a straw, and he'll have a +gold-mine kicked out inside of five minutes." + + + +IX: OFF FOR THE BLACK HILLS + + +The next day was Sunday, so we did not leave the White River +camp till Monday morning. We found Chadron (pronounced Shadron) an +extremely lively town, in which all of the citizens wore big hats +and immense jingling Mexican spurs. We had the big hats, but to +be in fashion and not to attract attention we also got jingling +spurs. + +"I shall wear 'em all night," said Jack, as he strapped his +on. "Only dudes take off their spurs when they go to bed, and I'm +no dude." + +Our next objective point was Rapid City. It was a beautiful +morning when we turned to the north. The sand had disappeared, +and the soil was more like asphalt pavement. + +"The farmers fire their seed into the ground with +six-shooters," said a man we fell in with on the road. "Very +expensive for powder." + +"The soil's what you call gumbo, isn't it?" I said to him. + +"Yes. Works better when it's wet. One man can stick a spade +into it then. Takes two to pull it out, though." + +It was not long before we passed the Dakota line, marked by a +post and a pile of tin cans. Shortly before noon Ollie made a +discovery. + +"What are those little animals?" he cried. "Oh, I +know--prairie-dogs!" + +There was a whole town of them right beside the road, with +every dog sitting on top of the mound that marked his home, and +uttering his shrill little bark, and marking each bark by a +peculiar little jerk of his tail. + +"How do you know they are prairie-dogs?" asked Jack. + +"They had some of them in the park at home," said Ollie. "But +last fall they all went down in their burrows for the winter, and +in the spring they didn't come up. Folks said they must have +frozen to death." + +"Nonsense," said Jack. "They got turned around somehow, and +in the spring dug down instead of digging up. They may come out +in China yet if they have good-luck." + +"I can hardly swallow that," replied Ollie. "But, anyhow, +these seem to be all right." + +There must have been three or four hundred of them, and not +for a moment did one of them stop barking till Snoozer jumped out +of the wagon and charged them, when, with one last bark, each one +of them shot down his hole so quick that it was almost impossible +to see him move. + +"Now that's just about the sort of game that Snoozer likes!" +exclaimed Jack. "If they were badgers, or even woodchucks, you +couldn't drive him at them." + +"I don't think there is much danger of his getting any of +them," said Ollie. + +We called Snoozer back, and soon one of the little animals +cautiously put up his head, saw that the coast was clear, gave +one bark, and all the rest came up, and the concert began as if +nothing had happened. + +"I suppose that was the mayor of the town that peeped up +first?" said Ollie. "Yes, or the chief of police," answered Jack. +We camped that night by the bed of a dry creek, and watered the +horses at a settler's house half a mile away. + +"That's the most beautiful place for a stream I ever saw," +observed Jack. "If a man had a creek and no bed for it to run in, +he'd be awfully glad to get that." + +The next day was distinctly a prairie-dog day. We passed +dozens of their towns, and were seldom out of hearing of their +peculiar chirp. + +"I wonder," said Ollie, "if the bark makes the tail go, or +does the tail set off the bark." + +"Oh, neither," returned Jack. "They simply check off the +barks with their tails. There's a National Prairie-Dog Barking +Contest going on, and they are seeing who can yelp the most in a +week. They keep count with their tails." + +At the little town of Oelrichs we saw a number of Indians, +since we were again near the reservation. One little girl nine or +ten years old must have been the daughter of an important +personage, since she was dressed in most gorgeous clothes, all +covered with beads and colored porcupine-quill-work. And at last +Ollie saw an Indian wearing feathers. Three eagle feathers stuck +straight up in his hair. He was standing outside of a log house +looking in the window. By-and-by a young lady came to the door of +the house, and as we were nearer than anybody else, she motioned +us to come over. + +[Illustration: Big Bear Looks Into the Educational Situation] + +"I wish," she said, "that you'd please go around and ask Big +Bear to go away. He keeps looking in the window and bothering the +scholars." + +We stepped around the corner, and Jack said: "See here, +neighbor Big Bear, you're impeding the cause of education." + +The Indian looked at him stolidly, but did not move. + +"Teacher says vamoose--heap bother pappooses," said Jack. + +The Indian grunted and walked away. "Nothing like +understanding the language," boasted Jack, as we went back to the +wagon. + +At noon we camped beside a stream, but thirty feet above +it. There was a clay bank almost as hard as stone rising +perpendicularly from the water's edge. With a pail and rope we +drew up all the water we needed. In the afternoon we got our +first sight of the Black Hills, like clouds low on the northern +horizon. About the same time we struck into the old Sidney trail, +which, before the railroad had reached nearer points, was used in +carrying freight to the Hills in wagons. In some places it was +half a mile wide and consisted of a score or more of tracks worn +into deep ruts. There was a herd of several thousand Texas cattle +crossing the trail in charge of a dozen men, and we waited and +watched them go by. Ollie had never seen such a display of horns +before. + +Shortly after this we came upon the first sage-bush which we +had seen. It was queer gray stuff, shaped like miniature trees, +and had the appearance of being able to get along with very +little rain. + +Toward night we found ourselves winding down among the hills +to the Cheyenne River. They were strange-looking hills, most +of them utterly barren on their sides, which were nearly +perpendicular, the hard soil standing almost as firm as rock. +They were ribbed and seamed by the rain--in fact, they were not +hills at all, properly speaking, but small bluffs left by the +washing out of the ravines by the rain and melting snows. Just as +the sun was sinking among the distant hills we came to the river. +It was shallow, only four or five yards wide, and we easily +forded it and camped on the other side. The full moon was just +rising over the eastern hills. There was not a sound to be heard +except the gentle murmur of the stream and the faint rustle of +the leaves on a few cottonwood-trees. There was plenty of +driftwood all around, and after supper we built up the largest +camp-fire we had ever had. The flame leaped up above the +wagon-top, and drifted away in a column of sparks and smoke, +while the three horses stood in the background with their heads +close together munching their hay, and the four of us (counting +Snoozer) lay on the ground and blinked at the fire. + +"This is what I call the proper thing," remarked Jack, after +some time, as he roiled over on his blanket and looked at the +great round moon. + +"Yes," I said, "this will do well enough. But it would be +pretty cool here if it wasn't for that fire." + +"Yes, the nights are getting colder, that's certain. I was +just wondering if that cover will withstand snow as well as it +does rain?" + +"Why," said Ollie, "do you think it's going to snow?" + +"Not to-night," returned Jack. "But it may before we get out +of the mountains. The snow comes pretty early up there sometimes. +I think I'll get inside and share the bed with the rancher after +this, and you and Snoozer can curl up in the front end of the +wagon-box. It would be a joke if we got snowed in somewhere, and +had to live in the Rattletrap till spring." + +"I wouldn't care if we could keep warm," said Ollie. "I like +living in it better than in