hustle a bull-train.

From the outset the "boy extra" was a favorite with the men. They liked
his pluck in undertaking such work, and when it was seen that he took
pride in executing orders promptly, he became a favorite with the bosses
as well. In part his work was play to him; he welcomed an order as a
break in the monotony of the daily march, and hailed the opportunity of
a gallop on a good horse.

The world of Will's fancy was bounded by the hazy rim where plain and
sky converge, and when the first day's journey was done, and he had
staked out and cared for his horse, he watched with fascinated eyes
the strange and striking picture limned against the black hills and the
sweeping stretch of darkening prairie. Everything was animation; the
bullwhackers unhitching and disposing of their teams, the herders
staking out the cattle, and--not the least interesting--the mess cooks
preparing the evening meal at the crackling camp-fires, with the huge,
canvas-covered wagons encircling them like ghostly sentinels; the ponies
and oxen blinking stupidly as the flames stampeded the shadows in
which they were enveloped; and more weird than all, the buckskin-clad
bullwhackers, squatted around the fire, their beards glowing red in its
light, their faces drawn in strange black and yellow lines, while the
spiked grasses shot tall and sword-like over them.

It was wonderful--that first night of the "boy extra."

But Will discovered that life on the plains is not all a supper
under the stars when the sparks fly upward; it has its hardships and
privations. There were days, as the wagons dragged their slow lengths
along, when the clouds obscured the sky and the wind whistled dismally;