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well as the team, were pretty well done 

 up and could get along but slowly. All day 

 long we had been riding beside the wagon 

 over barren sage-brush plains, following 

 the dusty trails made by the beef-herds 

 that had been driven toward one of the 

 Montana shipping towns. 



When we halted for the evening meal we 

 came near learning by practical experience 

 how easy it is to start a prairie fire. We 

 were camped by a dry creek on a broad bot- 

 tom covered with thick, short grass, as dry 

 as so much tinder. We wished to burn a 

 good circle clear for the camp fire; light- 

 ing it, we stood round with branches to keep 

 it under. While thus standing a puff of 

 wind struck us; the fire roared like a wild 

 beast as it darted up; and our hair and 

 eyelashes were well singed before we had 

 beaten it out. At one time it seemed as if, 

 though but a very few feet in extent, it 

 would actually get away from us; in which 

 case the whole bottom would have been 

 a blazing furnace within five minutes. 