any house I ever saw." + +"I'm afraid it would get a little monotonous along in March," +laughed Jack. "Though I think myself it's a pretty good place to +live. Stationary houses begin to seem tame. I hope the trip won't +spoil us all, and make vagabonds of us for the rest of our +lives." + +We were reluctant to leave this camp the next morning, but +knew that we must be moving on. It was but a few miles to the +town of Buffalo Gap, and we passed through it before noon. + +"There are more varmints," cried Ollie, as we were driving +through the town. They were in a cage in front of a store, and we +stopped to see them. + +"What are they?" one of us asked the man who seemed to own +them. + +"Bob-cats," he answered, promptly. + +"Must be a Buffalo Gap name for wild-cats," said Jack, as we +drove on, "because that's what they are." + +Ollie had gone into a store to buy some cans of fruit, and +when he came out he looked much bewildered. + +[Illustration: A Lesson in Finance] + +"I think," he said, "that that man must be crazy, or +something. There were thirty cents coming to me in change. He +tossed out a quarter and said, 'Two bits,' and then a dime and +said, 'Short bit--thank you,' and closed up the drawer and +started off. I didn't want more than was coming to me, so I +handed out a nickle and said, 'There, that makes it right.' The +man looked at it, laughed, and pushed it back, and said, 'Keep +it, sonny; I haven't got any chickens.' Now, I'd like to know +what it all meant." + +We both laughed, and when Jack recovered his composure he +said: + +"It means simply that we're getting out into the mining +country, where no coin less than a dime circulates. He didn't +happen to have three dimes, so the best he could do was to give +you either twenty-five or thirty-five cents, and he was letting +you have the benefit of the situation by making it thirty-five. A +bit is twelve and a half cents, and a short bit is ten cents. A +two-bit piece is a quarter." + +"Yes; but what about his not keeping chickens?" + +"Oh, that was simply his humorous way of saying that all +coins under a dime are fit only for chicken-feed." + +We camped that night beside the trail near a little log +store. "What you want to do," said the man in charge, "is to take +your horses down there behind them trees to park 'em for the +night. Good feed down there." + +"'To park,'" said Jack, in a low voice. "New and interesting +verb. He mean's turn 'em out to grass. We mustn't appear green." +Then he said to the man: + +"Yes, we reckoned we'd park 'em down there to-night." + +The next day was the coldest we had experienced, and we were +glad to walk to keep warm. We were getting among the smaller of +the hills, with their tops covered with the peculiarly dark +pine-trees which give the whole range its name. We camped at +night under a high bank which afforded some protection from the +chilly east wind. Now that we were all sleeping in the wagon +there was no room in it to store the sacks of horse-feed which we +had, and we knew that if we put them outside Old Blacky would eat +them up before morning. + +"There's nothing to do," said Jack, "but to carry them around +up on that bank and hang them down with ropes. Leave 'em about +twelve feet from the bottom and ten feet from the top, and I +don't think the Pet can get them." + +We accordingly did so, and went to bed with the old scoundrel +standing and looking up at the bags wistfully, though he had just +had all that any horse needed for supper. But in the morning we +found that he had clambered up high enough to get hold of the +bottom of one of the sacks and pull it down and devour fully half +of it. He was, as Jack said, "the worst horse that ever looked +through a collar." + +[Illustration: The Rattletrap in the Storm] + +But the weather in the morning gave us more concern than did +the foraging of the ancient Blacky. It was even colder than the +night before, and the raw east wind was rawer, and with it all +there was a drizzling rain. It was not a hard rain, but one of +the kind that comes down in small clinging drops and blows in +your face in a fine spray. Jack got breakfast in the wagon, and +we ate the hot cakes and warmed-over grouse with a good relish. +Then we loaded in what was left of the horsefeed, and started. + +It was impossible to keep warm even by walking, but we +plodded on and made the best of it. The road was hilly and stony; +but by noon we had got beyond the rain, and for the rest of the +way it was dry even if cold. The hills among which we were +winding grew constantly higher, and the quantity of pine timber +upon their summits greater. Just as dusk was beginning to creep +down we came around one which might fairly have been called a +small mountain, and saw Rapid City spread out before us, the +largest town we had seen since leaving Yankton. We skirted around +it, and came to camp under another hill and near a big stone +quarry a half-mile west of town. There was a mill-race just below +us, and plenty of water. We fed the horses and had supper. There +was a road not much over a hundred yards in front of our camp, +along which, through the darkness, we could hear teams and wagons +passing. + +"I wonder where it goes to?" said Ollie. + +"I think it's the great Deadwood trail over which all the +supplies are drawn to the mines by mule or horse or ox teams," +said Jack. "There's no railroad, you know, and everything has to +go by wagon--goods and supplies in, and a great deal of ore out. +Let's go over and see." + +The moon was not yet risen and the sky was covered with +clouds, so it was extremely dark. We took along our lantern, but +it did not make much impression on the darkness. When we reached +the road we found that everywhere we stepped we went over our +shoe-tops in the soft dust. We beard a deep, strange creaking +noise, mixed with what sounded like reports of a pistol, around +the bend in the trail. Soon we could make out what seemed to be a +long herd of cattle winding towards us, with what might have been +a circus tent swaying about behind them. + +"What's coming?" we asked of a boy who was going by. + +"Old Henderson," he replied. + +"What's he got?" + +"Just his outfit." + +"But what are all the cattle?" + +"His team." + +"Not one team?" + +"Yes; eleven yoke." + +"Twenty-two oxen in one team?" + +"Yes; and four wagons." + +The head yoke of oxen was now opposite to us, swaying about +from side to side and swirling their tails in the air, but still +pressing forward at the rate of perhaps a mile and a half or two +miles an hour. Far back along the procession we could dimly see a +man walking in the dust beside the last yoke, swinging a long +whip which cracked in the air like a rifle. Behind rolled and +swayed the four great canvas-topped wagons, tied behind one +another. We watched the strange procession go by. There was only +one man, without doubt Henderson, grizzled and seemingly sixty +years old. The wagon wheels were almost as tall as he was, and +the tires were four inches wide. The last wagon disappeared up +the trail in the dust and darkness. + +"Well," said Jack, "I think when I start out driving at this +time of night with twenty-two guileless oxen and four ten-ton +wagons that I'll want to get somewhere pretty badly." Then we +went back to the Rattletrap. + + + +X: AMONG THE MOUNTAINS + + +After we got back to the Rattletrap we promised ourselves +plenty of Sport the next day watching the freighters with their +long teams and wagon trains. Jack could not recover from his +first glimpse of Henderson. + +"Rather a neat little turnout to take a young lady out +driving with," he said, after we had gone to bed. "Twenty-two +oxen and four wagons. Plenty of room. Take along her father and +mother. And the rest of the family. And her school-mates. And the +whole town. Good team to go after the doctor