gigantic stretch and a cavernous yawn; but he finished both hastily, and rushed at his horse as if he intended to slay it on the spot. He only threw the saddle on its back, however, and then threw himself on the saddle.
“Now then, all ready?”
“Ay”—“Oui, yis!”
And away they went at full stretch again on their journey. Thus day after day they travelled, and night after night they laid them down to sleep under the trees of the forest, until they reached the edge of the Great Prairie.
It was a great, a memorable day in the life of Dick Varley that on which he first beheld the prairie—the vast boundless prairie. He had heard of it, talked of it, dreamed about it, but he had never—no, he had never realized it. Dick’s eyes glittered, and his heart swelled, and his cheeks flushed, and his breath came thick and quick.
“There it is,” he gasped, as the great rolling plain broke suddenly on his enraptured gaze; “that’s it—oh!”
Dick uttered a yell that would have done credit to the fiercest chief of the Pawnees, and being unable to utter another word, he swung his cap in the air and sprang like an arrow from a bow over the mighty ocean of grass. The sun had just risen to send a flood of golden glory over the scene, the horses were fresh, so the elder hunters, gladdened by the beauty of all around them, and inspired by the irresistible enthusiasm of their young companion, gave the reins to the horses and flew after him. It was a glorious gallop that first headlong dash over the boundless prairie of the “far west.”
“Now, lads,” said Joe Blunt, reining up, “our troubles begin to-day.”
“Our troubles? Our joys, you mean!” exclaimed Dick Varley.
“P’raps I don’t mean no thin’ o’ the sort,” retorted Joe. “Man wos never intended to swaller his joys without a strong mixtur’ o’ trouble. I s’pose he couldn’t stand ’em pure. Ye see we’ve got to the prairie now———”
“One blind hoss might see dat!” interrupted Henri.
“An’ we may or may not diskiver buffalo. An’ water’s scarce, too, so we’ll need to look out for it pretty sharp, I guess, else we’ll lose our horses, in which case we may as well give out at once. Besides, there’s rattlesnakes about in sandy places—we’ll ha’ to look out for them; an’ there’s badger holes—we’ll need to look sharp for
