disremember seeing three scalawags starting off on such a fool
trip since afore the war."



II: OUTWARD BOUND


The port of Prairie Flower was in the eastern part of the
Territory of Dakota. It stood out on an open plain a half-dozen
miles wide, which seemed to be the prairie itself, though it was
really the valley of the Big Sioux River, that funny stream which
could run either way, and usually stood still in the night and
rested. To the east and west the edges of this valley were
faintly marked by a range of very low bluffs, so low that they
were mere wrinkles in the surface of the earth, and made the
valley but very little lower than the great plain which rolled
away for miles to the east and for leagues to the west.

It was a beautiful morning a little after the middle of
September that the Rattletrap got away and left Prairie Flower
behind. The sun had been up only half an hour or so, and the
shadow of our craft stretched away across the dry gray plain like
a long black streak without end. The air was fresh and dewy. The
morning breeze was just beginning to stir, and down by the river
the acres of wild sunflowers were nodding the dew off their
heads, and beginning to roll in the first long waves which would
keep up all day like the rolling of the ocean. We shouted
"Good-bye" to Grandpa Oldberry and Squire Poinsett, but they only
shook their heads very seriously. The cows and horses picketed on