with if somebody was +sick--mile and a half an hour. That trotting-cow man at Yankton +ought to come up here and show Henderson a little speed. Still, I +dare say Henderson could beat Old Browny on a good day for +sleeping, and when he didn't have Blacky to pall him along." + +But we got small sight of the trail the next day, as the rain +we had left behind came upon us again in greater force than ever. +It began toward morning, and when we looked out, just as it was +becoming light, we found it coming down in sheets--"cold, wet +sheets," as Ollie said, too. The horses stood huddled together, +wet and chilled. We got on our storm-coats and led them up to a +house a sort distance away, which proved to be Smith's ranch. +There we found large, dry sheds, under which we put them and +where they were very glad to go. Once back in the cabin of the +Rattletrap, we scarcely ventured out again. + +It certainly wasn't a very cheerful day. We would not have +minded the rain much, because we were dry enough; but the cold +was disagreeable, and we were obliged to wear our overcoats all +day. We could watch the road from the front of the wagon, and saw +a number of freighters go by, usually with empty wagons, as it +soon became too muddy for those with loads. We saw one +fourteen-ox team with four wagons, and another man with twelve +oxen and three wagons. There were also a number of mule teams, +and we noticed one of twelve mules and five wagons, and several +of ten mules and three or four wagons. With these the driver +always rode the nigh wheel animal--that is, the left-hand rear +one. + +"I'm going to put a saddle on Old Blacky and ride him after +this," said Jack. "Bound to be in the fashion. Wonder how +Henderson is getting along in the mud? A mile in two hours, I +suppose. Must be impossible for him to see the head oxen through +this rain." + +The downpour never stopped all day. We tried letter-writing, +but it was too cold to hold the pen; and Jack's efforts at +playing the banjo proved equally unsuccessful. We fell back on +reading, but even this did not seem to be very satisfactory. So +we finally settled down to watching the rain and listening to the +wind. + +When evening came we shut down the front of the cover and +tried to warm up the cabin a little by leaving the oil-stove +burning, but it didn't seem to make much difference. So we soon +went to bed, rather damp, somewhat cold, and a little dispirited. +I think we all stayed awake for a long time listening to the +beating of the rain on the cover, and wondering about the weather +of the morrow. + +When we awoke in the morning it did not take long to find out +about the weather. The rain had ceased and the sky was clear, but +it was colder. Outside we found ice on the little pools of water +in the footprints of the horses. We were stiff and cold. Some of +us may have thought of the comforts of home, but none of us said +anything about them. + +"This is what I like," said Jack. "Don't feel I'm living +unless I find my shoes frozen in the morning. Like to break the +ice when I go to wash my face and hands, and to have my hair +freeze before I can comb it." + +But we observed that he kept as close to the camp-fire which +we started as any of us. We went up to Smith's to look after the +horses. While Jack and I were at the sheds Ollie stayed in the +road watching the freight teams. A big swarthy man, over six feet +in height, came along, and after looking over the fence at +Smith's house some time, said to Ollie: + +[Illustration: Effect of a Dog on a Mexican] + +"Do you s'pose Smith's at home?" + +"Oh, I guess so," answered Ollie. + +"I'd like to see him," went on the man, with an uneasy air. + +"Probably you'll find him eating breakfast," said Ollie. + +"I don't like to go in," said the man. "Why not?" + +"I'm--I'm afraid of the dog." + +"Oh!" replied Ollie. "Well, I'm not. Come on," and he stalked +ahead very bravely, while the man followed cautiously behind. + +"He's a Mexican," said Smith in explanation afterwards. "All +Mexicans are afraid of dogs." + +"That's a pretty broad statement," said Jack, after Smith had +gone. "I believe, if there was a good reward offered, that I +could find a Mexican who isn't afraid of dogs. Though perhaps +it's the hair they're afraid of; Mexican dogs don't have any, you +know." + +"Don't any of them have hair?" asked Ollie. + +"Not a hair," answered his truthful uncle. "I don't suppose a +Mexican dog would know a hair if he saw it." + +"I think that's a bigger story than Smith's," said Ollie. + +It was Sunday, and we spent most of the day in the wagon, +though we took a long walk up the valley in the afternoon. The +first thing Ollie said the next morning was, "When are we going +to see the buffaloes?" + +Smith had been telling us about them the evening before. They +were down-town, and belonged to a Dr. McGillicuddie. They had +been brought in recently from the Rosebud Indian Agency, and had +been captured some time before in the Bad Lands. + +We followed the trail, now as deep with mud as it had been +with dust, meeting many freighters on the way, and found the +buffaloes near the Deadwood stage barn. + +"See!" exclaimed Ollie; "there they are, in the yard." + +"Don't say 'yard,'" returned Jack; "say 'corral,' with a +good, strong accent on the last syllable. A yard is a corral, and +a farm a ranch, and a revolver a six-shooter--and a lot more. +Don't be green, Oliver." + +"Oh, bother!" replied Ollie. "There's ten of 'em. See the big +fellow!" + +"They're nice ones, that's so," answered Jack. "I'd like to +see the Yankton man we heard about try to milk that cow over in +the corner." + +[Illustration: Post-Mortem on a Grizzly] + +After we had seen the buffaloes we wandered about town and +jingled our spurs, which were quite in the fashion. We +encountered a big crowd in front of one of the markets, and found +that a hunter had just come in from the mountains to the west +with the carcass of the biggest bear ever brought into Rapid +City. Some said it was a grizzly, and others a silvertip, and one +man tried to settle the difficulty by saying that there wasn't +any difference between them. But it was certainly a big bear, and +filled the whole wagon-box. Ollie sidled through the crowd and +asked so many questions of the man, who was named Reynolds, that +he good-naturedly gave Ollie one of the largest of the claws. It +was five inches long. + +At noon we went down to the camp of the freighters on the +outskirts of town, near Rapid Creek. There must have been fifty +"outfits"--Jack said that was the right word--and several hundred +mules, as many oxen, and a few horses. The animals were, most of +them, wandering about wherever they pleased, the mules and horses +taking their dinner out of nosebags, and the mules keeping up a +gentle exercise by kicking at one another. It seemed a hopeless +confusion, but the men were sitting about on the ground, calmly +cooking their dinners over little camp-fires. One man, whom we +had got acquainted with in the morning at Smith's, asked us to +have dinner with him, and made the invitation so pressing that we +accepted. He had several gallon's of coffee and plenty of bacon +and canned fruit, and a peculiar kind of bread which he had baked +himself. + +[Illustration: 'Gene Starts a Cook-Book] + +"I'm a-thinking," he said, "there ain't enough sal'ratus in +that there bread; but I'm a poor cook, anyhow." + +The bread seemed to us to be already composed chiefly of +saleratus, so his apology struck us as unnecessary. He very +kindly wrote out the receipt on a shingle for Jack, but I stole +it away from him after we got home and burned it in the +camp-fire; so we escaped that. + +"Your pancakes are bad enough," I said to him. "We don't care +to try your saleratus bread." + +Jack was a good deal worked up about the loss of his receipt, +and experimented