Now Charley was just about John's age; but as Charley was a cripple,
John had chosen Will, who was several years the oldest, to be his
closest friend and companion. Regardless of these facts, however, the
three boys generally played together. Their playground was the vast
dooryard extending far out over the prairie.

In time they were given the responsibility of herding the cows. To herd
the cows meant to see that the cattle did not wander about in the
neighborhood corn, wheat, and barley fields that were scattered about
here and there over the prairies and that were in but few instances
fenced, and to see that they were driven to some water-place at certain
intervals and were brought home at the milking hour.

The watering places were known as "buffalo-wallows," for they had been
made by the buffalos in wallowing. These basins were usually kept filled
with water by the rains. Some of the "wallows," or "ponds," were rather
deep, and were treacherous because of sudden "drop-offs"; but they were
usually shallow, and it was generally safe for the children to play
along the edge.

After the first sharp edge of his grief was dulled, John's father did
not feel it so keenly his duty to instruct his child and to teach him
to reverence his Creator; and when John was about six years of age, the
father was kept so busy with his work that he had but little time to
spend with the child. John's aunt, too, although a good woman, was too
much occupied with housekeeping to do her duty by her own two boys, much
less by a third. So John and his cousins had spent nearly all of the
three years that they had been together in doing as they pleased, and in
finding as much enjoyment in living as it was possible for them to find.