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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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