40 EARLY DAY STORIES. 



ant, there not having been any rain except light showers 

 since our camp at the Little Papillion the first day out from 

 Sarpy's Landing, and excepting a few wet swaly spots, 

 and a few miles of sand between the Loup crossing and 

 the Platte, the road had been excellent. Discipline, there- 

 fore, was very properly relaxed, and the men whose duties 

 did not keep them with or near the train were permitted to 

 ramble wherever or whenever they pleased. Game was not 

 yet plentiful no buffalo had been seen nor heard of, and 

 the men whom we had met coming from the west reported 

 that there would probably no buffalo be seen until after 

 passing Ft. Laramie. There were antelope in sight every 

 day, but they were wild and we did not get any of them 

 there were prairie chickens, and jack rabbits but not yet 

 for us. The only thing we could find to vary the bill of 

 fare from biscuit, pancakes, corn bread, beans, rice and 

 bacon or ham, was wild onions ; these were plentiful and 

 we gathered them as often as needed. Not many miles west 

 of where Grand Island now is the trail struck Wood river, 

 which is a beautiful stream about half as large as the Elk- 

 horn, but without any of the low, sandy bottoms or flats 

 that prevail along the Elkhorn river. The country now 

 looked very fine along Wood river and pleased us all nearly 

 as well as did the country east of the Elkhorn crossing. 

 My cousin and I took turns in driving, each having a day 

 on and a day off. We must have been at this time near 

 the east line of Buffalo county in the vicinity of the present 

 village of Shelton. I had not as yet left the trail to go any 

 distance away and had been just spoiling for a week or two 

 for something exciting. As the trail would follow along up 

 Wood river on the north side for some distance before cross- 

 ing, a young man about my age and who felt just about 

 as I did, got permission with me to go on a hunt to the 

 north of the trail, and to turn west and meet the train 

 some time in the afternoon or at any rate not later than 



