While Ollie held the torch, Jack and I went to her rescue, and,
after a vast deal of pulling and lifting, got her to her feet
just as the hay torch died out. Again she scrambled up the bank,
and this time with success. We went on, found the other horses,
and were soon at the wagon. We voted the pony all the hay she
wanted, and went to bed tired.
The next day, the ninth out from Yankton, though it was a
long run, brought us to Valentine, the first town on the railroad
which we had seen since leaving the former place. Before we
reached it we went several miles along the upper ends of the
canyons, down a long hill so steep that we had to chain both hind
wheels, forded the Niobrara twice, followed the river several
miles, went out across the military reservation, which was like a
desert, saw six or eight hundred negro soldiers at Fort Niobrara,
and finally drove through Valentine, and went into camp a mile
west of town. On the way we saw thousands of the biggest and
reddest tumbleweeds, and two or three new sorts of cactus. The
colored troops surprised Ollie, as he had never seen any before.
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