dash-board into kindling-wood."

A little before sunrise we started. It was agreed, owing to
the increase in the load and the deep sand, that no one, not even
Snoozer, should be allowed to ride in the wagon. If Ollie got
tired he was to ride the pony. So we started off, walking beside
the wagon, with the pony lust behind, as usual, dangling her
stirrups, and the abused Snoozer, looking very much hurt at the
insult put upon him, following behind her.

For three or four miles the road was much like that to which
we had been accustomed. Then it gradually began to grow sandier.
We were following an old trail which ran near the railroad,
sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other; and this was
the case all the way through the hills. The railroad was new,
having been built only a year or two before. There was a station
on it every fifteen or twenty miles, with a side-track, and a
water-tank for the engines, but not much else.

There was no well-marked boundary to the Sand Hills, but
gradually, and almost before we realized it, we found ourselves
surrounded by them. We came to a crossing of the railroad, and in
a little cut a few rods away we saw the sand drifted over the
rails three or four inches deep, precisely like snow.

"Well," said Jack, "I guess we're in the Sand Hills at last
if we've got where it drifts."

"I wonder if they have to have sand-ploughs on their
engines?" said Ollie.