t on board without being knocked overboard,
and soon found himself standing beside a man who was shouting out some
orders to which nobody paid the least attention. He changed his pencil
from his hand into his mouth long enough to shake Tom by the hand.

"Go up on the boiler deck and set down there till I come," said he.
"I'll attend to your case in just no time at all."

Seeing that no one else paid any attention to him, Tom ascended the
stairs and entered the cabin. He wanted to see what sort of a looking
place it was, but almost recoiled when he opened the door, for it was
filled so full of stale tobacco smoke that he did not see how anybody
could live in it. But he knew that he would have to become accustomed to
that smell before he was on the prairie very long, so he kept on and
finally found a chair at the further end of the cabin. There was no one
near him except a man whose arms were outstretched on the table and his
face buried in his hands; and when Tom approached, he raised his head
and exhibited a countenance that was literally burning up with fever. He
was dressed like a cowboy, but there didn't seem to be anyone to attend
to his wants.

"I say," said he, in a faint voice, "I wish you would be good enough to
bring me a glass of water."

"Certainly I will," replied Tom, rising and placing his valise in the
chair.

He did not know where to go to get it, but as he turned into a little
gangway which he thought ought to lead to the galley he encountered a
darky, and to him he made known his wants--not for a glass, but for a
whole pitcher of ice-water. With these in his hand he went back to the
sick man, who, waving away the glass of water which Tom poured out for
him, seized the pitcher and drained it nearly dry. Then he set it down,
and with a sigh of relief settled back in his chair.

"I have been waiting for an hour for someone to hand me a drink of
water, but I didn't have strength enough to go after it," said he, with
a smile. "I knew where it was--well, it stayed there."

"Fever and ague?" said Tom.

"Buck ague," responded the man. "I always get it whenever I come to this
country."

"I should think you would keep away from it, then."

"Well, I had to come with a herd of cattle my employer was getting up
for the government, and that's the way I got it. Ah! here comes one of
those lazy kids that ought to have been here and tended to me," added
the man, as one of those handsome cowboys that Tom had