a long time to produce something like the +freighter's bread without it; but as Snoozer wouldn't try the +stuff he made, and he was afraid to do so himself, nothing came +of it. + +We enjoyed our dinner with the man, however, and Jack added +further to his vocabulary in finding that the drivers of the ox +teams were called "bullwhackers," and those of the mules and +horses "muleskinners." + +In the afternoon we climbed the hill above our camp. It gave +us a long view off to the east across the level country, while +away to the west were the mountain-peaks rising higher and +higher. It was still cold, and the raw northeast wind moaned +through the pines in a way that made us think of winter. + +We went to bed early that night, so as to get a good start +for Deadwood the next day. We brought the horses down from the +ranch in the evening, blanketed them, and stood them out of the +wind among some trees. + +"Four o'clock must see us rolling out of our comfortable beds +and getting ready to start," said Jack, as we turned in. "We must +play we are freighters." + +Jack planned better than he knew; we really "rolled out" in +an exceedingly lively manner at three o'clock. We were sleeping +soundly at that hour, when we were awakened by the motion of the +wagon. Jack and I sat up. It was swaying from side to side, and +we could hear the wheels bumping on the stones. The back end was +considerably lower than the front. + +"It's running down the bank!" I cried, and we both plunged +through the darkness for the brake-handle. We fell over Ollie and +Snoozer, and were instantly hopelessly tangled. It seemed an age, +with the wagon swaying more and more, before we found the handle. +Jack pushed it up hard, we heard the brake grind on the wheels +outside; then there was a great bump and splash, and the wagon +tilted half over and stopped. We found Ourselves lying on the +side of the cover, with cold water rising about us. We were not +long in getting out, and discovered that the Rattletrap was +capsized in the mill-race. + +"Old Blacky did it!" cried Jack, as he danced around and +shook his wet clothes. "I know he did. The old sinner!" + +We got out the lantern and lit it. Only the hind end of the +wagon was really in the race; one front wheel still clung to the +bank, and the other was up in the air. Ollie got in and began to +pass things out to Jack, while I went up the hill after the +horses. Jack was right. Old Blacky was evidently the author of +our misfortune. He had broken loose in some manner, and probably +begun his favorite operation of making his toilet on the corner +of the wagon by rubbing against it. The brake had carelessly been +left off, he had pushed the wagon back a few feet, and it had +gone over the bank. I soon had the harness on the horses, and got +them down the hill. We hitched them to the hind wheel with a long +rope, Jack wading in the water to his waist, and pulled the wagon +upright. Then we attached them to the end of the tongue, and +after hard work drew it out of the race. By this time we were +chilled through and through. Our beds and nearly everything we +had were soaking with water. + +"How do you like it, Uncle Jack?" inquired Ollie. "Do you +feel that you are living now?" + +Jack's teeth were chattering. "Y--yes," he said; "but I won't +be if we don't get a fire started pretty quick." + +There were some timbers from an old bridge near by, and we +soon had a good fire, around which we tramped in a procession +till our clothes were fairly dry. The wind was chilly, and it was +a dark, cloudy morning. The unfortunate Snoozer had gone down +with the rest of us, and was the picture of despair, till Ollie +rubbed him with a dry corner of a blanket, and gave him a good +place beside the fire. + +By the time two or three hours had elapsed we began to feel +partially dry, and decided to start on, relying on exercise to +keep ourselves warm. We had had breakfast in the meantime, and, +on the whole, were feeling rather cheerful again. We opened the +cover and spread out the bedding, inside and outside, and hung +some of it on a long pole which we stuck into the wagon from the +rear. Altogether we presented a rather funny appearance as we +started out along the trail, but no one paid much attention to +us. The freighters were already astir, and we were constantly +passing or meeting their long trains. Among others we passed +Eugene Brooks, the man with whom we had taken dinner. We told him +of our mishap, and he laughed and said: + +"That's nothing in this country. Something's always happening +here which would kill folks anywhere else. You stay here awhile +and you'll be as tough as your old black horse." + +Brooks had an outfit of five spans of mules and two wagons. +We stayed with him a half-hour, and then went on. As we could not +reach Deadwood that day, he advised us to camp that night where +the trail crossed Thunder Butte Creek, a branch of La Belle +Fourche. + +The trail led for the most part through valleys or along the +sides of hills, and was generally not far from level, though +there was, of course, a constant though hardly perceptible rise +as we got farther into the mountains. We camped at noon at Elk +Creek, and made further progress at drying our household effects. +We pressed on during the afternoon, and passed through the town +of Sturgis, where we laid in some stores of provisions to take +the place of those spoiled by the water, and also a quantity of +horse-feed. Later we congratulated ourselves on our good-luck in +doing this. + +As the afternoon wore away we found ourselves getting up +above the timber-line. The mountains began to shut in our view in +all directions, and the valleys were narrowing. As night drew +nearer, Jack said: + +"Seems to me it's about time we got to this Thunder Butte +Creek. 'Gene said that if we passed Sturgis we'd have to go on to +that if we wanted water." + +We soon met a man, and inquired of him the distance to the +desired stream. "Two miles," he replied, promptly. We went on as +much as a mile and met another man, to whom we put the same +question. "Three miles," he answered, with great decision. + +"That creek seems to be retreating," said Jack, after the man +had gone on. "We've got to hurry and catch it, or it will run +clean into Deadwood and crawl down a gold mine." + +It was growing dark. We forged ahead for another mile, and by +this time it was quite as dark as it was going to be, with a +cloudy sky, and mountains and pines shutting out half of that. I +was walking ahead With the lantern, and came to a place where the +trail divided. + +"The road forks here," I called. "Which do you suppose is +right?" + +"Which seems to be the most travelled?" asked Jack. + +"Can't see any difference," I replied. "We'll have to leave +it to the instinct of the horses." + +"Yes, I'd like to put myself in the grasp of Old Blacky's +instinct. The old scoundrel would go wrong if he knew which was +right." + +"Well," I returned, "come on and see which way he turns, and +then go the other way." (Jack always declared that the old fellow +understood what I said.) + +He drove up to the forks, and Blacky turned to the right. +Jack drew over to the left, and we went up that road. We +continued to go up it for fully three miles, though we soon +became convinced that it was wrong. It constantly grew narrower +and apparently less travelled. We were soon winding along a +mountain-side among the pines, and around and above and below +great rocks. + +"We'll go till we find a decent place to camp, and then stop +for the night," said Jack. We finally came to a little level +bench covered with giant pines, and we could hear water beyond. I +went on with the lantern, and found a small stream leaping down a +gulch. + +"This is the place to stop," I said, and we soon had our camp +established, and a good fire roaring