d, and
numbers of little birds hopped about among them.

"Now, lads," said Joe Blunt, reining up, "our troubles begin to-day."

"Our troubles?--our joys, you mean!" exclaimed Dick Varley.

"P'r'aps I don't mean nothin' o' the sort," retorted Joe. "Man wos
never intended to swaller his joys without a strong mixtur' o'
troubles. I s'pose he couldn't stand 'em pure. Ye see we've got to the
prairie now--"

"One blind hoss might see dat!" interrupted Henri.

"An' we may or may not diskiver buffalo. An' water's scarce, too, so
we'll need to look out for it pretty sharp, I guess, else we'll lose
our horses, in which case we may as well give out at once. Besides,
there's rattlesnakes about in sandy places, we'll ha' to look out for
them; an' there's badger holes, we'll need to look sharp for them lest
the horses put their feet in 'em; an' there's Injuns, who'll look out
pretty sharp for _us_ if they once get wind that we're in them parts."

"Oui, yis, mes boys; and there's rain, and tunder, and lightin',"
added Henri, pointing to a dark cloud which was seen rising on the
horizon ahead of them.

"It'll be rain," remarked Joe; "but there's no thunder in the air jist
now. We'll make for yonder clump o' bushes and lay by till it's past."

Turning a little to the right of the course they had been following,
the hunters galloped along one of the hollows between the prairie
waves before mentioned, in the direction of a clump of willows. Before
reaching it, however, they passed over a bleak and barren plain where
there was neither flower nor bird. Here they were suddenly arrested by
a most extraordinary sight--at least it was so to Dick Varley, who
had never seen the like before. This was a colony of what Joe called
"prairie-dogs." On first beholding them Crusoe uttered a sort of half
growl, half bark of surprise, cocked his tail and ears, and instantly
prepared to charge; but he glanced up at his master first for
permission. Observing that his finger and his look commanded
"silence," he dropped his tail at once and stepped to the rear. He did
not, however, cease to regard the prairie-dogs with intense curiosity.

These remarkable little creatures have been egregiously misnamed by
the hunters of the west, for they bear not the slightest resemblance
to dogs, either in formation or habits. They are, in fact, the marmot,
and in size are little larger than squirrels, which animals they
resemble in some degree. They burrow under t