like long flaxen hair, off the wagon-wheels as they turned. In a
little valley about ten o'clock Ollie shot his first grouse. We
saw more antelope, and met a man with his wife and six children
and five dogs and two cows and twelve chickens going east. He
said he was tired of Nebraska, and was on his way to Illinois. At
noon we stopped at Merriman, another railroad station. Jack got
up and made a pretence of getting dinner, but he ate nothing
himself, and really began to look ill.

We made but a short stop, as we were anxious to get out of
the worst of the sand that afternoon. We asked about feed and
water for the horses, and were told that we could get both at
Irwin, another station fifteen miles ahead. We pressed on, with
Jack still in the wagon, but it was almost dark before we reached
the station. We found a man on the railroad track.

"Can we get some feed and water here?" I asked of him.

"Reckon not," answered the man.

"Where can we find the station agent?"

"He's gone up to Gordon, and won't be back till midnight."

"Hasn't any one got any horse-feed for sale?"

[Illustration: No Horse-Feed]

"There isn't a smell of horse-feed here," said the man. "I've
got the only well, except the railroad's, but it's 'most dry.