for the grove that
surrounded our house. On reaching its border, I literally dismounted, and
shouted out for Charon Tommy. There was a stream running through our
plantation, which, for nine months out of the twelve, was only passable by
means of a ferry, and the old negro who officiated as ferryman was
indebted to me for the above classical cognomen. I believe I called twice,
nay, three times, but no Charon Tommy answered; and I awoke as from a
pleasant dream, somewhat ashamed of the length to which my excited
imagination had hurried me.

I now felt so weary and exhausted, so hungry and thirsty, and, withal, my
mind was so anxious and harassed by my dangerous position, and the
uncertainty how I should get out of it, that I was really incapable of
going any further. I felt quite bewildered, and stood for some time gazing
before me, and scarcely even troubling myself to think. At length I
mechanically drew my clasp-knife from my pocket, and set to work to dig a
hole in the rich black soil of the prairie. Into this hole I put the
knotted end of my lasso, and then pushing it in the earth and stamping it
down with my foot, as I had seen others do since I had been in Texas, I
passed the noose over my mustang's neck, and left him to graze, while I
myself lay down outside the circle which the lasso would allow him to
describe. An odd manner, it may seem, of tying up a horse; but the most
convenient and natural one in a country where one may often find
one's-self fifty miles from any house, and five-and-twenty from a tree or
bush.

I found it no easy matter to sleep, for on all sides I heard the howling
of wolves and jaguars, an unpleasant serenade at any time, but most of all
so in the prairie, unarmed and defenceless as I was. My nerves, too, were
all in commotion, and I felt so feverish, that I do not know what I should
have done, had I not fortunately remembered that I had my cigar-case and a
roll of tobacco, real Virginia _dulcissimus_, in my pocket--invaluable
treasures in my present situation, and which on this, as on many other
occasions, did not fail to soothe and calm my agitated thoughts.

Luckily, too, being a tolerably confirmed smoker, I carried a flint and
steel with me; for otherwise, although surrounded by lights, I should have
been sadly at a loss for fire. A couple of Havannahs did me an infinite
deal of good, and after a while I sunk into the slumber of which I stood
so much in need.

The day was hardly