It kept up for
about ten minutes, when it began to stop as suddenly as it had
begun. In twenty minutes there was nothing but a cool, gentle
breeze coming out of the southwest. We lit the lantern and tried
to gather up our things, but soon realized that we could not do
much that night. We found the unfortunate Snoozer crouched in a
little depression which was perhaps an old buffalo wallow, but
could see nothing of the horses. We concluded to go to bed and
wait for morning.
When it came we found our things scattered for over a quarter of a
mile. We recovered everything, though the wagon-seat was broken.
The horses had come back, so we could not tell how far they had
gone before the wind.
"I've read about those night winds on the plains," said Jack, "and
we'll look out for 'em in the future. We'll put an anchor on
Snoozer at least."
This intelligent animal had not forgotten his night's experience,
and stuck closely in the wagon, where he even insisted on taking
his breakfast.
The road we were following was gradually drawing closer to the
Niobrara, and we began to see scattering pine-trees, stunted and
broken, along the heads of the canyons or ravines leading down to
the river.
Pages:
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83