up into the tree-tops. Ollie +found plenty of dry pine wood, and we blanketed the horses and +stood them under a protecting ledge. It was cold, and the wind +roared down the gulch and moaned in the pines, but we scarcely +felt it below. We finished drying our bedding and had a good +supper. Jack got out his banjo and tried to compete with the +brook and the pines. We went to bed feeling that we were glad we +had missed the road, since it had brought so delightful a +camping-place. + +Ollie was the first to wake in the morning. It was quite +light. + +"What makes the cover sag down so?" he asked. Jack opened his +eyes, reached up with the whipstock and raised it. Something slid +off the outside with a rush. + +"Open the front and you'll see," answered Jack. + +Ollie did so, and we all looked out. The ground was deep with +snow, and it was still falling in great feathery flakes. Old +Blacky was loose, and looked in at us with a wicked gleam in his +eyes. + + + +XI: DEADWOOD + + +"You're a miserable, sneaking, treacherous old equine +scoundrel!" cried Jack, shaking his fist violently at Old Blacky. +"You knew you were making us come the wrong road." + +Old Blacky answered never a word, but turned, hit the +wagon-tongue a kick, and joined the other horses. + +"Well, close down the front and let's talk this thing over," +said Jack. "In the first place, we are snowed in." + +"In the second place," said I, "we may stay snowed in a +week." + +"I don't think we're prepared for that," said Ollie, very +solemnly. + +"Let's see," went on Jack. "There are two sacks of ground +feed under Ollie's bed. By putting the horses on rather short +rations that ought to last pretty nearly or quite a week. But for +hay we're not so well provided. There's one big bundle under the +wagon, if Blacky hasn't eaten it up. The pony won't need any, +because she knows how to paw down to the dry grass. The others +don't know how to do this, and the hay will last them, after a +fashion, for about three days." + +"Perhaps by that time the pony will have taught them how to +paw," I said. + +"Wouldn't be surprised," returned Jack. "Perhaps by that time +we'll all be glad to learn from her. We've got flour enough to +last a fortnight, so we needn't be afraid of running out of +water-pancakes at least. You don't grow fat on 'em, but, on the +other hand, there is no gout lurking in a water-pancake as I make +it." + +"No, Jack, that's so," I said, feelingly. "We've got enough +bacon for several meals, a can of chicken, and two earls of +beans. Also a loaf of bread and a pound of crackers. Then there's +three cans of fruit, a dozen potatoes, six eggs, a quart of milk, +and half a pound of pressed figs. After that we'll paw with the +pony." + +"I wonder if we couldn't get some game?" inquired Ollie. + +"Snow-birds, maybe," said Jack. "Or perhaps an owl. I've +heard b'iled owl spoken of." + +After all, the prospect was not so bad. Besides, it was so +early in the season that it did not seem at all likely that we +should be snowbound a week. Still, we knew little about the +mountain climate. + +We got on our overcoats and went out and gave the horses +their breakfast. Old Blacky was still cross, but Jack contented +himself by calling him a few names. We also got up what wood we +could and piled it against the wagon, for use in case our +kerosene became exhausted, though we decided to cook in the wagon +for the present. The snow was seven or eight inches deep, and +still falling rapidly. After breakfast we took the pony down to a +little open fiat and turned her loose. The old instinct of her +wild days came back to her, and she began to paw away the snow +and gnaw at the scanty grass beneath. + +After giving the other horses a little hay we returned to the +wagon, where we stayed most of the day. I'm afraid we were a +little frightened by the prospect. Of course, we knew that if it +came to the worst we could leave the wagon and make our way back +along the trail on foot, but we did not want to do that. But as +for getting the wagon back along the narrow road, now blotted out +by the snow, we knew it would be foolish to attempt it. It was +not very cold in the wagon, and Jack played the banjo, and we +were fairly cheerful. The snow kept coming down all day, and by +night it was a foot deep. The pony came in from the flat as it +began to grow dark, and we gave the horses their supper and left +them in the shelter of the rocks. Then we brushed the snow off +the top of the cover, as we had done several times before, and +went in to spend the evening by the light of the lantern. When +bedtime came, Jack looked up and said: + +"The cover doesn't seem to sag down. It must have stopped +snowing." + +We looked out, and found that it was so. We could even see +the stars; and, better yet, it did not seem to be growing colder. +We went to bed feeling encouraged. + +The next morning the sun peeped in at us through the long +trunks of the pines, and Ollie soon discovered that the wind was +from the south. + +"Unless it turns cold again, this will fix the snow," said +Jack. + +He was right, and it soon began to thaw. By noon the little +stream in the gulch was a torrent, and before night patches of +bare ground began to appear. We decided not to attempt to leave +camp that day, but the next morning saw us headed back along the +tortuous road. In two hours we were again on the main trail. Just +as we turned in, Eugene Brooks came along, having also been +delayed by the snow, though the fall where he was had not been +nearly so great. 'Gene laughed at us, and told us that we had +been following a trail to some lead mines which had been +abandoned several months before. + +[Illustration: Lack of Confidence in Mankind] + +Half a mile farther on we came to the Thunder Butte Creek +which we had sought. The water was almost blood-red, which 'Gene +told us came from the gold stamp-mills on its upper course. If +the water had been gray it would have indicated silver-mining. +Just beyond we met the Deadwood Treasure Coach. It was an +ordinary four-horse stage, without passengers, but carrying two +guards, each with a very short double-barrelled shot-gun resting +across his lap. The stage was operated by the express company, +and was bringing out the gold bricks from the mines near +Deadwood. + +"I suppose," said Ollie, musingly, "if anybody tried to rob +the coach, those fellows would shoot with their guns?" + +"Oh no," replied Jack. "Oh no; they carry those guns to fan +themselves with on hot days." But Ollie did not seem to be misled +by this astonishing information. + +As we went on the road grew constantly more mountainous. +Sometimes the trail ran along ledges, and sometimes near roaring +streams and waterfalls, and the great pine-trees were everywhere. +We passed two grizzly old placer-miners working just off the +trail, and stopped and watched them "pan out" a few shovelfuls of +dirt. They were rewarded by two or three specks of gold, and +seemed satisfied. 