My First Summer 



Scarcely were they driven a hundred yards 

 from the old corral ere they seemed to know 

 that at last they were going to new pastures, 

 and rushed wildly ahead, crowding through 

 gaps in the brush, jumping, tumbling like 

 exulting, hurrahing flood-waters escaping 

 through a broken dam. A man on each flank 

 kept shouting advice to the leaders, who 

 in their famishing condition were behaving 

 like Gadarene swine; two other drivers were 

 busy with stragglers, helping them out of 

 brush-tangles; the Indian, calm, alert, silently 

 watched for wanderers likely to be over- 

 looked; the two dogs ran here and there, 

 at a loss to know what was best to be 

 done, while the Don, soon far in the rear, 

 was trying to keep in sight of his trouble- 

 some wealth. 



As soon as the boundary of the old eaten- 

 out range was passed the hungry horde sud- 

 denly became calm, like a mountain stream 

 in a meadow. Thenceforward they were 

 allowed to eat their way as slowly as they 



