he deep blue sky. Great
flocks of grouse now and then rocked by at morning or evening. On the
sand bars along the infrequent streams thousands of geese gathered,
pausing in their flight to warmer lands. On the flats of the
Rattlesnake, a pond-lined stream, myriads of ducks, cranes, swans, and
all manner of wild fowl daily made mingled and discordant chorus.
Obviously all the earth was preparing for the winter time.

It became not less needful for mankind to take thought for the morrow.
Winter on the Plains was a season of severity for the early settlers,
whose resources alike in fuel and food were not too extensive.
Franklin's forethought had provided the houses of himself and
Battersleigh with proper fuel, and he was quite ready to listen to
Curly when the latter suggested that it might be a good thing for them
to follow the usual custom and go out on a hunt for the buffalo herd,
in order to supply themselves with their winter's meat.

Before the oncoming white men these great animals were now rapidly
passing away, from month to month withdrawing farther back from the
settlements. Reports from the returning skin-hunters set the distance
of the main herd at three to five days' journey. The flesh of the
buffalo was now a marketable commodity at any point along the railway;
but the settler who owned a team and a rifle was much more apt to go
out and kill his own meat than to buy it of another. There were many
wagons which went out that fall from Ellisville besides those of the
party with which Franklin, Battersleigh, and Curly set out. These
three had a wagon and riding horses, and they were accompanied by a
second wagon, owned by Sam, the liveryman, who took with him Curly's
_mozo_, the giant Mexican, Juan. The latter drove the team, a task
which Curly scornfully refused when it was offered him, his cowboy
creed rating any conveyance other than the saddle as far beneath his
station.

"Juan can drive all right," he said. "He druv a cook wagon all the way
from the Red River up here. Let him and Sam drive, and us three
fellers'll ride."

The task of the drivers was for the most part simple, as the flat floor
of the prairies stretched away evenly mile after mile, the horses
jogging along dejectedly but steadily over the unbroken short gray
grass, ignorant and careless of any road or trail.

At night they slept beneath the stars, uncovered by any tent, and
saluted constantly by the whining coyotes, whose vocal