'Gene told us afterward that one of them was +an old California '49er, who had used the same pan in every +State and Territory of the West. + +It was a little after noon when we drove into Deadwood--the +last point outward bound at which the Rattletrap expected to +touch. It was a larger town than Rapid City, and was wedged in a +little gulch between two mountains, with the White Wood Creek +rushing along and threatening to wash away the main street. We +noticed that the only way of reaching many of the houses on the +mountain-side was by climbing long flights of stairs. We drove +on, and camped near a mill on the upper edge of town. + +In the afternoon we wandered about town, and, among other +places, visited the many Chinese stores. We also clambered up the +mountain-sides to the two cemeteries, which we could see far +above the town. It seemed to us that on rather too many of the +head-stones, (which were in nearly every case boards, by-the-way) +it was stated that the person whose grave it marked was +"assassinated by" so-and so, giving the name of the assassin; but +these were of the old days, when no doubt there were a good many +folks in Deadwood who left the town just as well off after they +had been assassinated. "Killed by Indians" was also the record on +some of the boards. Ollie was greatly interested in the Chinese +graves, with dishes of rice and chicken on them, and colored +papers covered with curious characters--prayers, I suppose. We +climbed on up to the White Rocks, almost at the top of the +highest peak overlooking Deadwood, and had a good view of the +town and gulch below, and of the great Bear Butte standing out +alone and bold miles to the east. We were tired, and glad to go +to bed as soon as we got back to the wagon. + +The next day we decided to visit Lead City (pronounced not +like the metal, but like the verb to lead). Here were most of the +big gold mines, including the great Homestake Mine. It was only +two or three miles, and we drove over early. It was a strange +town, perched on the side of a mountain, and consisted of small +openings in the ground, which were the mines, and immense +shed-like buildings, which contained the ore-reducing works. The +noise of the stamp-mills filled the whole town, and seemed to +drown out and cover up everything else. We soon found that there +was no hope of our getting into the mines. + +"They'd think you were spies for the other mines, or +something of that sort," said a man to us. "Nobody can get down. +Nobody knows where they are digging, and they don't mean that +anybody shall. They may be digging under their own property +exclusively, and they may not. For all I know, they may be taking +gold that belongs to me a thousand feet, more or less, under my +back yard." + +"If I had a back yard here," said Jack, after we had passed +on, "I'd put my ear to the ground once in a while and listen, and +if I heard anybody burrowing under it I'd--well--I'd yell scat at +'em." + +We found no difficulty in getting in the stamp-mills, and a +man kindly told us much about them. + +"The Homestake Mills make up the largest gold-reducing plant +in the world," said the man. "Where do you suppose the largest +single stamp-mill in the world is?" We guessed California. + +"No," he said; "it's in Alaska--the Treadwell Mill." + +We decided that the stamp-mills were the noisiest place we +were ever in. There were hundreds of great steel bars, three or +four inches in diameter and a dozen feet long, pounding up and +down at the same time on the ore and reducing it to powder. It +was mixed with water, and ran away as thin red mud, the gold +being caught by quicksilver. The openings of the shafts and +tunnels were in or near the mills, and there were the smallest +cars and locomotives which we had ever seen going about +everywhere on narrow tracks, carrying the ore. Ollie walked up to +one of the locomotives and looked down at it, and said: + +"Why, it seems just like a Shetland-pony colt. I believe I +could almost lift it." + +The engineer sat on a little seat on the back end, and seemed +bigger than his engine. As we looked at them we constantly +expected to see them tip up in front from the weight of the +engineer. There was also a larger railroad, though still a narrow +gauge, winding away for twenty miles along the tops of the hills, +which was used principally for bringing wood for the engines and +timbers for propping up the mines. + +[Illustration: Flying Cord-Wood] + +We were walking along a connecting shed, and happened to look +out a window, when we saw a four-foot stick of cord-wood shoot up +fifty feet from some place behind us, and after sailing over a +wide curve, like a "fly-ball," alight on a great pile of similar +sticks on the lower ground, which was much higher than an +ordinary house, and must have contained thousands of cords. + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Jack. "Wish I could throw a stick +of wood like that fellow." + +Another and another shot after the first one in quick +succession. Sometimes there were two almost together, and we +noticed the bigger and heavier the stick the higher and farther +it was shot. We saw some almost a foot in diameter soaring like +straws before the wind. + +"What a baseball pitcher that man would make!" went on Jack, +enthusiastically. "Think of his arm! Look at that big one go--it +must weigh two hundred pounds!" + +"Let's get out of this shed and investigate the mystery," I +said. + +Outside it was all clear. The narrow-gauge wood railroad +ended on the edge of the steep hill overlooking the mills. Down +this was a long wooden chute, or flume, like a big trough, which +for the last thirty or forty feet at its lower end curved upward. +Men were unloading wood from a train at the upper end. Each stick +shot down the flume like lightning, up the short incline at the +end, and soared away like a bird to the pile beyond and below the +shed. A little stream of water trickled constantly down the chute +to keep the friction of the logs from setting it on fire. + +"That's the most interesting thing here," said Jack. "I'd +like to send the Blacksmith's Pet down the thing and see what he +would do. I'll wager he'd kick the wood-pile all over the town +after he alighted." + +We spent nearly the whole day in wandering about the +stamp-mills. The great steam engines which operated them were +some of the largest we had ever seen. + +"And think," observed Jack, "of the fact that all of this +heavy machinery, including the big engines and the locomotives +and cars, and, in fact, everything, was brought overland on +wagons, probably most of it nearly three hundred miles. No wonder +people got to driving such teams as Henderson's." + +Toward night we returned to Deadwood by the way of Central +City. Here were more great mines and mills, but they did not Seem +to be so prosperous, and part of the town was deserted, and +consisted of nothing but empty houses. Just as the sun set we +drove in through the Golden Gate, and east anchor at our old camp +near the mill. + +The next morning was wintry again, with snowflakes floating +in the air. The ground was frozen, and the wind seemed to come +through the wagon-cover with rather more freedom than we enjoyed. + +"It's time we began the return voyage," said Jack. "We're a +long way from home, and we won't get there any too soon if we go +as fast as we can and take the shortest out." So we started that +afternoon. + +The shortest cut was to return to Rapid City, and then, +instead of going south into Nebraska, to go straight east, +through the Sioux Indian Reservation, crossing the Missouri at +Pierre, and then on across the settled country of eastern Dakota +to Prairie Flower, over against the Minnesota line. + +We followed the same road between Deadwood and Rapid City, +with the exception that we turned out in one place, and went +around by Fort Meade. Here we found a beautiful camping-place the +first night near a little stream and great overhanging rocks, and +not far from Bear Butte. We reached Rapid late the next night, +which was Saturday, and stopped at the old camp near the +mill-race. Here we stayed over Sunday, but Monday noon saw us +under sail again. As we went through the town we stopped at the +freighter's camp, and told 'Gene Brooks good-bye, and then drove +away across the wide rolling plain to the east. + +'Gene had warned us that we had a lonesome road before us to +Pierre, one hundred and seventy miles, nearly all of it across +the reservation. + +"You'll follow the old freight trail all the way," he said, +"but you may not see three teams the whole distance, because +since the railroad got nearer it isn't used. You'll find an old +stage station about every