THE HOME RANCH 



37 



strange shapes by the dead forces whose blind, hidden strength long ago 

 called them into being. The road our wagons take, when the water is too 

 high for us to come down the river bottom, stretches far ahead two dark, 



IN WITH THE HORSE HERD. 



straight, parallel furrows which merge into one in the distance. Quaint 

 little horned frogs crawl sluggishly along in the wheel tracks, and 

 the sickle -billed curlews run over the ground or soar above and around 

 the horsemen, uttering their mournful, never-ceasing clamor. The grass- 

 land stretches out in the sunlight like a sea, every wind bending the 

 blades into a ripple, and flecking the prairie with shifting patches of a 

 different green from that around, exactly as the touch of a light squall or 

 wind-gust will fleck the smooth surface of the ocean. Our Western plains 

 differ widely in detail from those of Asia ; yet they always call to mind 



