any lurching and thought they had reached remarkably smooth
track. They were certainly not standing still, he assured himself, as
he rubbed his eyes to wake up. But perhaps they might be in the yards
at Medicine Bend, with other trains rolling past them.

Somewhat confused he raised the curtain of the window near him. The
sky was overcast and day was breaking. He rose higher on his elbow to
look more carefully. Everywhere that his eye could reach toward the
horizon the earth seemed in motion, rising and falling in great waves.
Was it an earthquake? He rubbed his eyes. It seemed as if everywhere
thousands of heads were tossing, and from this continual tossing and
trampling came the thunder and vibration. Moreover, the caboose was
not moving; of this he felt sure. Amazed, and only half-awake, he
concluded that the train must have left the track and dropped into a
river. The uncertainty of his vision was due, he now saw, to a storm
that had swept the plains. It was blowing, with a little snow, and in
the midst of the snow the mysterious waves were everywhere rising and
falling.

Bucks put the curtain completely aside. The sound of his feet striking
the floor aroused the conductor, who rose from his cushion with a
start. "I've been asleep," he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes. "Where are
we, Bucks?"

"That is what I am trying to figure out."

"Where is the brakeman?" demanded Francis. As he asked the question he
saw the big fellow asleep in the corner. Francis shook him roughly.
"That comes of depending on some one else," he muttered to Bucks. "I
went to sleep on his promise to watch for an hour--he knew I had been
up all last night and told me to take a nap. You see what happened.
The moment I went to sleep, he went to sleep," exclaimed Francis in
disgust. "Wake up!" he continued brusquely to the drowsy brakeman.
"Where are we? What have we stopped for? What's all this noise?"
Though he asked the questions fast, he expected no answer to any of
them from the confused trainman and waited for none. Instead, he threw
up a curtain and looked out. "Thunder and guns! Buffaloes!" he cried,
and seizing his lantern ran out of the caboose door and climbed the
roof-ladder. Bucks was fast upon his heels.

The freight train stood upon a wide plain and in the midst of
thousands of buffaloes travelling south. As far as their eyes could
reach in all directions, the astonished railroad men beheld a sea of
moving buffaloes. Without further