fifteen or seventeen miles, with +probably one man in charge. You may see a horse-thief or two, or +something of that sort. S'ciety ain't what it ought to be 'round +a reservation gen'rally." + +[Illustration: The Deserted Ranch] + +Just before the sun sank behind the mountains, which lay like +low black clouds to the west, we came to a little ranch standing +alone on the prairie. The door was open, and it seemed to be +deserted, though there was a rude bed inside. There was a good +well of water, and we decided to camp near it for the night, +especially as the grass was good. There was no other house in +sight. Bedtime arrived, and no one came to the ranch. + +"I think I'll just sleep in that house tonight," said Jack, +"and see how it seems. I'll leave the door open, so as not to +have too much luxury at first." + +So he went to bed in the shanty, taking Snoozer along, and +leaving the wagon to Ollie and me. + +We must have been asleep three or four hours when I was +awakened by the loud barking of a dog. I started up and began +unfastening the front end of the cover. Just then I heard the +pony snort in terror; and then followed a shot from a gun and the +sound of horses galloping away. As I put my head out, Jack +called, excitedly: + +"Some men were trying to get the pony. They'd have done it, +too, if Snoozer hadn't barked and scared them away." + +I was out of the wagon by this time, and found the pony +trembling at the end of her picket-line as near the wagon as she +could get. Snoozer kept barking as if he couldn't stop. + +"Did they shoot at you, Jack?" I asked. + +"No, I guess not. I think they just blazed away for fun. They +went off toward the Reservation. Some of Gene's poor s'ciety, I +suppose." + +It took half an hour to get the frightened pony and indignant +dog quieted; and perhaps it was longer than that before we again +got to sleep. + + + +XII: HOMEWARD BOUND + + +"Snoozer shall have a pancake medal." + +This was the first thing Ollie and I heard in the morning, +and it was Jack's voice addressing the hero of the night before. +We speedily rolled out, and agreed with Jack that Snoozer must be +suitably rewarded, he seemed fully to understand the importance +of his action in barking at the right moment, and for the first +morning on the whole trip he was up and about, waving his bushy +tail with great industry, and occasionally uttering a detached +bark, just to remind us of how he had done it. He walked around +the pony several times, and looked at her with a haughty air, as +much as to say, "Where would you be now if it hadn't been for +me?" + +"He shall have a pancake," continued Jack--"the biggest and +best pancake which the skilful hand of this cook can concoct." + +Jack proceeded to carry out his promise, and when breakfast +was ready presented a griddlecake, all flowing with melted +butter, to the dog, which was as big as could be made in the +frying-pan. + +"I always knew," said Jack, "that Snoozer would do something +some day. He's lazy, but he's got brains. He would never bark at +the moon, because he knows the moon isn't doing anything wrong, +but when it comes to horse-thieves it's different." + +Snoozer munched his pancake, occasionally stopping to give a +grand swing to his tail and let off a little yelp of pure joy. + +As we were getting ready for a start, and speculating on the +prospect for water, a man came along, riding a mule, and we asked +him about it. + +[Illustration: Old "Blenty Vaters"] + +"Yah, blenty vaters," said the man. "Doan need to dake no +vaters along.' + +"Any houses on the road?" asked Jack. + +"Blenty houses," answered the stranger "houses, vaters, +efferydings." + +We thanked him and started. Notwithstanding this assurance, I +had intended to fill a jug with water, but forgot it, and we went +off without a drop. We were going down what was called the Ridge +Road, along the divide between Elk and Elder creeks, and hoped to +reach the crossing of the Cheyenne at Smithville Post-office that +evening, and get on the Reservation the next morning. In half an +hour we passed some trees which marked the site of the Washday +Springs, but there was no house there, nor had we seen one at +eleven o'clock. We met an Indian on foot, and Jack said to him: + +"Where can we get some water?" + +The Indian shook his head. "Cheyenne River," he replied. + +"Isn't there any this side?" + +"No," with another jerk of the head. Then he stalked on. + +"Yes, and the Indian's right, I'll warrant," exclaimed Jack. +"'Blenty raters,' indeed! Why, that Dutchman doesn't know enough +to ache when he's hurt." + +"Well, we're in for it," said I. "We can't go back. Maybe +it'll rain," though there was not a cloud in sight, and there was +more danger of an earthquake than of a shower. + +So we went on, and a little after dark wound down among the +black baked bluffs to the crossing, without any of us having had +a drop to drink since before sunrise. After we had "lowered the +river six inches," as Jack declared, we went into camp. + +We were up early in the morning, and Jack went down the river +with his gun and got a brace of grouse. There was one house near +the crossing, which was the post-office. The man who lived there +told us it was a hundred and twenty-five miles across the +Reservation to Pierre, and twenty miles to Peno Hill, the first +station at which we should find any one. The ford was deep, the +water coming up to the wagon-box, and there was ice along the +edges of the river. It was a fine clear day, however, and the +cold did not trouble us much. We wound up among the bluffs on the +other side of the river, and at the top had our last sight of the +Black Hills. We went on across the rolling prairie, black as ink, +as .the grass had all been burned off, and reached Peno Hill at a +little after noon. There was a rough board building, one end of +it a house and the other a barn. All of the stage stations were +built after this plan. We camped here for dinner, and pressed on +to reach Grizzly Shaw's for the night. About the middle of the +afternoon we passed Bad River Station, kept by one Mexican Ed. + +"I'm going to watch and see if he runs when he sees Snoozer," +said Ollie. Snoozer had insisted on walking most of the time +since his adventure with the horse-thieves; but, greatly to +Ollie's disappointment, Mexican Ed showed no signs of fear even +when Snoozer went so far as to growl at him. + +As it grew dark we passed among the Grindstone +Buttes--several small hills. A prairie fire was burning among +them, and lit up the road for us. We came to Shaw's at last, and +went into camp. We visited the house before we went to bed, and +found that Shaw was grizzly enough to justify his name, and that +he had a family consisting of a wife and daughter and two +grandchildren. + +"Pierre is our post-office," said Shaw, "eighty-five miles +away." + +"The postman doesn't bring out your letters, then?" returned +Jack. + +"We ain't much troubled with postmen, nor policemen, nor +hand-organ men, nor no such things," answered Shaw. "Still, once +in a while a sheriff goes by looking for somebody." + +We told him of our experience with thieves, and he said: + +"It's a wonder they didn't get your pony. There's lots of 'em +hanging about the edge of the Reserve, because it's a good place +for 'em to hide." + +"Must make a very pleasant little walk down to the +post-office when you want to mail a letter," said Jack, after we +got back to the wagon--"eighty-five miles. And think of getting +there, and finding that you had left the letter on the hall +table, and having to go back!" + +We were off again the next morning, as usual. At noon we +stopped at Mitchell Creek, where we found another family, +including a little girl five or six years old, who carried her +doll in a shawl on her back, as she had seen the Indian women +carry their