A Trip on the Prairie 237 



cliff at whose base we were. Our blankets got wet 

 during the night; and they got no drier dur- 

 ing the day; and the second night, as we slept 

 on them they got steadily damper. Our provisions 

 were pretty nearly out, and so, with little to eat and 

 less to do, wet and uncomfortable, we cowered over 

 the sputtering fire, and whiled the long day away as 

 best we might with our own thoughts; fortunately 

 we had all learned that no matter how bad things 

 are, grumbling and bad temper can always be de- 

 pended upon to make them worse, and so bore our 

 ill-fortune, if not with stoical indifference, at least 

 in perfect quiet. Next day the storm still continued, 

 but the fog was gone and the wind somewhat easier ; 

 and we spent the whole day looking up the horses, 

 which had drifted a long distance before the storm ; 

 nor was it till the morning of the third day that we 

 left our beautiful but, as events had made it, uncom- 

 fortable camping-ground. 



In midsummer the storms are rarely of long du- 

 ration, but are very severe while they last. I re- 

 member well one day when I was caught in such a 

 storm. I had gone some twenty-five miles from the 

 ranch to see the round-up, which had reached what 

 is known as the Oxbow of the Little Missouri, where 

 the river makes a great loop round a flat, grassy 

 bottom, on which the cattle herd was gathered. I 

 stayed, seeing the cattle cut out and the calves 

 branded, until after dinner; for it was at the time 

 of the year when the days were longest. 



At last the work was ended, and I started home 



