enlivening effect on
him.

"Where is we?" he demanded, turning his large, dust-encircled eyes on
each of us in turn.

"On the plains," I responded briefly. I was driving; the load was
heavy, and the horses, worn with fatigue and the heat, lagged more and
more; therefore my anxiety grew, and I had no time to waste on
trivialities.

"One need not ask why it never rains here, though," I suddenly
observed, "for behold! Jessie, there is the thing that makes rain
unnecessary."

A glimmer of white had been, for some minutes, slowly growing on the
horizon. I had thought at first, that it must be a mirage, but it kept
its place so steadily, without that swift, undulating, gliding motion
that these familiar plains spectacles always present that I presently
became convinced that the white glimmer was a lake, and so that we
were within a few miles of our objective point.

"Sure enough, that's the lake!" Jessie exclaimed, after a long look.
"Well, that's some comfort," was her conclusion. Ralph stood up on the
seat between us and looked, too:

"Me wants a dwink!" he cried, after making quite sure that the white
shimmer in the distance was that of water.

Jessie slid off the seat and got hold of the water-jug and tin-cup,
then she tried to fill the cup, but the result was disastrous.

"You'll have to stop the horses, Leslie, I shall spill every drop of
water at this rate."

As the wagon came to a standstill, and while Ralph was drinking, Guard
suddenly appeared from his place underneath the wagon--he had thus far
declined all invitations to ride--and putting his fore feet on the
front hub, looked up, whining beseechingly:

"Dard wants some water, too," Ralph said.

"He's got to have it, then," I declared, and climbed quickly out of
the wagon.

"I hope you don't intend to let him drink out of the cup!" Jessie
exclaimed.

"No; hand me the jug, and I'll pour the water into his mouth."

"Oh, he can't drink in that way!"

"Just hand me the jug and see." She complied, and Guard justified my
faith in his intelligence by gulping down the water that I poured into
his open mouth, very carefully, scarcely spilling a drop.

In the end we decided to get out and eat our lunch in the shade of
the wagon, especially as Ralph was plaintively declaring:

"Me so hundry!"

"We'll give the horses a chance to eat while we're selling the
melons," I remarked, as much for Frank's benefit as anything else, for
he had turned his head,