babies. We had intended to reach Plum Creek for the +night, but got on slower than we expected, owing partly to a +strong head-wind, so darkness overtook us at Frozen Man's Creek. + +"Not a very promising name for a November camping-place," +said Jack, "but I guess we'll have to stop. I don't believe it's +cold enough to freeze anybody to-night." + +There was no house here, but there was water, and plenty of +tall, dry grass, so it made a good place for us to stop. Frozen +Man's Creek, as well as all the others, was a branch of the Bad +River, which flowed parallel with the trail to the Missouri. We +camped just east of the creek. The grass was so high that we +feared to build a camp-fire, and cooked supper in the wagon. + +"I'm glad we've got out of the burned region," said Jack. +"It's dismal, and I like to hear the wind cutting through the dry +grass with its sharp swish." + +There was a heavy wind blowing from the southeast, but we +turned the rear of the wagon in that direction, saw that the +brake was firmly on, and went to bed feeling that we should not +blow away. + +"I wonder who the poor man was that was frozen here?" was the +last thing Jack said before he went to sleep. "Book agent going +out to Shaw's, perhaps, to sell him a copy of 'Every Man his Own +Barber; or, How to Cut your Own Hair with a Lawn-Mower.'" + +We were doomed to one more violent awakening in the old +Rattletrap. At two o'clock in the morning I was roused up by the +loud neighing of the horses. Old Blacky's hoarse voice was +especially strong. As I opened my eyes there was a reddish glare +coming through the white cover. "Prairie fire!" flashed into my +mind instantly, and I gave Jack a shake and got out of the front +of the wagon as quickly as I could. I had guessed aright; the +flames were sweeping up the shallow valley of the creek before +the wind as fast as a horse could travel. + + [Illustration: In the Prairie Fire] + +Jack came tumbling out, and we knew instantly what to do. We both +ran a few yards ahead of the wagon and knelt in the grass, and +struck matches almost at the same moment. Jack's went out, but +mine caught, and a little flame leaped up, reached over and to both +sides, and then rolled away before the wind, spreading wider and +wider. I beat out the feeble blaze which tried to work to +windward, and ran back to the wagon, while Jack went after the +horses. The coming flames were almost upon us by this time; but +Ollie was out, and together, aided by the wind, we rolled the wagon +ahead on our little new-made oasis of safety. Jack pulled up the +pony's picket-pin, and brought her on also, while the other horses, +being loose, sought the place themselves. The flames came up to +the edge of the burned place, reached over for more grass, did not +find it, and died out. But on both sides of us they rushed on, and +soon overtook our little fire, and went on to the northwest. The +wind, first hot from the fire, now came cool and fresh, though full +of the odor of the burned grass. + +"Closest call we've had," said Jack. "Yes," I replied; "been +pretty warm for us if we hadn't waked up. Our animals are doing +better; first Snoozer distinguished himself, and now I think we've +to thank Old Blacky mainly for this alarm." + +We were pretty well frightened, and though we went back to bed, I +do not believe that any of us slept again that night. At the first +touch of dawn we were up. As it grew lighter, the great change in +the landscape became apparent. The gray of the prairie was turned +to the blackest of black. Only an occasional big staring buffalo +skull relieved the inkiness. Far away to the northwest we could +see a low hanging cloud of smoke where the fire was still burning. + +"Blacky ought to have a hay medal," said Jack at breakfast. "If I +had any hay I'd twist him up one as big as a door-mat." + +But Blacky, unlike Snoozer, seemed to have no pride in his +achievement, and he wandered all around the neighborhood trying to +find a mouthful of grass which had been missed by the fire; but he +was not successful. + +"If the frozen man had been here last night he'd have been thawed +out," I said. + +"Yes; and if Shaw had been here, what a good time it would have +been for him to let the fire run over his hair and clear off the +thickest of it!" returned Jack. + +We started on, but the long wind had brought bad weather, and +before noon it began to snow. It kept up the rest of the day, and +by night it was three or four inches deep. We stopped at noon at +Lance Creek, and made our night camp at Willow Creek; at each place +there was a stage station in charge of one man. It cleared off as +night came on, but the wind changed to the north, and it grew +rapidly colder. Shortly after midnight we all woke up with the +cold. We already had everything piled on the beds, but as we were +too cold to sleep, there was nothing to do but to get up and start +the camp-fire again. This we did, and stayed near it the rest of +the night, and in this way kept warm at the expense of our sleep. + +The morning was clear, but it was by far the coldest we had +experienced. The thermometer at the station marked below zero at +sunrise. We almost longed for another prairie fire. It grew a +little warmer after we started, and at about eleven o'clock we +reached Fort Pierre, on the Missouri, opposite the town Of Pierre. +The ferry-boat had not yet been over for the day, but was expected +in the afternoon. + +"You're lucky to get it at all," said a man to us. "It is liable +to stop any day now, and then, till the ice is thick enough for +crossing, there will be no way of getting over." + +The boat came puffing across toward night, and we were safely +landed east of the Missouri once more. But we were still two +hundred miles from home; the country was well settled most of the +way, however, and we felt that our voyage was almost ended. Little +happened worthy of mention in the week which it took us to traverse +this distance. The weather became warmer and was pleasant most of +the way. On the last night out it snowed again a little and grew +colder. We were still a long day's drive from Prairie Flower, but +we determined to make that port even if it took half the night. + +[Illustration: Well! Well! Well!] + +It was ten o'clock when we saw the lights of the town. + +"Here we are," said Jack, "and I vote we've had a good time, +and that we forgive Old Blacky his temper, and old Browny and +Snoozer their sleepiness, and Ollie his questions, and the +rancher his general incompetence." + +"And the cook his pancakes!" cried Ollie. We stopped a little +way in front of Squire Poinsett's grocery, and Jack picked up the +big revolver and fired the six shots into the air. The pony had +come alongside the wagon, and Snoozer had his head over the +dash-board. Half a dozen people came running out, including +Grandpa Oldberry, wearing red yarn mittens and carrying a +lantern. He held up the light and looked at us. + +"Well, I vum," he exclaimed, "if it ain't them three pesky +scallawags back safe and sound! I've said all along that varmints +would get ye sure, and we'd never see hide nor hair of ye again! +Well, well, well!" + +It was clear that Grandpa was just a little disappointed to +see that his predictions hadn't been fulfilled. + +So the voyage of the good schooner Rattletrap was ended. It +had been over a thousand miles in length, and had lasted for more +than two months. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Voyage of the Rattletrap, by Hayden Carruth + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VOYAGE OF THE RATTLETRAP *** + +***** This file should be named 16586.txt or 16586.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/8/16586/ + +Produced by Cyril N. Alberga + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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