ickest 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 t