The Voyage of the Rattletrap | Page 6

on, leaving the pony tossing her head and stamping her feet in a great
passion on account of the report of the gun; but when she saw that we
paid no attention to her and were rapidly going out of sight she turned,
after taking a long look back at distant Prairie Flower, and came
trotting along the road, with her stirrups dangling at her sides, and soon
was following close behind.
Before we realized it the chronometer showed that it was almost noon.
By this time we had left the sea of sunflowers and crept over the
wrinkle at the western edge of the valley, and were off across the
rolling prairie itself. Still Snoozer never stirred.
"I wonder when he'll wake up?" said Ollie.
"You'll see him awake enough at dinnertime," said Jack.
"Well, you'll see me awake enough then, too," answered Ollie. "I'm
hungry."
"We hardy pioneers plunging into the trackless waste of a new and
unexplored country never eat but one meal a day," said Jack. "And
that's always raw meat--b'ar-meat, generally."
"Well," said Ollie, "I don't see any b'ar-meat, or even

prairie-chicken-meat. Why didn't you hit the prairie-chicken, Uncle
Jack?"
"I'm not used to shooting at such small game," answered Jack, solemnly.
"My kind of game is b'ar--b'ar and other varmints."
Just then we passed a house, and down a little way from it, close to the
road, was a well.
"Here's a good place to have dinner," said Jack; so we drove out by the
side of the road and stopped. "If I'm to be cook," said Jack to me, "then
you've got to take care of the horses and do all the outside work. I'll be
cook; you'll be rancher. That's what we'll call you--rancher."
I unhitched the horses, tied them behind the wagon, and gave them
some oats and corn in the feed-box. The pony I fed in the big tin pail
near by. The grass beside the road was so dry, and it was so windy, that
we decided it was not safe to build a fire outdoors, so Jack cooked
pancakes over the oil-stove inside. These with some cold meat he
handed out to Ollie and me as we sat on the wagon-tongue, while he sat
on the dash-board. We were half-way through dinner when we heard a
peculiar whine, followed by a low bark, in the wagon, and then Snoozer
leaped out, stretched himself, and began to wag his tail so fast that it
looked exactly like a whirling feather duster. We fed him on pancakes,
and he ate so many that if Jack had not fried some more we'd have
certainly gone hungry.
"I told you he was a true tramp," said Jack. "Just see his appetite!"
After we had finished, and the horses had grazed about on the dry grass
some time, we started on. We hoped to reach a little lake which we saw
marked on the map, called Lake Lookout, for the night camp; so we
hurried along, it being a good distance ahead. All the afternoon we
were passing 'between either great fields where the wheat had been cut,
leaving the stubble, or beside long stretches of prairie. There were a
few houses, many of them built of sod. Not much happened during the
afternoon. Ollie followed the example of Snoozer, and curled up on the
bed and had a long nap. We saw a few prairie-chickens, but did not try

to shoot any of them. The pony trotted contentedly behind. Just before
night I rode her ahead, looking for the lake. I found it to be a small one,
perhaps a half-mile wide, scarcely below the level of the prairie, and
generally with marshy shores, though on one side the beach was sandy
and stony, with a few stunted cottonwood-trees, and here I decided we
would camp. I went back and guided the Rattletrap to the spot. Soon
Jack had a roaring fire going from the dry wood which Ollie had
collected. I fed the horses and turned them loose, and they began
eagerly on the green grass which grew on the damp soil near the lake.
The pony I picketed with a long rope and a strap around one of her
forward ankles, between her hoof and fetlock, as we scarcely felt like
trusting her all night. Snoozer got up for his supper, and after that
stretched himself by the fire and blinked at it sleepily. The rest of us
did much the same. After a while Ollie said.
"I think that bed in the wagon looks pretty narrow for two. How are
three going to sleep in it?"
"I don't think three are going to sleep in it," said Jack.
"Where are you going to sleep, then, Uncle Jack?"
Jack laughed. "I think,"